30 Most Important Literary Devices for UGC NET English | Literary Terms Explained with Examples

[00:00:00]So hey all the future assistant professors, welcome back to English with English by Pooja Singh. As you have heard that for UGC NET, you should start your preparation with British literature because that is very heavy, because that is very important and everything is covered. Yes, I do agree with that. No objection for that. But what I want you to start with literary terms and devices because that is the core of English literature. If you don't understand what is alliteration, what is synecdoche, what is prelude versus, what is the most important terms and how you are going to judge English literature.

[00:00:40]All the short stories, all the novels, all the epics, all the drama that is related to that. So if you don't start with literary criticism, you are going to miss the essence of English literature and I don't want you to miss that. So I am going to teach you all the important literary terms, devices, and it will be a long series. Yes, it will be a long series. So I know British literature is important and you have watched a lot of videos and you know, in our brain, there is a subconscious mind that knows everything that yes, because since you have watched a lot of videos regarding British literature, in your mind you know what is important and you have read it. Okay, what you haven't read it is literary terms and devices and that's what I'm going to prepare you so that if you see any unseen passages because they ask a lot of questions.

[00:01:34]Devices kya hai? What is devices? What is the rhyme scheme? So I'm going to teach you everything. So without any delay, let's get started. The very first literary term that I'll start with is allegory. You will say, "Ma'am, ye to bohat easy." I know it sounds easy, but yehi agar aapke exam mein aa jayega, you will be like, "Oh, what it is?" I want you to prepare for for best, right? The very first thing is that I'll give you the word that the word allegory originated from Latin, okay?

[00:02:04]And it is the meaning and it is translated to what? Veiled language.

[00:02:09]What does that veiled language means?

[00:02:11]Veiled matlab hota hai parda, ghungat.

[00:02:15]Chupana, right? So, an allegory is a story where characters, events represent deeper meanings, usually moral, political, or social ideas. So, allegory means what? A story with a hidden message, okay?

[00:02:29]A story with a hidden message. For example, I'll be telling you that allegory also it is of two types.

[00:02:34]Allegory is of two types. The very first one is fables and the other one is parables, okay?

[00:02:42]These two are the main thing. Now, we'll see the example. George Orwell's Animal Farm. That is the best example of the allegory. Now, what does that? So, the animals represent political figures and the Russian Revolution. Now, the Napoleon was in the form of Stalin and the Snowball was in the form of Trotsky.

[00:03:04]Now, this Animal Farm is not just Now, I'll show you. This is the Animal Farm, okay?

[00:03:09]This is the Animal Farm and this story features animal rising up Animals rising up against their human owners, like to form what?

[00:03:20]To form a socialist government. Now, you will be saying who is So, if you see this pig in the story, he is the manipulative leader. He is the manipulative leader who dictate others.

[00:03:38]You can see he is dictating. He is dictating to all.

[00:03:42]He's dictating to all. Rest all are following. But, and they act for their own personal benefit and rather than for the welfare of the society. Now, you have to be very clear about it. The farm is not only a farm, it represents society and politics. An Animal Farm is a political allegory because they're talking about the animal and they are trying to give a hidden message. I hope it is clear for you.

[00:04:04]Allegory means a hidden message. And for example, I have given you the Animal Farm. I think this will be clear. If you have read Animal Farm, you would be knowing it, okay? And if you have not read, please go and read because that is very important. And a lot of PYQ has been asked in the UGC NET examination.

[00:04:21]So, please uh read it. Now, the second term which I would be like to talking about the alliteration, my favorite. I am doing this alliteration thing since I was in class six and I love this figure of speech, right? So, what you have to do is this is very easy, repetition of the same initial sound in nearby words.

[00:04:40]What? In nearby words. For example, I have just taken as a Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. So, that is very easy to find. If you see any unseen passage, they will be asking find the figure of speech. So, if the alliteration comes, that's a win-win, okay?

[00:04:56]So, you can see the sound repetition of PPP. Now, I'll give you the literary example in Beowulf, bitter breast. The repeated B sound creates a musical effect and the alliteration of the same beginning sound. And first to support this, I have found this, you know, this picture. Now, can you see it?

[00:05:16]Beowulf, bitter breasted. breasted. Can you see the repetition of B?

[00:05:23]B and B. So, that's how it is very important. A lot of words in there for your example. And if the opening line or in the line between and found the poem and the lines, see, baneful blooded brave in bone. Again, B, B, B. So, if any question comes from the find the poem name or you can find it Very easy.

[00:05:47]You will find all the repetition with B.

[00:05:51]Broken being blood. Beowulf bitter breast bait.

[00:05:57]Beowulf bester bile. So, a lot of B repeated words, so that is why I thought to include this picture. I hope you I hope you are enjoying this video. And if you are not enjoying it, you can skip this video because this is for the serious aspirants who don't want to lose even their two marks.

[00:06:14]That's one question.

[00:06:18]If you are willing to give one question two marks, and that is the difference where net and JRFs is a thin line. So, if you want to cross this thin line, you have to watch it.

[00:06:30]Rest, your decision. You're free to do anything you like. Now, the third is allusion. What is allusion? So, it is generally a brief and indirect reference to a famous person, event, place, mythology, text. You're just describing You're just It might not be in the real, but you're just telling its meaning within the context, like sense of the pleasure. You cannot tell it, but you can just feel it. So, for example, she's Cinderella. Now, now the writer does not explain Cinderella, but expects reader to know the reference because we all have seen Cinderella.

[00:07:01]The cartoons.

[00:07:02]The story books. So, the reader assumes that okay, if I am writing the word Cinderella, he or she might expect to know who is Cinderella, okay?

[00:07:13]Now, I'll give you the example from the literature. In T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land, there are many references to mythology, religion, literature. So, if you will talk what is allusion, it is a hint to a reader to understand what is allusion.

[00:07:28]For you, I have created this picture.

[00:07:32]The Waste Land. There will be myth.

[00:07:35]There will be past and present version.

[00:07:37]There will be unreal city, London. So, the reader is expecting you to know what London is all about.

[00:07:44]The reader is knowing how a car tarot card reader going on. Then the reader is telling April is the cruelest month.

[00:07:52]Then there is the game of chess. He knows what is a game of chess.

[00:07:58]So these are the things that you should know what it is. Now he also mentioned in one of the pages that Inferno he describes what Inferno looks about. So if you haven't read Dante's Inferno, you are missing out to the real just read it. Dante's Inferno is incredible. You will get goosebumps.

[00:08:17]Yes, do read it. So allusion means you are giving a hint and you're expecting a reader to understand it, okay?

[00:08:27]Now comes a very interesting device, anaphora. What does that means? So it is just a repetition of word or phrase that is that will be either in the beginning of the successive lines or the sentences. What does that means? Here if you will see, every day, every night, every moment. So what is the what is the repetition here? It is the word of every, okay?

[00:08:46]Now I'll give you the example of Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities. Again, very important. Please read it if you haven't read it. Every time in UGC NET they have asked about this question. So A Tale of Two Cities. It was the best of times and it was the worst of times.

[00:09:00]Many students get confused that anaphora means the whole sentence is being talked and in contrary, no. What you have to do in anaphora, it just means they're talking about it was a repetition of it was. So please students, don't get confused here. Now so repeated structure create emphasis.

[00:09:20]Anaphora means again, the beginning. So again if you will see the repeated echoes of the turbulent era of it was the best of the times, it was the worst of the times, A Tale of Two Cities. If you will see here, every day, every night, every moment.

[00:09:34]Okay?

[00:09:35]There will be every day, every night, every moment. So, there will be the times where you understand that what it is it was the it was the okay?

[00:09:44]So, anaphora means the repetition of the word in the beginning. It simply means what is antithesis? The word antithesis just means the opposition of the contrasting ideas that are placed together. For example, man proposes, God disposes. In Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities, you will see it was the best of the time and it was the worst of time.

[00:10:06]So, the the time is same but once it was the best time and one it is the worst time.

[00:10:11]Now, in if you will say best versus worst again against the opposite idea.

[00:10:15]So, again that will be one I'll one example I'll give you from John Milton's Paradise Lost.

[00:10:20]He says that it is better to reign in hell than to serve in heaven. So, what did he say? The line contrast the idea of being a ruler in the hell than to being a servant in the heaven. And that's alongside the ultimate opposing locations of the hell and heaven. So, there will always be best versus worst, God's decree, and all its hell heaven, there will be contrasting ideas. Time, best or worst, okay? So, antithesis means oppositions of the contrasting idea. That's so easy.

[00:10:57]And if you're losing your two marks for this easy concept, you're losing your net or JRF. Now, comes six number, epistrophe. Now, what is that epistrophe? When a speaker directly addresses about an absent person, dead person, or any abstract idea. When I'm talking about abstract idea, it can be anything, okay? For example, oh death, where is thy sting? For example, in Macbeth, Shakespeare talks about life's but a walking shadow. Macbeth speaks about the abstract idea. Now, can the life will be a walking shadow?

