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Personification

as one of the best ways of emotional expressiveness

 

 

         Personification is considered to be a variety of metaphor. But if metaphor is a separate word combination, personification is a whole image which is composed of separate verbal metaphors, but in a literary work it has an independent meaning. In this trope one can observe likeness between inanimate objects and human qualities. Thus, personification can be defined as attributing human properties to lifeless objects, mostly to abstract notions, such as thoughts, actions, intentions, emotions, seasons of the year, etc.. The words used in this way can be substituted by the personal pronouns and combine with the verbs of speech, thinking, desire and other action characteristic of human being. Humanity’s desire for personification of animals began in caveman times, as illustrated in numerous artifacts (found in different countries).

         The purposes of personification are varied. In classical poetry of the seventeenth century it was a tribute to mythological tradition and to the laws of mediaeval rhetoric:

         “Sport that wrinkled Care derides,

         And daughter holding both his sides

         Come and trip it as ye go

         On the light fantastic toe,

         And in thy right hand lead with thee

         The mountain nymph, sweet liberty:

         And if I give thee honour due,

         Mirth, admit me of the crew,

         To live with her, and live with thee.”

                                                                  (Lines 31-44 of d’Allegro by J.Milton)

 

         The lines quoted above also offer an illustration of a device common to Milton and his age; that is personification. Here we have personification of states such as Laughter, Care, Mirth; of an occupation, sport; of a principle, Liberty. Milton was brilliant at personification and referred to things understood by all his readers by virtue of their common experience as human beings. Milton thought of his humanity as common to all men and hardly likely to change. And, just as to Milton, Mirth and Melancholy had the same meaning for all, so also when Milton turned to the Bible or to the classics for personification and allusions, he simply referred to what, to him, were the best and most accurate terms he could use. To Milton, the Bible and the classics, two sources of knowledge considered specialized today, were without question among the things one had to know in order to understand man’s nature and destiny.

         Shakespeare used personification in the plays of his maturity. Thus, in “Troilus and Cressida”, written during the Balanced period, about the same time as “Hamlet”, Achilles refuses to come out and fight the Trojans. He sulks in his tent. Ulysses tries to persuade him that he is making a bad mistake; no one, not even a hero, can rest content with his past triumphs.

“Time hath, my lord, a wallet at his back

Wherein he puts alms for oblivion,

A great-sized monster of ingratitudes.

For Time is like a fashionable host

That slightly shakes his parting guest by the hand

And with his arms outstretched, as he would fly,

Crasps in the comer. Welcome ever smiles,

And farewell goes out sighing.”

        

In literature, it is easy to find examples of personification on because it is often used as a literary device:

         “Slow and grand the Day withdrew, passing in purple fire, and parting to the farewell of a wild, low chorus from the woodlands. Then Night entered, quiet as death: the wind fell, the birds ceased singing.” (Sh. Bronte “Shirley).

         She gazed abroad on Heaven and Evening: Heaven and Evening gazed back on her: (Sh. Bronte “Shirley”). I can give plenty of examples of the usage of personification both in prose and poetry of many centuries.

         People, read books to escape of everyday life, routine, problems, seizing and suffocating them at work, go out to be close to nature, to feel relaxed.

         And instead of pages full of person…fantasy they have to read about:

“Microsoft embarrassed one final time over SP2.”

“The microwave timer told me it was time to turn my TV dinner.”

“The video camera observed the whole scene.”

         Indeed these in animate objects have human qualities but they are artificial, they are creation of people’s mind, they cannot inspire us, encourage us, comfort.

May be we lose our connection with nature, we, who live surrounded by…..

achievements of scientific revolution, modern technology. We do not have time just to stand and stare.

         And that is why we almost, I am not afraid of this word, devoured V.Rolling’s “Harry Potter, J.R.R. Tolkien’s ”The lord of the Rings.”

 

Ëèòåðàòóðà:

1.     J. Milton –  d’Allegro

2.     Shakespeare – Troilus and Cressida

3.     Shakespeare – Hamlet

4.     Sh. Bronté – Shirley

5.     J.R.R. Tolkien – The Lord of the Rings