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Personification is a technique when the author endows inanimate objects with human properties.
To create imagery and give expressiveness to speech, authors resort to literary techniques; personification in literature is no exception.
The main goal of the technique is to transfer human qualities and properties to an inanimate object or phenomenon of the surrounding reality.
Writers use these in their works. Personification is one of the types of metaphor, for example:
D The trees have woken up, the grass is whispering, fear has crept up.
Personification: the trees woke up as if alive
Thanks to the use of personifications in their presentations, the authors create an artistic image that is bright and unique.
This technique allows you to expand the possibilities of words when describing feelings and sensations. You can convey a picture of the world, express your attitude towards the depicted object.
The history of the appearance of personification
Where did personification come from in the Russian language? This was facilitated by animism (belief in the existence of spirits and souls).
Ancient people endowed inanimate objects with souls and living qualities. This is how they explained the world that surrounded them. Due to the fact that they believed in mystical creatures and gods, a pictorial device was formed, like personification.
All poets are interested in the question of how to correctly apply techniques in artistic presentation, including when writing poetry?
If you are an aspiring poet, you need to learn how to use personification correctly. It should not just be in the text, but play a certain role.
A relevant example is present in Andrei Bitov’s novel “Pushkin House”. In the introductory part of the literary work, the author describes the wind that circles over St. Petersburg, the entire city is described from the point of view of the wind. In the prologue, the main character is the wind.
Impersonation Example expressed in Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol’s story “The Nose”. What is most interesting is that the main character’s nose is not only described by methods of personification, but also by methods of personification (a part of the body is endowed with human qualities). The main character's nose became a symbol of his doubles.
Sometimes authors make mistakes when using impersonation. They confuse it with allegories (expressions in a specific image) or anthropomorphisms(transfer of human mental properties to natural phenomena).
If in a work you give human qualities to any animal, then such a technique will not act as personification.
It is impossible to use allegory without the help of personification, but this is another figurative device.
What part of speech is personification?
Personification must bring the noun into action, animate and create an impression on it so that the inanimate object can exist like a person.
But in this case, personification cannot be called a simple verb - it is a part of speech. It has more functions than a verb. It gives speech brightness and expressiveness.
Using techniques in fictional writing allows writers to say more.
Personification - literary trope
In literature you can find colorful and expressive phrases that are used to animate objects and phenomena. In other sources, another name for this literary technique is personalization, that is, when an object and phenomenon are embodied by anthropomorphisms, metaphors, or humanization.
Examples of personification in Russian Both personalization and epithets with allegories contribute to the embellishment of phenomena. This creates a more impressive reality.
Poetry is rich in harmony, flight of thoughts, dreaminess, etc.
If you add a technique such as personalization to a sentence, it will sound completely different.
Personalization as a technique in a literary work appeared due to the fact that the authors sought to endow folklore characters from ancient Greek myths with heroism and greatness.
How to distinguish personification from metaphor?
Before you start drawing parallels between concepts, you need to remember what personification and metaphor are?
Metaphor is a word or phrase that is used in a figurative sense. It is based on comparing some objects with others.
For example:
Bee from a wax cell
Flies for field tribute
The metaphor here is the word “cell,” that is, the author meant a beehive.
Personification is the animation of inanimate objects or phenomena; the author endows inanimate objects or phenomena with the properties of living ones.
For example:
Silent nature will be comforted
And playful joy will reflect
Joy cannot think, but the author endowed it with human properties, that is, he used such a literary device as personification.
Here the first conclusion suggests itself: metaphor - when the author compares a living object with a non-living one, and personification - non-living objects acquire the qualities of living ones.
What is the difference between metaphor and personification? Let's look at an example: diamond fountains are flying. Why is this a metaphor? The answer is simple, the author hid the comparison in this phrase. In this combination of words we can put a comparative conjunction ourselves, we get the following - fountains are like diamonds.
Sometimes a metaphor is called a hidden comparison, since it is based on a comparison, but the author does not formalize it with the help of a conjunction.
Using personification in conversation
All people use personification when speaking, but many people don't know about it. It is used so often that people have stopped noticing it. A striking example of personification in colloquial speech is finance singing romances (singing is common to people, and finance has been endowed with this property), so we got personification.
