Paradox
Paradox is a statement that seems to contradict itself but is nevertheless true.
Notes on Paradox
Quotes including the Figure of Speech Paradox
I learn in this letter that Don Pedro of Aragon comes this night to Messina
Read the QuoteLeonato, with a letter
I learn in this letter that Don
Pedro of Aragon comes this night to Messina.
Messenger
He is very near by this. He was not three
leagues off when I left him.
He hath borne himself beyond the promise of his age,
doing in the figure of a lamb the feats of a lion.
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Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother’s death
Read the QuoteThough yet of Hamlet our dear brother’s death
MetaphorThe memory be green, and that it us befitted
To bear our hearts in grief, and Personificationour whole kingdom
To be contracted in one brow of woe,
PersonificationYet so far hath discretion fought with nature
That we with wisest sorrow think on him
Together with remembrance of ourselves.
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O that this too too solid flesh would melt
Read the QuoteO, that this too too sullied flesh would melt,
Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew!Epizeuxis & Metaphor
Or that the Everlasting had not fix’d
His canon ‘gainst self-slaughter!Metonymy O God, God,
How Synonymiaweary, stale, flat, and unprofitable
Seem to me all the uses of this world!
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She-wolf of France, but worse than wolves of France
Read the QuoteShe-wolf of France, but worse than wolves of France,
Whose Synecdochetongue more poisons than the adder’s tooth:Metaphor, Diacope & Parenthesis
How ill-beseeming is it in thy sex
To triumph like an Amazonian trull
Upon their woes whom Fortune captivates.Simile
O, tiger’s heart wrapped in a woman’s hide,
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My only love sprung from my only hate!
Read the QuoteMy only love sprung from my only hate!Paradox
Too early seen unknown, and known too late!Epanalepsis
Prodigious birth of love it is to me
That I must love a loathèd enemy.Irony
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My bounty is as boundless as the sea
Read the QuoteMy bounty is as boundless as the sea,Simili
My love as deep;Ellipsis the more I give to thee,
The more I have,Anaphora, Paradox for both are infinite.
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Words, words, words
Read the QuoteHamlet
Words, words, words.Epizeuxis
Polonius
What is the matter, my lord?
Hamlet
Between who?
Polonius
I mean the matter Antanaclesisthat you read, my lord.
Though this be madness, yet there is
method in ‘t.
Hamlet
Slanders,
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The gray-eyed morn smiles on the frowning night
Read the QuoteThe gray-eyed morn smiles on the frowning night,Personification
Check’ring the eastern clouds with streaks of light,
And fleckled darkness like a drunkard reelsSimile
From forth day’s path and Titan’s fiery wheels.Allusion
The earth that’s nature’s mother is her tomb;
What is her burying grave,
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Repent you, fair one, of the sin you carry?
Read the QuoteDuke, as Friar, to Juliet
Repent you, fair one, of the sin you carry?
Juliet
I do; and bear the shame most patiently.
I do repent me as it is an evil,
And take the shame with joy.
Duke, as Friar
I’ll teach you how you shall arraign your conscience,
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So then you hope of pardon from Lord Angelo?
Read the QuoteDuke, as Friar
So then you hope of pardon from Lord Angelo?
Claudio
The miserable have no other medicine
But only hope.
I have hope to live and am prepared to die.Antithesis
To sue to live, I find I seek to die,
And seeking death,
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