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Difficulty: Very hardLiterary Devices and Figurative Language

Read the following English translation of a stanza from a poem by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz:

'Which is more to blame,
although both do ill:
she who sins for pay,
or he who pays for sin?'

Which of the following options best identifies and analyzes the primary literary device used in these lines?

  1. A
    Antithesis, which contrasts the physical act of paying with the spiritual act of sinning to argue that financial exchange is fundamentally more corrupt than personal moral failings.
  2. B
    Hyperbole, which exaggerates the blame assigned to both parties to suggest that society is irredeemably corrupt and that redemption is impossible.
  3. Chiasmus, which reverses the syntactic structure of sinning and paying to expose the moral hypocrisy of men who condemn women for actions they themselves facilitate.Answer
  4. D
    Apostrophe, which directly addresses the buyer of the sin to invoke a sense of immediate guilt and force a confession of their complicity.

Answer

The correct option is the one identifying chiasmus as the device that reverses the syntactic structure of sinning and paying to expose moral hypocrisy.
The correct choice identifies the device as chiasmus. The structure 'sins for pay' and 'pays for sin' reverses syntactic elements to expose the logical inconsistency and double standards of the accusers by showing how both actions are fundamentally linked.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the syntactic structure of the two central actions described in the excerpt: 'she who sins for pay' and 'he who pays for sin.'
The phrases present a structural inversion of the verb ('sins'/'pays') and the prepositional object ('for pay'/'for sin').
Identifying this symmetrical reversal indicates the presence of chiasmus.
2
Evaluate the thematic function of this inversion within the context of the poem's critique of gender relations.
The structural symmetry equates the moral responsibility of both the buyer and the seller, demonstrating that the behavior of one cannot exist without the demand of the other.
This links the formal literary device directly to the author's thematic argument exposing the hypocrisy of double standards.
3
Compare the correct analysis against the distractors to eliminate incorrect devices or flawed thematic interpretations.
Antithesis, hyperbole, and apostrophe are ruled out because they either misidentify the primary structure or distort the poem's balanced message.
Ensures the selected option is the most precise and accurate reading of both the device and its function.

Key Concept

Identifying and analyzing the function of literary devices, specifically chiasmus, in a literary text.
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Topics

Literary Devices and Figurative Language

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