The Count of Monte Cristo By Alexandre Dumas

1. The Count of Monte Cristo By Alexandre Dumas

2. ALLEGORY • Writing that has a double meaning (from Greek, meaning “speaking otherwise”) • An extended metaphor in which persons, abstract ideas, or events represent not only themselves on the literal level, but they also stand for something else on the symbolic level.

3. ALLEGORY • “To distinguish more clearly we can take the old Arab fable of the frog and the scorpion, who met one day on the bank of the River Nile, which they both wanted to cross. The frog offered to ferry the scorpion over on his back provided the scorpion promised not to sting him. The scorpion agreed so long as the frog would promise not to drown him. The mutual promises exchanged, they crossed the river. On the far bank the scorpion stung the frog mortally. • ‘Why did you do that?’ croaked the frog, as it lay dying. • ‘Why?’ replied the scorpion, ‘We're both Arabs, aren't we?’ • If we substitute for a frog a ‘Mr. Goodwill’ or a ‘Mr. Prudence,’ and for the scorpion ‘Mr. Treachery’ or ‘Mr. Two-Face,’ and make the river any river and substitute for ‘We're both Arabs . . .’ ‘We're both men . . .’ we turn the fable [which illustrates human tendencies by using animals as illustrative examples] into an allegory [a narrative in which each character and action has symbolic meaning]. On the other hand, if we turn the frog into a father and the scorpion into a son (boatman and passenger) and we have the son say ‘We're both sons of God, aren't we?’, then we have a parable (if a rather cynical one) about the wickedness of human nature and the sin of parricide.” (22) • Cuddon, J. A. Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. New York: Penguin Books, 1991.

4. ALLUSION • A casual reference in literature to a person, place, event, or another passage of literature, often without explicit identification • Authors assume that the readers will recognize the original sources and relate their meaning to the new context

5. ALLUSION If a teacher were to refer to his class as a horde of Mongols, the students will have no idea if they are being praised or vilified unless they know what the Mongol horde was and what activities it participated in historically. This historical allusion assumes a certain level of education or awareness in the audience, so it should normally be taken as a compliment rather than an insult or an attempt at obscurity.

6. IMAGERY • The "mental pictures" that readers experience with a passage of literature. • All the sensory perceptions referred to in a work, whether by literal description, allusion, simile, or metaphor. • Also includes auditory (sound), tactile (touch), thermal (heat and cold), olfactory (smell), gustatory (taste), and kinesthetic sensation (movement).

7. IMAGERY Opening lines to "Above the Dock“ by T. E. Hulme: Above the quiet dock in midnight,Tangled in the tall mast's corded heightHangs the moon. What seemed so far awayIs but a child's balloon, forgotten after play.

8. IRONY • DRAMATIC: • The reader knows something about present or future circumstances that the character does not know. • The character acts in a way we recognize to be grossly inappropriate to the actual circumstances, or the character expects the opposite of what the reader knows that fate holds in store

9. IRONY • SITUATIONAL: • Accidental events occur that seem oddly appropriate, such as the poetic justice of a pickpocket getting his own pocket picked. • Both the victim and the audience are simultaneously aware of the situation in situational irony (not the case in dramatic irony)

10. IRONY • VERBAL: • Also called sarcasm • A speaker makes a statement in which its actual meaning differs sharply from the meaning that the words ostensibly express. • Often this sort of irony is plainly sarcastic in the eyes of the reader, but the characters listening in the story may not realize the speaker's sarcasm as quickly as the readers do.

11. METAPHOR • Comparison or analogy stated in such a way as to imply that one object is another one, figuratively speaking. It does not use signal words (such as “like” or “as”). • Old television add from the 1980s urging teenagers not to try drugs. The camera would focus on a close-up of a pair of eggs and a voice would state "This is your brain." In the next sequence, the eggs would be cracked and thrown onto a hot skillet, where the eggs would bubble, burn, and seeth. The voice would state, "This is your brain on drugs." The point of the comparison is fairly clear.

12. SIMILE • A figure of speech that makes a direct comparison between things which are not alike. Similes usually make use of the words like, as or than. In other words, when something is like something else. • “as busy as a bee” comparing someone’s level of energy to a fast-flying bee • "Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get." comparing the uncertainty of life to the uncertainty of choosing a chocolate from a box

13. SYMBOL • A word, place, character, or object that means something beyond what it is on a literal level. • a metal octagon painted red with white streaks represents the act of coming to a complete stop • A gold ring represents marital commitment • The American flag symbolizes our colonial history

14. CONTEXTUAL SYMBOL • A unique or original symbol an author creates within the context of his work. • The Snopes family in Faulkner's collected works symbolize the South's moral decay • The town of Castle Rock, Maine, which in Stephen King's works functions as a microcosmic symbol of human society.

15. THEME Central idea or statement that unifies and controls an entire literary work Can take the form of a brief and meaningful insight or a comprehensive vision of life The author's way of communicating and sharing ideas, perceptions, and feelings with readers, and it may be directly stated in the book, or it may only be implied

16. THEME May be a single idea such as "progress" (in many Victorian works), "order and duty" (in many early Roman works), "seize-the-day" (in many late Roman works), or "jealousy" (in Shakespeare's Othello) • May also be a more complicated doctrine, such as: • Milton's theme in Paradise Lost, "to justify the ways of God to men," • "Socialism is the only sane reaction to the labor abuses in Chicago meat-packing plants" (Upton Sinclair's The Jungle)