Allusion & Irony

Allusion This is indirect reference to (a hint at) some historical or literary fact (or personage) expressed in the text. Allusion presupposes the knowledge of such a fact on the part of the reader or listener, so no particular explanation is given (although this is sometimes really needed). Very often the interpretation of the fact or person alluded to is generalised or even symbolised. See the following examples: Hers was a forceful clarity and a colourful simplicity and a bold use of metaphor that Demosphenes would have envied. (Faulkner) (allusion to the widely-known ancient Greek orator). He felt as Balaam must gave felt when his ass broke into speech (Maugham) (allusion to the biblical parable of an ass that spoke the human language when its master, the heathen prophet Balaam, intended to punish it). In B. Shaw's play "Pygmalion", the following remark of Mr. Higgins " Eliza: you are an idiot. I waste the treasures of my Mi/tonic mind by spreading them before you alludes to the English poet of the 17"' century John Milton, the author of the poem "Paradise Lost"; apart from that, the words spreading the treasures of my mind before you contain an allusion to the biblical expression to cast pearls before swine {метать бисер перед сви¬ньями). In A. Christie's book ol'stories' The Labours of Hercules' the name of the famous detective Hercule Poirot is an allusion to the name of Hercules and the twelve heroic deeds (labours) of this hero of the ancient Greek myths.

Irony Irony, like the stylistic device of zeugma, is based on the simultaneous realisation of two opposite meanings: the permanent, "direct" meaning (the dictionary meaning) of words and their contextual (covert, implied) meaning. Usually the direct meaning in such cases expresses a positive evaluation of the situation, while the context contains the opposite, negative evaluation: How delightful — to find yourself in a foreign country without a penny in your pocket! Aren 't you a hero — running away from a mouse! I like a parliamentary debate, Particularly when it is not too late. (Byron) The Holy Alliance (Russia, Prussia, Austria) was minded to stretch the arm of its Christian charity across the Atlantic and put republicanism down in the western hemisphere as well as in its own. (Goldwin Smith). I do not consult physicians, for I hope to die without their help. (W. Temple).