A Sampling of Tropes
1. Allegories
Allegories are extended metaphors that illustrate an important attribute of the subject. Many fantasies, including the Harry Potter books, are allegorical in nature. They have enough relationship to the real world that readers inductively begin making comparisons, as when Rowling describes the various prejudices that exist among the different kinds of magicians and also between magical people and Muggles. That Rowling creates a special name for Muggles shows that we ordinary people are the outsiders, what linguists call the marked form. Also, her name for mudbloods (people like Hermione and even Lord Voldemort who have only one magical parent) is an allegory for the way English speakers express hostility by saying that someone’s name is mud or the way some people express racial prejudice by referring to someone as a half-breed or a mixed-blood.
2. Allusions
Allusions are indirect references to earlier works of literature or art. Dumbledore’s phoenix bird is a good example of how many allusions Rowling can pack into a name. The species name of Phoenix comes from a mythical Egyptian bird that after living for something like 500 years builds its own funeral pyre, fans the flames with its wings, and then is reincarnated. Dumbledore’s phoenix bird can do something similar. The bird’s individual name of Fawkes appropriately begins with the sound of Phoenix and ends like hawks. It also reminds some readers of England’s political rebel and martyr Guy Fawkes (1570—1606), from whom we get the word guy to refer to a friend or companion, and whose birthday is celebrated in England by the lighting of bonfires.
Other examples from famous old stories include the names of Percy’s owl, Hermes, cf. the messenger of the Gods; the egocentric Narcissa Malfoy, cf. the conceited young man who fell in love with his reflection in a pool of water and drowned; the security guard Argus Filch, cf. the giant with 100 eyes who was killed by Hermes; the wise Professor Minerva McGonagall, cf. the Roman goddess of wisdom and war; and the snake Nagini that holds part of Lord Voldemort’s soul, cf. Rudyard Kipling’s Nag and Nagaina cobras in his Rikki-Tikki-Tavi tales.
3. Archaisms
Archaisms are old-fashioned words and phrases that lend a sense of dignity or mysticism to an author’s work. One way Rowling does this is to rely on Latin roots for such spells as the crutiatus curse, which is an unforgivable curse that causes intense pain. The root is crux, meaning cross or gallows as seen in such English terms as crucial, to crucify, and crucifix. In a less somber example, she uses the old-fashioned mead in the name of the town of Hogs-meade, where wizards go to The Hog’s Head tavern and The Three Broomsticks bar and restaurant to drink such concoctions as Elderflower, instead of Elderberry wine, and Butterbeer, instead of buttermilk or root beer.
4. Circumlocution
Circumlocution means “talking around” a topic. One way of doing this is to euphemize, which means to use beautiful or euphonious words in place of ordinary words. For example, the curse Impedimenta! (from impede) sounds more euphonious than “Trip him!” or “Tie his feet.” The name of Madame Maxime Olympe, who is a giant but prefers to describe herself as “large-boned,” is euphemistic enough that readers can be amused rather than embarrassed when Rowling lightens the sadness a href=”http://www.genuinekopi.com/tag-heuer-c-444.html”>Tag Heuer Replica Watches of Professor Dumbledore’s funeral by saying that Madame Maxime took up two-and-a-half of the folding chairs that had been set out on the lawn.
5. Hyperbole
Hyperbole is the use of exaggerated terms for emphasis as with the trick candy named Ton Tongue Toffee. It makes the eater’s tongue grow huge, but certainly no one’s tongue could weigh a ton. Auxesis is a form of hyperbole, in which more-important-sounding words are used in place of ordinary descriptive terms as when the Petrificus Totalus! charm sounds more important than does “totally paralyzed,” just as Priori Incantatem sounds more important than “What you just said.”
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