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Literary Devices
Definition of Allusion
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to other literary works, famous individuals, historical events, or philosophical ideas... read full definition
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to other literary works, famous individuals... read full definition
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to... read full definition
Part 1: Book 1, Chapter 1: Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov
Explanation and Analysis—Ophelia:
The narrator alludes to Ophelia, a character in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, while reflecting upon the young women of the previous, “romantic generation”:
I once knew a young lady still of the last “romantic” generation who, after several years of enigmatic love for a certain gentleman [...] ended up, after inventing all sorts of insurmountable obstacles, by throwing herself on a stormy night into a rather deep and swift river from a high bank somewhat resembling a cliff, and perished there decidedly by her own caprice, only because she wanted to be like Shakespeare’s Ophelia. Even then, if the cliff, chosen and cherished from long ago, had not been so picturesque, if it had been merely a flat, prosaic bank, the suicide might not have taken place at all.
Noting Fyodor’s various unappealing characteristics, the narrator has been speculating as to why Fyodor's first wife, the wealthy and beautiful Adelaida Ivanovna, agreed to marry him. The young women of that earlier generation, the narrator suggests, were “romantic” in their inclinations, and were heavily inspired by idealized romantic literature.
One “young lady,” for example, committed suicide “only because she wanted to be like Shakespeare’s Ophelia,” alluding to a tragic character in Hamlet, who drowns, either accidentally or intentionally, after the murder of her father by her own lover, Prince Hamlet. The narrator notes, with a clear sense of irony, that she might not have killed herself if the scenery had not “been so picturesque,” as the beauty of the landscape ultimately strengthened those emotional passions that led to her suicide.
Related Themes:
Part 2: Book 5, Chapter 5: The Grand Inquisitor
Explanation and Analysis—The Spanish Inquisition:
In a very famous passage in the novel, Ivan presents a poem he has composed to Alexei. The poem tells a story in which Jesus Christ returns to Earth. Ivan’s poem alludes extensively to the infamous Spanish Inquisition of the early modern period:
My action is set in Spain, in Seville, in the most horrible time of the Inquisition, when fires blazed every day to the glory of God, and in the splendid auto-da-fé Evil heretics were burnt.[...] He came down to the ‘scorched squares’ of a southern town where just the day before, in a ‘splendid auto-da-fé,’ in the presence of the king, the court, knights, cardinals, and the loveliest court ladies, before the teeming populace of all Seville, the Cardinal Grand Inquisitor had burned almost a hundred heretics at once ad majorem gloriam Dei.
Ivan sets his poem in Seville, a major city in Spain, at the height of the Spanish Inquisition, a period in which the Catholic authorities in Spain were granted broad powers to maintain orthodoxy and punish blasphemy. He describes numerous features of the inquisition, including an auto-da-fé, or a public punishment of those deemed “blasphemers” by the Inquisition, which often included death by burning. Ivan’s description of the Spanish Inquisition depicts it as a period of intolerance and cruelty, during which leaders such as the Grand Inquisitor sought to maintain power rather than serve God.
Related Themes:
