Stream of Consciousness in the novel ‘ To The Lighthouse’ Paper The Modernist Literature Topic Stream of Consciousness in the novel ‘To The Lighthouse’ Name Avani N. Dave Roll No. 2 Class M.A. Sem. 3 Submitted to Dr. Dilip Barad Department of English MK.Bhavnagar University Introduction Virginia woolf, one of the prominent representative Of Modernist novelist in England, has contributed significantly to the development of modern novel in both theory and practice. She abandoned traditional fictional devices and formulated her own distinctive techniques. The novels of woolf tend to be less concerned with outward reality than with the inner life. Her masterpiece, to the Lighthouse, serves as an excellent sample in analyzing woolf’s literary theory and her experimental techniques. Origin of the Word The phrase “Stream of Consciousness” was coined by William James 1 to describe the flow of thoughts of the waking mind. Subsequently his phrase began to be used in a literary context to describe the narrative method by which certain novelists have described the unspoken thoughts and feelings of their characters, without resorting to objectives description or conventional dialogue. James Joyce was a pioneer in using this technique in his novels of which the best known are Ulysses and The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. And this technique was also used by Virginia Woolf. The related phrase “interior monologue” is used to describe the inner movement of Consciousness in a character’s mind. A famous example of the interior monologue is the opening pages of Mrs. Dalloway. The use of devices of the stream of Consciousness and the interior monologue marks a revolution in the form of the novel because through these devices the author can represent the flux of a character’s thoughts, impressions, and emotions and reminiscences, often without any logical Sequence. Virginia Woolf and To The Lighthouse When we mention Virginia Woolf’s ‘To The Lighthouse’, it’s very natural to talk about her stream of consciousness technique. In this novel, the structure of external objective events is demised in scope and scale, or almost e completely dissolved. It is composed of the continual activity of characters’ consciousness and shower of impressions. External events occupy little space in the novel the writer as an omniscient narrator has almost completely vanished and almost everything stated appears by the way of reflection in the consciousness of the dramatic characters and the novel does not progress on “what – happens – next” basis, but rather moves forward through a series of scenes arranged according to a sequence of selected moments of consciousness and the techniques to

1. Discourse Analysis And
Grammar
Lecture No. 07

2. Discourse Analysis And Grammar
OUTLINE :
Introduction
References
Conjunction
Theme and Rheme
Substitution and Ellipsis
Tense and Aspect

3. INTRODUCTION
Discourse analysis and grammar study familiar terms like :
clause , pronoun, adverbial and conjunction
and attempt to relate them to a less familiar set of terms :
theme,
rheme ,
reference and anaphoric
in order to make link between grammar and discourse

4. GRAMMATICAL COHESION AND
TEXTUALITY
Spoken and written discourses display grammatical
connections between individual clauses and utterances.
These grammatical links can be classified under three broad types :
Reference or co- reference
Ellipsis/ substitution
Conjunction

5. REFERENCES
The term reference is traditionally used in semantics to define the relationship
between a word and
what it points to in the real world, but in Halliday and Hasan’s (1976) model it
simply refers to the relationship between two linguistic expressions .
Reference as an act by which a speaker (or writer) uses language to enable a
listener (or reader) to identify something.
Reference is cohesion created when "an item in one sentence refers to an item in
another sentence" (Johnstone 118)

6. RR
REFERENCESENCE
SEFERENCES
(SITUATIONAL)
EXOPHORIC
• (TEXTUAL)
ENDOPHORIC
To Preceding
TEXT CATAPHORA
TO FOLLOWING
Text ENDOPHORIC

7. EXOPHORIC REFERENCES(Looking outward-
outside the text).
The referent is not in the immediate context but is
assumed by the speaker/writer to be part of a shared
world, in terms of knowledge and experience.
Examples of exophora can be words like I, mine, you,
and we, which point to things (the speakers or the
speakers' possessions) in the environment in which a
text occurs

8. ENDHOPORIC REFERENCES
References to elements in the text
are called Endophoric references.
Endophoric referencing can be
divided into two areas:
1. Anaphoric
2. Cataphoric

9. ANAPHORIC (backward references)
• Refers to any reference that “points backwards” to previously mentioned information in
text.
Usually items such
: as he/she or them ,it, this , can be decoded without major difficulty.
e.g. Tom likes ice cream but Bill can’t eat it.
The teacher asked Ahmad to read so he read.
CATAPHORIC (forward references)
• Refers to any reference that “points forward” to information that will be presented later
in the text.
e.g.
When I met her, Mary looked ill.
Here is the news. The Prime Minister

