Examples of Allusion

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An allusion is a figure of speech that makes a reference to a place, person, or event. This can be real
or imaginary and may refer to anything, including fiction, folklore, historical events, or religious
manuscripts. The reference can be direct or may be inferred, and can broaden the reader’s
understanding.

Literary Allusions
There are several ways that an allusion can help a writer:
 Allusions engage the reader and will often help the reader remember the message or theme of
the passage.
 Allusions allow the writer to give an example or get a point across without going into a lengthy
discourse.
Allusions are contingent on the reader knowing about the story or event that is referenced.
Here are some examples that allude to people or events in literature:
 “I was surprised his nose was not growing like Pinocchio’s.” This refers to the story of
Pinocchio, where his nose grew whenever he told a lie. It is from The Adventures of Pinocchio,
written by Carlo Collodi.
 “When she lost her job, she acted like a Scrooge, and refused to buy anything that wasn’t
necessary.” Scrooge was an extremely stingy character from Charles Dickens’ A Christmas
Carol.
 “I thought the software would be useful, but it was a Trojan Horse.” This refers to the tale in
Homer's Iliad where the Greeks built a large, hollow wooden horse to hide soldiers in. It was
 given as a gift to the enemy during the Trojan War and, once inside the enemy's walls, the
soldiers broke out. By using trickery, the Greeks won the war.
 “He was a real Romeo with the ladies.” Romeo, the lead character in Shakespeare’s play, Romeo
and Juliet, is considered to be a true romantic hero, and won over Juliet against her family's
wishes.
 “Chocolate was her Achilles’ heel.” This means that her weakness was her love of chocolate.
Achilles is a character in Greek mythology who was thought to be invincible. His mother dipped
him in magical water when he was a baby, and she held him by the heel. So his heel was the
only part of him not protected by the magic.

Biblical Allusions
There are many biblical allusions that are used in our everyday language and in writing.
Here are a few examples:
 “He was a Good Samaritan yesterday when he helped the lady start her car.” This refers to the
story of the Good Samaritan who was the only one to stop and help a man in need.
 “She turned the other cheek after she was cheated out of a promotion.” This comes from the
Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus teaches that you should forgive someone who has wronged
you and not seek revenge.
 “This place is like a Garden of Eden.” The Garden of Eden was the paradise God made for
Adam and Eve.
 “You are a Solomon when it comes to making decisions.” This refers to the story of King
Solomon, who was given great wisdom by God.
 “When the volcano erupted, the nearby forest was swallowed up in dust and ash like Jonah.” In
the Bible, Jonah was swallowed whole by a whale.
 “It is raining so hard, I hope it doesn’t rain for 40 days and 40 nights.” This refers to the story of
Noah and the ark he built when he was told by God that it would rain for 40 days and 40 nights
and flood the land.

Understanding Allusions
Allusions are a useful literary tool as they can convey a great deal of information in just a few words.
However, because allusions make reference to something other than what is directly being discussed,
you may fail to understand it if you do not know the underlying event, tale or other reference point.
So think about the pros and cons of allusions when using them in your writing.

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Allusion Definition

Allusion is a brief and indirect reference to a person, place, thing or idea of

historical, cultural, literary or political significance. It does not describe in detail
the person or thing to which it refers. It is just a passing comment and the
writer expects the reader to possess enough knowledge to spot the allusion
and grasp its importance in a text.

For instance, you make a literary allusion the moment you say, “I do not
approve of this quixotic idea,” Quixotic means stupid and impractical derived
from Cervantes’s “Don Quixote”, a story of a foolish knight and his
misadventures.

Allusion Examples in Everyday Speech

The use allusions are not confined to literature alone. Their occurrence is
fairly common in our daily speech. Look at some common allusion examples
in everyday life:

 “Don’t act like a Romeo in front of her.” – “Romeo” is a reference to

Shakespeare’s Romeo, a passionate lover of Juliet, in “Romeo and
Juliet”.
 The rise in poverty will unlock the Pandora’s box of crimes. – This is an
allusion to one of Greek Mythology’s origin myth, “Pandora’s box”.
 “This place is like a Garden of Eden.” – This is a biblical allusion to the
“garden of God” in the Book of Genesis.
 “Hey! Guess who the new Newton of our school is?” – “Newton”, means
a genius student, alludes to a famous scientist Isaac Newton.
 “Stop acting like my ex-husband please.” – Apart from scholarly
allusions we refer to common people and places in our speech.

Examples of Allusion in Literature

Let us analyze a few examples of the use of allusions in literature:

Example #1

Milton’s “Paradise Lost” gives allusions a fair share. Look at the example from
Book 6 below:

“All night the dread less Angel unpursu’d

Through Heav’ns wide Champain held his way, till Morn,
Wak’t by the circling Hours, with rosie hand
Unbarr’d the gates of Light. There is a Cave
Within the Mount of God, fast by his Throne”

In the above lines “dread less Angel” is a reference to “Abdiel”, a fearless

angel. “Circling Hours” alludes to a Greek Myth “The Horae”, the daughters of
“Zeus” and “Themis” namely “Thallo (Spring), Auxo (Summer) and Carpo
(Fall). “ With rosie hand” Milton refers to Homer’s illustration of the “rosy
fingered dawn” (Odyssey Book 2).

