Wednesday 4 February 2015

What literary devices were in Macbeth Act V Scene V?

"Literary devices" is a broad term. I see many poetic/rhetorical devices in this scene. To wit: 


Personification: "Our castle's strength / Will laugh a siege to scorn." Neither a castle nor its strength can laugh (a human ability). 


More personification throughout Macbeth's speech: 


To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrowCreeps in this petty pace from day to dayTo the last syllable of recorded time,And all our yesterdays have lighted foolsThe way to dusty death....

"Literary devices" is a broad term. I see many poetic/rhetorical devices in this scene. To wit: 


Personification: "Our castle's strength / Will laugh a siege to scorn." Neither a castle nor its strength can laugh (a human ability). 


More personification throughout Macbeth's speech: 



To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.



Alliteration: In the line above, look at the "s" words. Macbeth uses a lot of "s" words; they make him sound a bit like the snake he has become. 


Also, not the "b"s in this line: "We might have met them dareful, beard to beard, / And beat them backward home." "B"s are brutal sounds when several are combined in a sentence. He's talking about violence here, so it's fitting.  


Simile: Macbeth says there was a time that there was once a time that his hair would stand on end "As life were in't." 


Refrain (repetition of words or phrases at a single place): "To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow"


Metaphor: Life is a candle. 


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