LITERARY DEVICES

Frances Hodgson Burnett uses

different tools and techniques to
engage her audience and to convey
meaning. This helps you visualise
characters, situations and the
setting more easily. Burnett uses
five devices in particular in The
Secret Garden.
 REPETITION
• Repeating of a word or words or a
sentence.
 REPETITION EXAMPLES
• “I shall get well! I shall get well!" he cried out.
"Mary! Dickon! I shall get well! And I shall live
forever and ever and ever!”
• “He can do it! He can do it! He can do it! He can!”
• “I shall live forever and ever and ever!" he cried
grandly. "I shall find out thousands and thousands
of things. I shall find out about people and
creatures and everything that grows—like Dickon—
and I shall never stop making Magic. I'm well! I'm
well! I feel—I feel as if I want to shout out
something—something thankful, joyful!”
 REPETITION EXAMPLES
• “Big closed house and big bare moor and big bare
gardens had made this one feel as if there was no
one left in the world but herself.”
• “I think the roses have climbed and climbed and
climbed until they hang from the branches and
walls and creep over the ground—almost like a
strange gray mist.”
• “You can!" shouted Mary. "Half that ails you is
hysterics and temper—just hysterics—hysterics—
hysterics!"
 WHY USE REPETITION?

Authors use repetition to:

• Make a point
• Link ideas
• Make things easier to follow
• Emphasise an idea
• To give the story a beat or rhyme
 ALLITERATION
• This is the repetition of the first
consonant sound in a series of
words. We see a lot of alliteration
with the character’s names too.
• A tongue twister is an extreme
example of alliteration.
 ALLITERATION

• Eg. Mrs Medlock, Mistress Mary.

• Also, Misselthwaite Manor.

• Let’s have a look at alliteration in a

sentence.
 ALLITERATION
• “And here is the handle, and here
is the door. Dickon push him in—
push him in quickly!“ And Dickon
did it with one strong, steady,
splendid push.”
• “Between the blossoming branches
of the canopy bits of blue sky
looked down like wonderful eyes.”
WHY USE ALLITERATION?
• It focuses the reader’s attention on
a particular section of text
• Often the sounds mimic what is
happening in the story: Form
imitating content
• It may make the words flow more
easily.
 METAPHOR
• This is when the author writes
about one thing in terms of
another
• A comparison
• A figure of speech where
something IS something else.
 METAPHOR EXAMPLES
• “Th' world's full o' jackasses
brayin' an' they never bray nowt
but lies.”

• “They're a pair of young Satans.”

• “Where, you tend a rose, my lad, a

thistle cannot grow.”
 WHY USE METAPHORS?
• It helps the reader visualise a
character or event more easily
• It makes writing more interesting
• They can be funny
• It makes the reader use their
imagination – we have to work!
• There may be no other way for the
writer to explain what they want to
say.
 SIMILES
• This is when the author writes
about one thing in terms of
another using the word ‘like’ or ‘as’
• A comparison
• A figure of speech where
something is LIKE something else.
 SIMILE EXAMPLES
• “Big closed house and big bare
moor and big bare gardens had
made this one feel as if there was
no one left in the world but
herself.”
• “The children seemed to tumble
about and amuse themselves like a
litter of rough, good-natured collie
puppies."
 SIMILE EXAMPLES
• “He's—he's like an angel!”
• “He was not strong enough to
throw it far and it only fell at her
feet, but Mary's face looked as
pinched as a nutcracker.”
• “There's not a lump as big as a
pin!”
 SIMILE EXAMPLES
• “I think the roses have climbed and
climbed and climbed until they hang from
the branches and walls and creep over the
ground—almost like a strange grey mist.”
• “You smell like flowers and—and fresh
things.”
• The garden had reached the time when
every day and every night it seemed as if
magicians were passing through it drawing
loveliness out of the earth and the boughs
with wands.”
 SIMILE EXAMPLES
• “He felt as if tight strings which had held
him had loosened themselves and let him
go.”
• “A lamb—a lamb! A living lamb who lay on
your lap like a baby!”
• “The things we've gone through to get him
to go out in his chair would leave a body
trembling like a leaf.”
• “Tha'rt as thin as a lath an' as white as a
wraith, but there's not a knob on thee.”
 WHY USE SIMILES?
• It helps the reader visualise a
character or event more easily
• It makes writing more interesting
• They can be funny
• It makes the reader use their
imagination – we have to work!
• There may be no other way for the
writer to explain what they want to
say.
 PERSONIFICATION
• This is when the author gives
human qualities to inanimate
objects
• Giving human characteristics to
something non-human
 PERSONIFICATION
EXAMPLE
• “She ran only to make herself warm,
and she hated the wind which rushed at
her face and roared and held her back
as if it were some giant she could not
see. But the big breaths of rough fresh
air blown over the heather filled her
lungs with something which was good
for her whole thin body and whipped
some red color into her cheeks and
brightened her dull eyes when she did
not know anything about it.”
 PERSONIFICATION
EXAMPLE
• “And the roses—the roses! Rising out of the
grass, tangled round the sundial, wreathing the
tree trunks and hanging from their branches,
climbing up the walls and spreading over them
with long garlands falling in cascades—they came
alive day by day, hour by hour. Fair fresh leaves,
and buds—and buds—tiny at first but swelling and
working Magic until they burst and uncurled into
cups of scent delicately spilling themselves over
their brims and filling the garden air.”
 PERSONIFICATION
EXAMPLE
• “Mary, when it's quite early and the birds are just
shouting outside and everything seems just
shouting for joy—even the trees and things we
can't really hear—I feel as if I must jump out of
bed and shout myself. If I did it, just think what
would happen!”
• “Magic is always pushing and drawing and making
things out of nothing.”
 WHY USE
PERSONIFICATION?
• It helps the reader understand
• To increase your attention
• Makes sentences more interesting
• ‘Boost’ emotion
• Make their writing come to life
• Might make it more relatable