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Difficulty: HardLiterary Devices and Figurative Language

Read the excerpt from a dramatic dialogue below:

"Contain your fury, my brother! Shall forty years of patient communal toil be surrendered to the hasty judgement of a single crown?"

In the passage above, what literary device is used in the phrase "a single crown", and what is its contextual function?

  1. Metonymy; it uses an object closely associated with royalty to represent the monarch's supreme ruling authority.Answer
  2. B
    Synecdoche; it uses a physical anatomical part of the monarch to represent the entire population of the kingdom.
  3. C
    Personification; it endows an inanimate item of regalia with the human capacity for delivering hasty judicial rulings.
  4. D
    Literal description; it refers strictly to the golden ceremonial headpiece worn during council meetings.

Answer

Metonymy; it uses an object closely associated with royalty to represent the monarch's supreme ruling authority.
The term 'crown' stands in for the monarch who wears it. Because a crown is an associated emblem of royal power rather than an integral physical part of the human body, this figure of speech is metonymy.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the target phrase in context
The phrase 'a single crown' refers to the king or sovereign ruler who holds sole authority to make hasty decisions affecting forty years of toil.
Understanding textual context is essential before identifying figurative language.
2
Distinguish between closely related tropes (Metonymy vs Synecdoche)
A 'crown' is an emblem/symbol associated with monarchy, not a physical constituent part of a person's body.
Metonymy substitutes an entity with a linked attribute or symbol, whereas synecdoche requires a part-to-whole or whole-to-part relation.
3
Evaluate the contextual function of the device
Using 'crown' emphasizes the central authority and power concentrated in one ruler's ruling post.
Literary analysis requires linking the technical identification of a device to its stylistic and contextual meaning.

Key Concept

Metonymy in Prescribed Literature
Estimated Time:1m 30s
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Topics

Literary Devices and Figurative Language

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