[00:11:36]Shadow can life have a shadow? No.

[00:11:40]Talking to someone who cannot answer.

[00:11:42]Again, if you see uh in John Donne's sonnet, he says that death be not proud.

[00:11:49]And this was the question of your June 2026.

[00:11:54]June 2026. Okay. So, the unending shadow or death where is the strength? So, he talks about the abstract versus concrete. He talks about the Macbeth vision, the abstract life. He's talking shadow. If there will be a talking shadow, it would exactly look like this, something, you know.

[00:12:12]He's Macbeth and there will be talking shadow, walking shadow, poor player, sound and fury, everything. So, life is what but a walking shadow. So, he's not talking about the particular shadow in this, but he's talking. So, that's an apostrophe.

[00:12:26]That person is not there. They are not human. This is simply, strictly the apostrophe without personification. So, this is the example, okay?

[00:12:37]Now, the next comes bathos. What does bathos means? There's a sudden change from serious or grand style something silly or ordinary. I'll just give you the one example. Suppose um Everybody is knows that April Fool.

[00:12:52]You know, you do a prank. You you do a prank with your sister or brother. You give them a big huge gift and when they open it, it is empty. That's all bathos means. You talk about something and that is nothing. He lost his kingdom, his wealth, and his favorite sandwich. What it is? You're just talking about the bigger things in life. You're talking about the sublime things in life. And now, what favorite sandwich? So, that last part creates a comic fall. For example, Alexander Pope used bathos in berry bathos, okay? Now comes conceit.

[00:13:28]When I see the word conceit, I just remember two poets. The very first one is John Donne, my favorite, and Andrew Marvell. They were the one who talks about metaphysical conceits to compare what? To compare the spiritual emotional qualities to talk everyday earthly objects. Like by utilizing these complex comparison, the poets were able to know what the they want to departure from it or the predictable styles of that to showcase. Now, it is an unusual extended comparison. So, you just have to know conceit means see see conceit comparison between two very different things. For example, if you talk about John Donne's A Valediction Forbidding Again a PYQ, he compares lovers to two legs of compass.

[00:14:15]Now, what?

[00:14:16]Where are lovers? Where is the compass?

[00:14:19]Like one moves, the other remains connected. So, conceit is what? It is a creative comparison. For example, if you see how beautifully he has compared. He was you know he was on a journey. He wrote while he John Donne was having a trip to Europe. And at that time he wrote his uh wife A Valediction Forbidding Morning that please don't be sad. It is It is like I do although I am going to you know Europe, but my love for you will always be centered here and I might be in Europe, but two will be connected always. The two will remain same. And how beautifully he portrayed. Okay, so he was he went to the voyage the extended love love extended worldly void souls extension.

[00:15:06]You can say that. So, this is the moment where he wrote to his love. Okay. So, it means the creative comparison. Okay.

[00:15:16]This one is my favorite circumlocution.

[00:15:19]You know why?

[00:15:21]Because you might know if you have any interest in current affairs, you might know Nitin Gadkari, right? If he if any reporter ask any question about the ethanol, he does circumlocution. And I think this example will blow your mind and you must have understood circumlocution means you are doing this thing. You are You are just using all al bal words for saying a simple word that yes, I am doing fraud with all my citizens. Rather he says that no, ethanol is a blending, it is a balanced, it is this, it is that. You should complain to that, your particular falana dhimkana and all sort of things. So that's called circumlocution instead of using many words instead of simple word, okay? For example, an instrument used for writing with ink instead of pen, okay?

[00:16:13]I'll also give the example. Stylistic often use elaborate description like around location speech talking around the topic. So he, you know, write a lot of things, okay? And if you get a lot of questions, if you talk about socks, like how you will describe socks, please do let me know in the comment section. I'm saying socks. You You can say that a piece of clothing which you wear, you know, on your feet to under your shoes to keep your feet warm. That's socks. So that's called circumlocution, okay?

[00:16:42]The next is chiasmus meaning a reversed grammatical structure. Very easy. You're writing AB instead you can write BA. For example, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. Just reversing the words.

[00:16:56]Nothing like that. For example, John F.

[00:16:58]Kennedy famous speech uses chiasmus and that's just crossing the structure.

[00:17:02]Nothing like that. You can write like that.

[00:17:05]Live simply Live simply so that others might simply live. That's very easy one, okay? Also there is one example, never let a fool kiss you or a kiss fool you. Okay? So, these are the examples from literary.

