PREMIÈRE · UPPER SECONDARY · B1+ towards B2

Figures of speech

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Figures of speech: metaphor, simile, personification, rhetorical question, antithesis, anaphora, repetition, hyperbole, irony, imperative

Identify the figure of speech

Name the main figure of speech in each line and explain its effect in one sentence.

  1. Is the accuser always holy now? (Proctor, Act II)
  2. Were they born this morning as clean as God's fingers? (Proctor, Act II)
  3. the little crazy children are jangling the keys of the kingdom (Proctor, Act II)
  4. common vengeance writes the law! (Proctor, Act II)
  5. the whole world cried spirits, spirits (Mary Warren, Act III)
  6. a person is either with this court or he must be counted against it (Danforth, Act III)
  7. Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life! (Proctor, Act IV)
  8. I have given you my soul; leave me my name! (Proctor, Act IV)
  9. Fear doesn't travel well (Miller, 1996)
Sentence starters
Answer key
  1. Rhetorical question: Proctor attacks the idea that accusers are automatically innocent.
  2. Simile and irony: the accusers are compared to something pure, which mocks their claim to innocence.
  3. Metaphor: the girls now hold the power of the state and of heaven.
  4. Personification: vengeance becomes a lawmaker; private grudges have replaced justice.
  5. Hyperbole and repetition: the panic spread everywhere; collective hysteria.
  6. Antithesis and false dilemma: no neutral position is allowed.
  7. Anaphora (repetition of "Because") and exclamation: intense emotion and determination.
  8. Antithesis (soul and name) and imperative: he gives up his life but keeps his honour.
  9. Personification: fear is like a traveller; it does not survive the passing of time.

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