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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
Chapter 1
Explanation and Analysis—Describing Virginia:
In Chapter 1, the narrator describes the members of the Otis family. Wilde does not state outright that he intends these characters to defy Gothic tropes typical for their roles, genders, and ages, but it is quite clear in the included descriptions that juxtaposition was intended. Take, for instance, the narrator's description of Miss Virginia E. Otis, whose demeanor he outlines using both allusion and simile:
Miss Virginia E. Otis was a little girl of fifteen, lithe and lovely as a fawn, and with a fine freedom of her large blue eyes. She was a wonderful amazon.
Interestingly, the simile and allusion in this passage provide somewhat contradictory visions of Virginia's particular brand of athleticism. Through allusion, she is compared to an amazon, one of the powerful female warriors from Greek mythology. Amazons were not delicate or traditionally feminine, as one might expect a heroine in a Gothic novel to be. While the simile comparing Virginia's litheness to that of a fawn also emphasizes her athleticism, this bit of figurative language portrays her as delicate, perhaps in contradiction to the Amazonian characterization.
Regardless, both the simile and allusion in this passage are intended to emphasize the physical fitness and capabilities of the young woman in question. These descriptions run contrary to those typical of female characters in gothic/horror fiction of the time (or in earlier decades), who were often described as pale, fainting creatures with nervous mannerisms. Athleticism or physical strength were not attributes common to Gothic heroines.
Related Themes:
Chapter 3
Explanation and Analysis—Chanticleer:
In the following passage from Chapter 3, Wilde writes his ghost as alluding to Chanticleer, a fictional rooster who features prominently in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, specifically in the Nun’s Priest’s Tale:
[The ghost] ground his toothless gums together; and, raising his withered hands above his head, swore, according to the picturesque phraseology of the antique school, that when Chanticleer had sounded twice his merry horn, deeds of blood would be wrought, and Murder walk abroad with silent feet.
Chanticleer sounding “twice his merry horn” is therefore an elaborate way of evoking a rooster’s crow, considered in many cultures to be an omen or premonition. In the Nun’s Priest’s Tale, the rooster Chanticleer dreams of his impending doom at the hands (or teeth) of a fox, and actively works to prevent this from happening. By invoking Chanticleer, the Canterville Ghost thus alludes to the tradition and history of premonition, using the “picturesque phraseology of the antique school” as a means of invoking his own supernatural power.
An extension of this power is the ghost’s control over the forces of nature, which he further asserts by personifying “Murder”—who, at his behest, will “walk abroad with silent feet” to inflict terror as the ghost sees fit.