[00:17:24]Now, this is diacope. What does that mean? Diacope repetition of a word with a small gap in between. For that, for example, "To be or not to be." Okay?

[00:17:34]What is that? You can just see the small gap in between "To be or not to be."

[00:17:39]That's it. So, it is Shakespeare's Hamlet words, words, words. That is nothing is that if you see anything like that, it is nothing like so deep into it. Okay?

[00:17:48]Then hyperbole, you must be aware of it what it is. It is also known as what? It is also known as overstatement. Like a literary devices where a speaker purposefully exaggerate to point that it is not meant to be taken literally. For example, it is extreme exertion for the use of emphasis. Like, I have told you a million times. Can anyone say million times? No, but it's just a hyperbole.

[00:18:09]Just taking a humorous effect. For example, Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet uses exaggerated expressions of love. Hyper extra. You just need to understand like that. For example, you know, while a girlfriend and boyfriend start their relationship, they talk about "I am going to be, you know, I'll I'll take you forever." So, that was the exaggeration. That means if you get to know and understand this. Okay?

[00:18:35]Now, what is imagery? Again, very easy one. You have heard of it all. So, it is something that is a figurative language when author to represent and you know, like an objects, actions, ideas in a way that appeal to our physical senses. Like language that creates pictures in the reader's minds using senses. For example, visual imagery, auditory imagery, tactile imagery. For example, John Keats' poems are rich in sensory imagery. Like, when you read his poem, you will start imagining things. You will start create a picture of a beautiful girl. You will start think of a beautiful old. You can start a scene. Okay? And also, Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights create powerful natural imagery. I'll just show you.

[00:19:17]When you read it nicely, you will get effect like all black, you know, and there will be Heathcliff, there will be like all the plants, trees, and how their homes were connected, and the plants, things like that. So, yes, this is like saying it was dark and dim in the forest creates a strong visual image that you you you are forced to think that, yes.

[00:19:40]You can easily picture the setting. It is like you are easily getting that picture of the setting in your mind. You If you say Heathcliff now, now whenever you will see the Wuthering Heights, this image will come in your mind, okay?

[00:19:57]That is the thing. Like, you know, if I'll give you one example of Robert Frost, like "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening." Like, how a wood can stop, but the reader is forcing you to think of it. So, that's what That's imagery. Any Any work that make you forced to think, and you create an image, that's called imagery. Now, this is the irony. Oh my god, I'm saying that. What is that? Difference between what is said and what is meant, or what happens, or what is expected. Now, you should you should be knowing the difference between all. So, there are three types of irony: verbal irony, dramatic irony, or the situational irony. So, it is like when you are saying something, but you don't want to say that. If you want like you don't want to hurt that person, but you're saying it nicely. For example, Shakespeare's Othello.

[00:20:45]The audience was knowing Iago is evil, but Othello trusts him. That is irony.

[00:20:50]That is irony, you know? It is the irony.

[00:20:55]Also, there is one example of from Shakespeare's only, Julius Caesar. When after the death of Caesar's, Mark Antony, the famous speech, he says that Brutus is an honorable man.

[00:21:11]And he repeatedly say that.

[00:21:14]So, that is, you know, how verbal irony works. And he knew that he had to convey the exact opposite meaning into the crowd. So, that's called irony.

[00:21:24]This one is the interesting one, juxtaposition. What does that means? It means that placing two contrasting things close together to highlight the differences. What does that means? Light and dark, two opposite thing, but why we are putting it like you can talk it about binary opposition as well. So, light and dark, completely contrasting ideas placed side by side to know the or to highlight the differences. For example, A Tale of Two Cities I'll give you because it is repeatedly asked in UGC NET. So, best of times and the worst of times. So, that's here juxtaposition.

[00:21:56]And that's it for today's video.

[00:22:00]So, that is for today's video. Do let me know in the comment section did you understand it? Did you learn anything new? Or did you liked it or not?

[00:22:08]Everything in the comment section, okay?

[00:22:09]And I hope this video will be very helpful for you. And yes, this series will be going to be very long because I'm going to cover everything. Yes, you heard me right, everything. So, do let me know in the comment section. And if you found this video helpful, do not forget to like, share with your friend those who are preparing for UGC NET and confused where to start. This is the video where you should start with. And keep learning, keep shining. All the best. And if you have not subscribed yet, do subscribe it now because you're going to get a lot of amazing videos regarding UGC NET. Thank you.