To use a similar technique in colloquial speech is to give it figurative expressiveness, brightness and interest. Anyone who wants to impress their interlocutor uses this.
Despite this popularity, personification is more often found in artistic presentations. Authors from all over the world cannot ignore this artistic technique.
Personification and fiction
If we take a poem by any writer (no matter Russian or foreign), then on any page, in any work, we will encounter a lot of literary devices, including personifications.
If the artistic presentation is a story about nature, then the author will describe natural phenomena using personification, example: the frost painted all the glass with patterns; Walking through the forest you can notice how the leaves whisper.
If the work is from love lyrics, then the authors use personification as an abstract concept, for example: you could hear love singing; their joy rang, melancholy ate him from the inside.
Political or social lyrics also include personifications: and the homeland is our mother; With the end of the war, the world breathed a sigh of relief.
Personification and anthropomorphisms
Personification is a simple figurative device. And it’s not difficult to define it. The main thing is to be able to distinguish it from other techniques, namely anthropomorphism, because they are similar.
The role of metaphors in the text
Metaphor is one of the most striking and powerful means of creating expressiveness and imagery in a text.
Through the metaphorical meaning of words and phrases, the author of the text not only enhances the visibility and clarity of what is depicted, but also conveys the uniqueness and individuality of objects or phenomena, while demonstrating the depth and character of his own associative-figurative thinking, vision of the world, the measure of talent (“The most important thing is to be skillful in metaphors. Only this cannot be learned from another - it is a sign of talent" (Aristotle).
Metaphors serve as an important means of expressing the author's assessments and emotions, the author's characteristics of objects and phenomena.
For example: I feel stuffy in this atmosphere! Kites! Owl's nest! Crocodiles!(A.P. Chekhov)
In addition to artistic and journalistic styles, metaphors are characteristic of colloquial and even scientific styles (“ the ozone hole», « electron cloud" and etc.).
Personification- this is a type of metaphor based on the transfer of signs of a living being to natural phenomena, objects and concepts.
Most often, personifications are used to describe nature.
For example:
Rolling through sleepy valleys,
The sleepy mists have settled down,
And only the clatter of horses,
Sounding, it gets lost in the distance.
The autumn day has gone out, turning pale,
Rolling up the fragrant leaves,
Taste dreamless sleep
Half-withered flowers.
(M. Yu. Lermontov)
Less often, personifications are associated with the objective world.
For example:
Isn't it true, never again
Will we not part? Enough?..
And the violin answered yes,
But the violin's heart was hurting.
The bow understood everything, he fell silent,
And in the violin the echo was still there...
And it was torment for them,
What people thought was music.
(I. F. Annensky);
There was something good-natured and at the same time cozy in the physiognomy of this house.(D. N. Mamin-Sibiryak)
Personifications- the paths are very old, their roots go back to pagan antiquity and therefore occupy such an important place in mythology and folklore. The Fox and the Wolf, the Hare and the Bear, the epic Serpent Gorynych and the Foul Idol - all these and other fantastic and zoological characters from fairy tales and epics are familiar to us from early childhood.
One of the literary genres closest to folklore, the fable, is based on personification.
Even today it is unthinkable to imagine works of art without personification; our everyday speech is unthinkable without them.
Figurative speech not only visually represents an idea. Its advantage is that it is shorter. Instead of describing an object in detail, we can compare it with an already known object.
It is impossible to imagine poetic speech without using this technique:
"The storm covers the sky with darkness
Whirling snow whirlwinds
Then, like a beast, she will howl,
She will cry like a child."(A.S. Pushkin)
The role of personifications in the text
Personifications serve to create bright, expressive and imaginative pictures of something, enhancing conveyed thoughts and feelings.
Personification as an expressive means is used not only in artistic style, but also in journalistic and scientific ones.
For example: X-rays show, the device says, the air heals, something is stirring in the economy.
The most common metaphors are formed according to the principle of personification, when an inanimate object receives the properties of an animate one, as if acquiring a face.
1. Typically, the two components of a personification metaphor are a subject and a predicate: " the blizzard was angry», « the golden cloud spent the night», « the waves are playing».
