A paradox is an apparent contradiction that is nevertheless somehow true. When Alexander Pope wrote that a literary critic of his time would “damn with
faint praise,” he was using a verbal paradox, for how can a man damn by praising? The value of paradox is its shock value. It seeming impossibly startles the reader
into attention and, by the fact of its apparent absurdity, underscores the truth of what is being said.
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8. Overstatement or Hyperbole
Overstatement, or hyperbole, is simply exaggeration, but exaggeration in the service of truth. Like all figure of speech, overstatement may be used with
variety of effects. It may be humorous or grave, fanciful or restrained, convincing or unconvincing.
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If we say, I’m starved” or “I’ll die if I don’t pass this course” we do not expect to be taken literally; we are merely adding emphasis to what we
really mean. Hyperbole is used to create emphasis. It is a literary device often used in
poetry, and is frequently encountered in casual speech. It is also a visual technique in which a deliberate exaggeration of a particular part of an image is employed.
An example is the exaggeration of a persons facial feature in a political cartoon.
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9. Understatement or Litotes
35
Ibid. p. 100.
36
Ibid . p. 101.
37
Hyperbole, Wikipedia, free Encyclopedia. Accessed on November 9, 2009. http:en.wikipedia.orgwikiHyperbole.
Understatement, or litotes, or saying less than one means, may exist in what one says or merely in how one says it. If, for instance, upon sitting down to a
loaded dinner plate, we say, “This looks like a nice snack,” we are actually stating less than the truth; but if we say, with Artemus Ward, that a man who holds hand
for half an hour in a lighted fire will experience “a sensation of experience and, disagreeable warmth;” we are stating what is literally true but with a good deal
less force than the situation warrants.
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10. Irony
Irony is a literary or rhetorical device, in which there is a gap or
incongruity between what a speaker or a writer says and what is generally understood either at the time, or in the later context of history.
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Irony has meaning that extended beyond its use merely as a figure of speech. There are three
kind of irony: verbal irony, dramatic irony, irony of situation. Verbal irony, according to Perrine, saying the opposite of what one means,
is often confused with sarcasm and with satire, and for that reason it may be well to look at the meanings of al three terms. In the other hand, verbal irony always
implies the opposite of what is said, it has many gradations, and only in its simplest forms doest it mean only the opposite of what is said.
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For instance, when someone says, “here’s some bad news for you: you all got A’s and B’s” in
verbal irony the discrepancy is between what is said and is meant.
38
Ibid. p. 102.
39
Irony, Wikipedia, Free Encyclopedia. Accessed on November 6, 2009. http:en.wikipedia.orgwikiirony,
40
Laurence Perrine and Thomas R. ARP 1992, op. cit. p. 104.
Dramatic irony often connotes something more specific and perhaps a little different from what is developed. It describes a speech or action in a story
that has mush great significance to the audience than to the character who speaks or performs it, because the audience possesses knowledge the character does not
have. In dramatic irony the discrepancy is not between what the speaker says and what the speaker means but between what the speaker says and what the poem
means. The speaker’s words may be perfectly straightforward, but author, by putting these words in a particular speaker’s mouth may be indicating to the
reader ideas or attitudes quite opposed to those the speaker is voicing.
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A third type of irony, irony of situation, occurs when a discrepancy exists between the actual circumstances and those that would seem appropriate or
between what one anticipates and what actually comes to pass. For example, if a man and his second wife, on the first night of their honeymoon, are accidentally
seated at the theater next to the man’s first wife, we should call the situation ironic. When King Midas, in the famous fable, is granted his fondest wish, that
anything he touch turn to gold, and then he finds that he cannot eat because even his foods turns to gold, we call the situation ironic.
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11. Allusion
