Alliosis
Alliosis (al'-e-o'-sis) is the use of alternatives or choices in a balanced and parallel structure. Such a structure may result in a false dichotomy but it can create a cleverly balanced and artistic sentence. “Better it were a brother died at once, / Than that a sister, by redeeming him, / Should die forever.” Measure for Measure, 2.4.95. Similar to antithesis, which presents contrasting or opposite ideas but not as alternatives.
Notes on Alliosis
Sexual Extortion
Read the NoteIn Measure for Measure (2.4.95), Angelo, the classic sexual harasser, adopts a method of sexual extortion similar to King Edward’s in Henry VI Part 3 (3.2.36). Both men begin with oblique insinuations about their desires, which can be innocently misread. When the women, Isabella in Measure for Measure and Lady Grey in Henry VI,
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Quotes including the Figure of Speech Alliosis
Before we proceed any further, hear me speak
Read the QuoteFirst Citizen
Before we proceed any further, hear me speak.
All
Speak, speak!
First Citizen
You are all resolved rather to die than to famish?
I speak this in hunger for
bread, not in thirst for revenge
All
Resolved, resolved!
First Citizen
First,
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In delivering my son from me, I bury a second husband
Read the QuoteCountess
In delivering my son from me, I bury a second husband.
Bertram
And I in going, madam, weep o’er my father’s
death anew; but I must attend his Majesty’s
command, to whom I am now in ward, evermore
in subjection.
Moderate lamentation is the right of the dead,
excessive grief the enemy to the living
Lafew
You shall find of the King a husband,
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In sooth I know not why I am so sad
Read the QuoteAntonio
In sooth I know not why I am so sad.
It wearies me, you say it wearies you.
But how I caught it, found it, or came by it,Epistrophe
What stuff ’tis made of, whereof it is born,
I am to learn.
And such a want-wit sadness makes of meHyperbaton
That I have much ado to know myself.
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Be thou blessed, Bertram
Read the QuoteCountess
Be thou blessed, Bertram, and succeed thy father
In manners as in shape. Thy blood and virtue
Contend for empire in thee, and thy goodness
Share with thy birthright.
Love all, trust a few,
Do wrong to none
Love all, trust a few,
Do wrong to noneIsocolon.
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You look not well, Signior Antonio
Read the QuoteGratiano
You look not well, Signior Antonio.
You have too much respect upon the world.
They lose it that do buy it with much care.
Believe me, you are marvelously changed.
Antonio
I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano,
A stage where every man must play a part,
And mine a sad one.
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Little Helen, farewell
Read the QuoteParolles
Little Helen, farewell. If I can remember
thee, I will think of thee at court.
Helen
Monsieur Parolles, you were born under a
charitable star.
Parolles
Under Mars, I.Hyperbaton & Ellipsis
Helen
I especially think under Mars.
Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie,
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By my troth, Nerissa, my little body is aweary of this great world
Read the QuotePortia
By my troth, Nerissa, my little body is aweary
of this great world.
Nerissa
You would be, sweet madam, if your miseries
were in the same abundance as your good fortunes
are. And yet, for aught I see, they are as sick that
surfeit with too much as they that starve with
nothing.
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If the Duke, with the other dukes, come not to composition with the King of Hungary
Read the QuoteLucio
If the Duke, with the other dukes, come not to
composition with the King of Hungary, why then all
the dukes fall upon the King.
First Gentleman
Heaven grant us its peace, but not
the King of Hungary’s!Paronomasia
Grace is grace, despite of all
controversy; as,
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Why, how now, Claudio? Whence comes this restraint?
Read the QuoteLucio
Why, how now, Claudio? Whence comes this restraint?
Claudio
From too much liberty, my Lucio, liberty.Diacope
As surfeit is the father of much fast,Simile & Alliteration
So every scope by the immoderate use
Turns to restraint.Irony Our natures do pursue,
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Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world
Read the QuoteWhy, man, he doth bestride the narrow world
Like a Colossus, and we petty men
Walk under his huge legs, and peep about
To find ourselves dishonorable graves.Adynaton & Simile
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.
Men at some time are masters of their fates;
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