« Get angry", that is, only a person can experience irritation, but " snowstorm", a blizzard, plunging the world into cold and darkness, also brings " evil". « Spend the night"Only living beings are capable of sleeping peacefully at night, " cloud" represents a young woman who has found an unexpected shelter. Marine « waves"in the poet's imagination" play", like children.
We often find examples of metaphors of this type in the poetry of A.S. Pushkin:
Not suddenly delights will abandon us...
A mortal dream flies over him...
My days have flown by...
The spirit of life awakened in him...
The Fatherland caressed you...
Poetry awakens in me...
2. Many personification metaphors are built according to the method of control: “ lyre singing», « the talk of the waves», « fashion darling», « happiness darling" and etc.
A musical instrument is like the human voice, and it too " sings", and the splashing of the waves resembles a quiet conversation. " Favorite», « darling"happens not only to people, but also to wayward ones" fashion"or the fickle one" happiness».
For example: “winter threat”, “the voice of the abyss”, “the joy of sadness”, “the day of despondency”, “the son of laziness”, “threads ... of fun”, “brother by muse, by fate”, “victim of slander”, “cathedrals wax faces ”, “language of joy”, “burden of sorrow”, “hope of young days”, “pages of malice and vice”, “sacred voice”, “by the will of passions”.
But there are metaphors formed differently. The criterion of difference here is the principle of animateness and inanimateness. An inanimate object does NOT receive the properties of an animate object.
1). Subject and predicate: “desire is boiling,” “eyes are burning,” “heart is empty.”
Desire in a person can manifest itself to a strong degree, seethe and “ boil" The eyes, showing excitement, shine and “ are burning" A heart and soul that are not warmed by feeling can become “ empty».
For example: “I learned grief early, I was overcome by persecution”, “our youth will not suddenly fade”, “noon... was burning”, “the moon is floating”, “conversations flow”, “stories spread out”, “love... faded”, “I am calling the shadow ", "life has fallen."
2). Phrases constructed according to the method of control can also, being metaphors, NOT be personification: “ dagger of treason», « tomb of glory», « chain of clouds" and etc.
Steel arms - " dagger" - kills a person, but " treason“is like a dagger and can also destroy and break life. " Tomb“This is a crypt, a grave, but not only people can be buried, but also glory, worldly love. " Chain"consists of metal links, but " clouds", intricately intertwined, forming a kind of chain in the sky.
Russian poets dedicated many poems to the nature of different seasons. At the same time, everyone saw and captured spring, summer, autumn and winter in their own way.
Evgeny Abramovich Baratynsky 1800-1844
“Spring, spring! how clean the air is!..” In the poem, E. A. Baratynsky greets spring with a jubilant, enthusiastic hymn. The poet joyfully welcomes early spring, which with all its power and inherent brilliance comes to replace winter.
It also awakens in the poet an impulse towards the ideal, towards high feelings and a desire to merge in this single impulse with nature and dissolve in it.
In another poem (“Wonderful hail will sometimes merge...”) Baratynsky writes that sometimes flying clouds can create a mysterious “wonderful hail,” but, inspired by images of nature, it is instantaneous, fragile and unsteady. It collapses under the pressure of the wind, and this beautiful vision disappears without a trace. The poem creates a subtle comparison with a poetic dream, which is as momentary and fragile as natural vision. She is also a short-lived guest in the world of everyday bustle.
From two of Baratynsky’s poems one can already judge that the life of nature is compared with the life of man. Talking about the life of nature, the poet conveys his feelings, thoughts, desires and anxieties. All changes in nature resemble relationships between people.
Spring, spring! how clean the air is!
How clear is the sky!
Its azuria alive
He blinds my eyes.
Spring, spring! how high
On the wings of the breeze,
Caressing the sun's rays,
Clouds are flying!
The streams are noisy! the streams are shining!
Roaring, the river carries
On the triumphant ridge
The ice she raised!
The trees are still bare,
But in the grove there is a decaying leaf,
As before, under my foot
And noisy and fragrant.
Soared under the sun
And in the bright heights
The invisible lark sings
A cheerful hymn to spring.
What's wrong with her, what's wrong with my soul?
With a stream she is a stream,
And with a bird, a bird! murmuring with him,
Flying in the sky with her!..
The wonderful city will sometimes merge
From flying clouds;
But only the wind will touch him,
He will disappear without a trace.