Example #2

Marlowe’s “Doctor Faustus” is replete with instances of allusions. Read the

example from Act III below:

“Learnèd Faustus, to find the secrets of astronomy

Graven in the book of Jove’s high firmament,
Did mount him up to scale Olympus’ top,
Where, sitting in a chariot burning bright,
Drawn by the strength of yokèd dragons’ necks,
He views the clouds, the planets, and the stars.”

Jove’s high firmament refers to the outer stretches of the universe. “Olympus’
top” is an allusion to Greek Mythology where Mount Olympus is home of gods.
Similarly, “a chariot burning bright” refers to a Greek Myth of “god Apollo” who
is said to drive the sun in his chariot.

Example #3

In Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness”, “the two knitting women” whom Marlow sees
alludes to “Moirae” or Fates as visualized in Greek Mythology:

“The two knitting women increase his anxiety by gazing at him and all the
other sailors with knowing unconcern. Their eerie looks suggest that they
know what will happen (the men dying), yet don’t care”

The thread they knit represents human life. The two women knitting black
wool foreshadows Marlow’s horrific journey in the “Dark Continent”.

Example #4

We find a number of allusions in Keats’s “Ode to the Grecian Urn”. For

example:

“Sylvan historian, who canst thus express

A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme:
What leaf-fringed legend haunts about thy shape
Of deities or mortals, or of both,
In Tempe or the dales of Arcady?”

“Sylvan” is a goat-like-man deity of Greek mythology. “Tempe” alludes to the

“Vale of Tempe” in Greece, a place (from Greek mythology) frequently visited
by Apollo and other gods. Likewise, “the dales of Arcady” refers to the home
of “Pan”, the god of rustic music.

Function of Allusion
By and large, the use of allusions enables writers or poets to simplify complex
ideas and emotions. The readers comprehend the complex ideas by
comparing the emotions of the writer or poet to the references given by them.
Furthermore, the references to Greek Mythology give a dreamlike and magical
touch to the works of art. Similarly, biblical allusions appeal to the readers with
religious backgrounds.

ALLUSION
Definition of Allusion
An allusion is a literary device used to reference another object outside of the work of
literature. The object can be a real or fictional person, event, quote, or other work of
artistic expression. Allusions can be shorthand for adding emotion or significance to a
passage by drawing on the reader’s prior associations with the object.

The word “allusion” comes from the Latin for “to play with” or “to jest.” Though the
definition of allusion does not necessarily include humor, many jokes do indeed
allude to recent events or famous people. Most allusions “play with” the original
source material in the sense that they use the reference for new purposes.

Examples of Allusion in Common Speech

 Big Brother: Now a reality television show in countries across the world, the
term Big Brother comes from George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984 (he, in turn,
may have taken the phrase from a WWII-era billboard). Whereas it once just
described a familial relation, “Big Brother” is now shorthand for referring to
mass surveillance and abuse of government power.
 Watergate: The 1972 scandal at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C. led to
the resignation of President Richard Nixon. Since the event, the suffix –gate has
been added to many dozens of names to refer to scandals. These scandals are
generally in politics, but can be in other fields as well, and can be of any
proportion, from the relatively trivial “Bendgate” of 2014 when the iPhone 6
 Plus was shown to bend under pressure, to “Irangate”, referring to the Iran-
Contra affair of the mid-1980s during the Reagan Administration.
 15 minutes of fame: In 1968, artist Andy Warhol made the comment, “In the
future, everyone will be world-famous for fifteen minutes.” The phrase “fifteen
minutes of fame” is frequently used now, especially with the advent of reality
television and social media. Though it has entered the realm of cliché, the saying
“fifteen minutes of fame” is an allusion to Warhol’s original statement.
 Catch-22: Joseph Heller’s 1961 novel Catch-22 centers around a group of
soldiers during World War II who try to keep their sanity on an Italian island.
Heller describes the following problematic situation with no solution: if a soldier
is deemed crazy, he can be discharged from the army. However, if he applies to
be discharged this proves he is not crazy. The phrase “Catch-22” has entered the
English language as a situation that has no good solution, and is an allusion to
Heller’s novel.
 Achilles’ Heel: Achilles was a figure in Greek mythology who was a hero of the
Trojan War and was featured in Homer’s Iliad. He was said to be invulnerable
except for at his heel. Thus, when Paris shot Achilles in his heel the wound
proved mortal. The term “Achilles’ heel” now refers to a strong person’s one
point of weakness.
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Significance of Allusion
Authors use allusions intentionally, though it is the reader’s responsibility to
understand the reference. Allusions can create meaning in a work that is lost if the
reader doesn’t grasp the reference. Therefore, allusions can be a test of a sort of
cultural literacy. It is thus also much more difficult for modern readers to understand
all of the allusions in older works of literature, or literature from other cultures. This is
one of the primary reasons that works such as Dante’s Inferno and Homer’s Odyssey
require so many footnotes.
Allusions use the original reference as a point of departure, but they can also change
the referent and add meaning retroactively. Allusions create intertextuality in this
way. It is important to note, though, that allusions can only go in one direction. For
example, William Faulkner can allude to Shakespeare with his title “The Sound and
the Fury”, but Shakespeare cannot allude to Faulkner. However, a modern reader
familiar with Faulkner is probably unable to read the original lines from
Shakespeare’s Macbeth without thinking of Faulkner’s work: “it is a tale / Told by an
idiot, full of sound and fury, / Signifying nothing.”

