Allusions

not Illusions or Even Connections

Allusion

“reference”Literary device that stimulates ideas, associations, and extra information in the reader’s mindMakes comparison between the setting, character and event in the story and the person, place, event, or thing to which is being alludedReference to Biblical, mythological, historical, literary, cultural person, place, or event

What if you don’t recognize the allusion?

If you come across a name that seems important but you don't recognize it, look it up. Decide if the item has an historic referent. What's more important, and often more difficult, is to interpret how the allusion adds meaning.

Christopher Marlow’s Dr. Fautus

When someone coins an especially poetic line, it's often repeated to the point that it becomes an allusion. "Was this the face that launched a thousand

ships, and burnt the topless towers of Illium?"Has become a recognized epithet

MacbethShe should have died hereafter;There would have been a time for such a word.Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,To the last syllable of recorded time;And all our yesterdays have lighted foolsThe way to dusty death. Out, out brief candle!Life's but a walking shadow, a poor playerThat struts and frets his hours upon the stageAnd then is heard no more. It is a taleTold by an idiot, full of sound and fury,Signifying nothing.(Macbeth, V.v)

Allusions in Literature

Robert Frost's poem "Out, out " mirrors the tragic meaninglessness of unexpected death.What many consider William Faulkner's finest novel, The Sound and the Fury, echoes Macbeth's dark despair.In Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, by James Joyce, a priest returning to punish negligent scholars warns, "Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow."

Hosea 13:14

O Death, where are your plagues?

O Sheol, where is your destruction?

I Corinthians 15: 55

O death, where is thy victory?

O death where is thy sting?

Alexander PopeThe world recedes; it disappears!Heav'n opens on my eyes! My

earsWith sound seraphic ring!Lend, lend your wings? I mount I

fly!O grave, where is thy victory?O death where is thy sting?

Handal's Messiah

O grave, where is thy

victory?

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

O grave, where is thy victory?

O death, where is thy sting?

(Joyce, chapter III, p. 107)

When I consider how my light is spent

By John MiltonPublished in 1673 Composed, between 1652 and 1655Milton became totally blind in 1652. This sonnet finds unity and expansion

through several allusions. Read the poem and see if you can recognize them.

When I consider how my light is spent Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,And that one talent which is death to hideLodg'd with me useless, though my soul more bent To serve therewith my Maker, and presentMy true account, lest he returning chide,"Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?"I fondly ask. But Patience, to prevent That murmur, soon replies: "God doth not needEither man's work or his own gifts: who bestBear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His stateIs kingly; thousands at his bidding speedAnd post o'er land and ocean without rest:They also serve who only stand and wait.

Lines 3-6And that one talent which

is death to hideLodg'd with me useless,

though my soul more bent

To serve therewith my Maker, and present

My true account, lest he returning chide,

(Parable of the talents from Matthew 25:14-30)

Jesus told of three servants who were entrusted with their master's property. Two of the servants invested their master's money making a tidy profit. One servant, however, fearfully hid his talent (which would be approximately 15 years' salary) and, consequently, upon the master's return, was cast out for wasting the resource. Death, like the outer darkness where the unprofitable servant was thrown, represents complete punishment.

Line 11

Matthew 11:30 Jesus says, "My yoke is easy and my burden light."

Allusions in this sonnet enhance the motif of frustration in life and eventual reconciliation to that which cannot be changed. About 100 years after Milton wrote this sonnet, a printer re-titled it "On His Blindness." Clearly the poem refers to Milton's protestation and eventual resignation to his blindness, but can also refer to his declining powers of poetry or his fame as a Puritan apologist. Talent, then, is a play on the word in its modern sense of mental gift or endowment—in Milton's case his gift of poetry. All these elements combine to make the sonnet more meaningful through the use of allusion.

Biblical

As the cave’s roof collapsed, he was swallowed up in the dust like Jonah, and only his frantic scrabbling behind a wall of rock indicated that there was anyone still alive.”

Jonah was swallowed by a whale.

The author creates a simile with an allusion to convey that the character felt like the cave was eating him alive, as if the sides of a whale’s stomach were closing in on him as he was being digested.

Literary

Christy didn’t like to spend money. She was no Scrooge, but she seldom purchased anything except the bare necessities.

Scrooge from Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, was a miser who horded his

money while others suffered. While the character did not spend a great deal of money, she was not stingy with it and did not do without because she did not want to part with her money.

Scrooge McDuck

Literary

“Well,” said the Lieutenant, who had listened with amused interest to all this, and now waxing merry with his tipple; “Well, blessed are the peacemakers, especially the fighting peacemakers!”

Beatitudes . . . “Blessed are the peacemakers . . . .”

The Lieutenant says this as if to justify in God’s eyes his men’s fighting. The Biblical connotation is those who try to make amends; however, the quote insinuates the men must fight because others have created havoc, and they are trying to restore peace.

Biblical

Like the prodigal son, he returned to his home town and was welcomed by all who knew him.

In Luke 15:11-32, a father welcomes home his prodigal son and forgave him for leaving home

and spending all of his inheritance. The author creates a simile that is an allusion to the prodigal son to create an image full of rejoicing and forgiveness.

Literary and Mythological

Marty’s presence at the dance was definitely a “Catch 22” situation; if he talked to Cindy she’d be mad at him, but if he ignored her there’d be hell to pay. His anger bubbled to the surface. He realized that by coming to the dance he had brought his problems with him like a Trojan Horse, and he could only hope he would be able to keep them bottled up.

Catch 22 is a novel where the only way out of serving in the war is to prove insanity, but if you could prove you were insane, you must be sane; so, there was no way

out. The character is involved in a no-win situation.

The Greeks conquered Troy by giving a gift of a horse with soldiers hiding in it

only to come out and kill the city’s inhabitants at night.

The character hid his emotions from everyone, but if they were to get out, they would be destructive.

Biblical and mythological allusions that frequently

appear in Western literature

ApostlesConfuciusCreation (Genesis 1-3)David and Goliath (Samuel 17)EsauFiery Furnace (Daniel 1-3)Four horses of the Apocalypse (Revelation 6: 1-8)Golden CalfGood Samaritan (Luke 10: 29-37)JeremiahJezebel (1 Kings 21)Job (Job 1-2)John the BaptistJonahJoseph

Joseph and his Brothers (Genesis 37) JoshuaJudas Iscariot (Matthew 26: 14-16 & 25, Luke 22: 47-48, Mark 14: 10-12)Land flowing with milk and honeyLand of Nod Last Supper (Mark 14: 12-25, Matthew 26: 17-29) Lot's wifeLuciferMary MagdaleneMoses and Burning Bush (Exodus 3)

Noah and the Flood (Genesis Chapters 6-9) Moses' Rescue as a baby(Exodus 1-2)MusesOdinOdysseusOedipusOrion

Rich Fool Parable (Luke: 12: 36-48)SamsonSinaiSolomon's Wisdom (1 Kings 3)Ten Commandments (Exodus 20: 1-17)Twelve OlympiansWise men (Matthew 2: 7-23)Zeus