So instant creatures
Poetic dream
Disappear from breath
Extraneous fuss.
Yakov Petrovich Polonsky 1819-1898
“There are two gloomy clouds over the mountains...” In the poem by Ya. P. Polonsky, the images of two clouds and a rock resemble children and a mother. The clouds wandered away from the mother during the day, and in the evening they leaned on the chest of the rock, but there was not enough space for both, and they quarreled. From their quarrel lightning was born and thunder struck. The clash of clouds, however, resonated painfully in the heart of the mother rock, because both clouds were equally dear to her. She moaned pitifully, and the child clouds heeded this moan. They did not want to offend the mother rock and, discouraged, surprised by their action and feeling sorry for the rock, they lay down peacefully at her feet, humbly admitting that they were wrong. Thus, observation of the pre-storm landscape gives rise to a lyrical plot in which the human relationships between parents and children are easily recognizable.
But the mountains have two gloomy clouds
On a sultry evening we wandered
And on the chest of a flammable rock
They slowly slid down towards night.
But they agreed - they didn’t give in
That rock for free to each other
And the desert was announced
A bright lightning strike.
Thunder struck - through the wet wilds
Echo laughed sharply,
And the rock is so long
She said a plaintive moan,
I sighed so much that I didn’t dare
Repeat the impact of the clouds
And at the feet of a flammable rock
They lay down and were stupefied...
“Look - what a darkness...” In this poem, a lyrical plot is also born about the “pale moon”, which “walks alone in the sky”, not knowing shelter and illuminating everything around with a mysterious “phosphorus ray”. In this image it is easy to guess the poet, homeless and sad in his loneliness, but penetrating everywhere with his poetic imagination.
Look how dark it is
She lay down in the depths of the valleys!
Under her transparent haze
In the sleepy twilight the broom
The lake shines dimly.
Pale moon invisible
In a close host of gray clouds,
Walks in the sky without shelter
And, through, it points to everything
Phosphoric ray.
Alexey Konstantinovich Tolstoy 1817-1875
“Where the vines bend over the pool...” Polonsky’s contemporary poet A.K. Tolstoy creates entire ballads with the help of images of nature. The cheerful dragonflies in the poem call the boy up, promising to teach him to fly. They promise to sing him many songs, show him the sloping shore and sandy bottom. They tell the boy how beautiful it is around, invite him to look at the pool from above, taking off with them. However, this can destroy the child.
Where the vines bend over the pool,
Where the summer sun burns,
Dragonflies fly and dance,
Merry lead a round dance:
"Child, come closer to us,
We will teach you to fly,
Child, come, come,
Until the mother woke up!
The blades of grass are trembling beneath us,
We feel so good and warm
We have turquoise backs,
And the wings are definitely glass!
We know so many songs
We love you so much for a long time!
Look how sloping the bank is,
What a sandy bottom!..”
Questions and tasks
- You have read poems about the native nature of poets of the 19th century and the reflections of a literary critic about them. Which of these poems would you like to express your opinion about? Which one do you want to learn by heart because it conveys your perception of this or that natural phenomenon and the mood associated with it?
- In the poem by E. A. Baratynsky “Spring, spring! how clean the air..." the poet talks in detail about the signs of the coming spring ("the air is clean", "the sky is clear", "the streams are rustling", "the lark is singing"). The poet welcomes spring, which awakens his own strength and cheers his soul. The poet is reborn along with nature.
What literary device helps to make the picture alive, and all visible objects humanized, spiritualized?
- Baratynsky’s poem “A wonderful city will sometimes merge...” talks about the vision and creation of a city from flying clouds. How do you understand this? Why does the vision of the city disappear from the clouds? Why can a poet's dreams disappear?
- Find personifications and explain their role in Polonsky’s poem “There are two gloomy clouds on the mountains...”. What images arise when reading the poem?
- A. K. Tolstoy’s poem “Where the vines bend over the pool...” - maybe a beautiful landscape picture, maybe a scary fairy tale... What is it about? To whom and how do dragonflies tell about the beauty of summer nature? Can they be trusted?
- Prepare a poetry evening and an exhibition of reproductions of Russian landscape artists “Native Nature”. At the evening you will talk about poets and read their poems. Select audio recordings of musical works that will accompany the readings.