Examples of Allusion in Literature

Example #1
Then turning, I to them my speech address’d,
And thus began: “Francesca! your sad fate
Even to tears my grief and pity moves.
But tell me; in the time of your sweet sighs,
By what, and how Love granted, that ye knew
Your yet uncertain wishes?” She replied:
“No greater grief than to remember days
Of joy, when misery is at hand. That kens
Thy learn’d instructor. Yet so eagerly
If thou art bent to know the primal root,
From whence our love gat being, I will do
As one, who weeps and tells his tale. One day,
For our delight we read of Lancelot,
How him love thrall’d. Alone we were, and no
Suspicion near us. Oft-times by that reading
Our eyes were drawn together, and the hue
Fled from our alter’d cheek. But at one point
Alone we fell. When of that smile we read,
The wished smile so raptorously kiss’d
By one so deep in love, then he, who ne’er
From me shall separate, at once my lips
All trembling kiss’d. The book and writer both
Were love’s purveyors. In its leaves that day
We read no more.”
(Dante’s Inferno)
This excerpt from Dante’s Inferno includes two important allusions that the reader
must understand to know what Dante is trying to say. Both allusion examples are to
love stories that would have been known by the culturally literate of Dante’s day: the
true stories of Francesca and of Lancelot. Francesca, daughter of the Lord of Ravenna,
fell in love with her husband’s brother, Paolo, and both she and Paolo were put to
death for adultery. In this passage, she tells Dante that she and Paolo fell in love over
the story of Lancelot, a Knight of the Round Table, whose romance with Guinevere
was celebrated.
Example #2
HORATIO: A mote it is to trouble the mind’s eye.
In the most high and palmy state of Rome,
A little ere the mightiest Julius fell,
The graves stood tenantless and the sheeted dead
Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets”

(Hamlet by Shakespeare)
This allusion example comes from the beginning of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, where the
character Horatio refers to Julius Caesar. Though this is clearly an allusion to the
historical figure, it is also an interesting case of self-reference, as Shakespeare
published his play Julius Caesar a year or two before Hamlet. The plot
of Hamlet alludes to the historical figure Amleth.
Example #3
The morning wind forever blows, the poem of creation is uninterrupted; but few are
the ears that hear it. Olympus is but the outside of the earth everywhere.

(Walden by Thoreau)
In this excerpt from Walden, Henry David Thoreau alludes to Olympus. In Greek
mythology, Mt. Olympus was where the pantheon of gods lived. By comparing the
outside world to Mt. Olympus Thoreau is saying that nature holds all the
wondrousness of the home of the gods.
Example #4
The Cunninghams are country folks, farmers, and the crash hit them hardest.

(To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee)

This line from Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird references “the crash”, which is
an allusion to the Stock Market Crash of 1929 that led to the Great Depression.
Without understanding this allusion, the line would be confusing as the reader would
be wondering what type of crash affected the Cunninghams so extremely.
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Test Your Knowledge of Allusion

1. Choose the best allusion definition:
A. A false or misleading impression of reality.
B. A reference to another object outside of the work of literature.
C. An imitation of another work of literature.
Answer to Question #1 Hide

Answer: B is the correct answer.

2. Which of the following lines from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet contains an
allusion?
A. Immoderately she weeps for Tybalt’s death,
B. And therefore have I little talked of love,
C. For Venus smiles not in a house of tears.
Answer to Question #2 Hide
Answer: C contains an allusion to the Greek goddess Venus.

3. Which of the following titles is not an allusion to Shakespeare?

A. The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer (late 14th century)
B. Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury (1962)
C. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green (2012)
Answer to Question #3 Hide

Answer: A cannot be an allusion to Shakespeare as Chaucer predated him, and

thus A is the correct answer. The title from B, “Something wicked this way comes,”
appears in Macbeth, and “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars” is a line from Julius
Caesar.