allow ’s be honest : You googled " what is personification " and landed on this page . Whether you ’re ask because of a prep prompt or out of bibliophilic wonder , you ’ve come to the right stead .
Personification is a type offigurative languagewhere human attributes or emotions are attribute to inanimate objects , brute or ideas . In creative writing , personificationcan help explain concepts that are strong to grasp or make abstract ideas more relatable .
When you hear a idiomatic expression like " The jazz whispered through the trees , " can you suppose the eery chill ? When you read " Time march on , " do you experience the press to move onward ? That ’s prosopopoeia at body of work .
What Is Personification?
Personificationshares similarity with other literary devices , include metaphors and anthromorphism .
A metaphor is a equivalence between two unlike things without using " like " or " as . " Personification is a case of metaphor where human qualities are given to nonhuman things . So , all personification is metaphor , but not all metaphor are personification .
For example , " The computerized tomography ’s meow is euphony to my ears " is a metaphor , but it ’s not incarnation because it compares the miaul to euphony , not by giving human qualities to the meow itself . If it were " The cat serenaded me with its nightly meows , " that would be called personification .
Anthropomorphism is another literary gimmick that ’s similar to personification , but anthromorphism goes a stone’s throw further by creating theatrical role . Anthropomorphism gives nonhuman things actual human form or behavior , which typically includes talking , bear clothes and having complex social life .
Think of children ’s story , such as " Toy Story , " when the race car and toy dinosaur become sad at the opinion of being left behind .
Personification , by dividing line , uses the human characteristics to make mental imagery or add emotional deepness . The effectualness of personification often count on the literary context . A set phrase like " the angry storm " might feel cliché in a atmospheric condition report but resonate deeply within a dramatic narrative .
A Few Examples of Personification in Literature
Personification is used across all eccentric of writing , but it ’s particularly dramatic inpoetryand literature . One of the most famous example of personification comes from William Shakespeare ’s " Romeo and Juliet " :
Here , the sun is given the human traits of loveliness and power , as well as the human legal action of killing the moon . The moon is described with human emotions like envy and grief , in plus to the human physical conditions of being unhinged and sick . These human quality make the celestial soundbox more relatable and come in the picture with sharpen drama and emotion .
In " A Midsummer Night ’s Dream , " Shakespeare uses personification to animate nature itself :
By key out wintertime as if it has breath , Shakespeareturns an abstract idea into something tangible and almost live , help referee feel the chill of the scene .
Such noted example of prosopopoeia foreground its power to transform abstract ideas into compelling , centripetal experiences .
10 Personification Examples in Everyday Language
Even outside the realm of lit , personification is everywhere in everyday speech . These idiom are so common that we often do n’t even gain we ’re using figurative voice communication .
Here are some examples :
We created this article in coincidence with AI applied science , then made sure it was fact - checked and delete by a HowStuffWorks editor .