10. CONJUNCTION
Conjunction
acts as a cohesive tie between clauses or sections of text in such a way as to
demonstrate a meaningful pattern between them.
Conjunctions are not a way of simply joining sentences.
Their role in the text is wider than that,
because they provide the listener/reader with information for the interpretation of
the utterance;
that is why some linguists prefer to describe them as discourse markers

11. Elaboration
• means one clause that expands another by elaborating on it (or some portion of it)
by restating in other words, specifying in grater detail, commenting, or exemplifying
(Halliday, 1985: 196) • i.e., in other words, that is, for example, by the way, anyway, or
rather, and in short.
Extension
• means one clause expands another by extending beyond it by adding some new
element, giving an exception to it, or offering an alternative (Halliday, 1985: 197) • i.e.,
and, moreover, nor, but, however, instead, alternatively, and or.
Enhancement
• means one clause expands another by embellishing around it by qualifying it with
some circumstantial feature of time, place, cause or condition (Halliday, 1985: 197). •
i.e., finally, secondly, next, meanwhile, likewise, therefore, nevertheless, and in that
respect.

12. Sub Types of Conjunction
Additive
acts to structurally coordinate or link by adding to the presupposed item divided into
positive and negative • i.e., and, also, moreover, in addition, nor, etc
Causal
Some cause expressions are general, others relate more specifically to result, reason
or purpose. • i.e., in consequence, on account of this, for that purpose, etc.
Adversative
It is conjunction which relates two clauses that state contras each other. It acts also to
indicate contrary to expectation • i.e., but, yet, on the other hand, however, etc.
Temporal
i.e., then, next, afterwards, just then, before that, in the end, at once, soon, next time,
next day, meanwhile, at this moment, etc

13. THEME AND RHEME
M. A. K. Halliday (1985a:39), Theme functions as the ‘starting
point for the message’ the element which the clause is going to
be ‘about’ and rheme is the rest of the message, which provides
the additional information added to the starting point.
Gerot and Wignell (1994:103) Theme as the element(s) which
come(s) first in the clause,
and the rest of the clause is called rheme.
Thornbury (2005: 38) What the sentence is about (its topic) and
what the writer or speaker wants to tell you about the topic
(the comment)

14. THEME/ TOPIC
Our dog, Rufus
His back paw
but he
When he
He but his paw
It
He
and (he)
RHEME/ COMMENT
limped into the room.
was red with infection
forgot all about it.
he was distracted by the snarling cat
began to chase her
prevented him.
was throbbing painfully.
Whimpered
turned to Sammy for comfort and
attention

15. .
THEME TYPES
TEXTUAL
IDEATIONAL INTERPERSONAL
UNMARKED Theme
= Subject
MARKED Them
= Subject

16. IDEATIONAL THEME
The Ideational or Topical Theme is usually
but not always the first nominal group in the clause.
Topical Themes may also be nominal group complexes,
adverbial groups, and prepositional phrases or embedded
clauses.
Topical themes serves as participant, circumstance, process.

17. EXAMPLE
Unmarked Topical Theme:
John went up the hill. (Nominal Group as Theme).
John and Jill went up the hill. (Nominal Group Complex as Theme) .
(What John and Jill did) was go up the hill. (Embedded clause) Marked
Topical Theme:
Someday, you will understand that. (Adverbial as Theme)
At Hotel, Marry and John will stay. (Prepositional Phrase as Theme)
Jasmine, I love the smell of. (Complement as Theme)

18. TEXTUAL THEME
The Textual themes serve primarily to relate one clause (complex) with a
preceding one and are typically realized by conjunction and
continuatives.
Example :
Continuatives as Theme (well, right, OK, now, anyway, of course, etc)
e.g.:
Well, anyway, we arrived on time.
Connective as Theme (moreover, furthermore, on the other hand, etc)
e.g.:
Moreover, Mr. Johnson, the problem itself is simply too complex to solve
now

19. INTERPERSONAL THEME
Interpersonal theme functioning to code the speaker’s or
writer’s personal judgment on meaning.
They may be Modal Adjuncts, Vocatives, Finite or WH-elements.
Example :
Perhaps, we can wait until next week. (Modal Adjunct as
Theme)
Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today. (vocative as theme)
What tremendously easy questions you ask! (WH- elements as
theme

20. SUBSTITUTION AND ELLIPSIS
Are used when
“a speaker or writer wishes to avoid
the repetition of a lexical item
and draw on one of the grammatical
resources of the language
or replace the item.”

21. SUBSTITUTION
Is the replacement of a word or phrase with a “filler” word ( such as one, so, or do ) to
avoid repetition.
Substitution
Nominal Verbal Clausal
( do / so ) ( so / not ( one / ones )

22. NOMINAL SUBSTITUTION
When a noun phrase iselided or substitute.
By using “ One and Ones”
E.g.
1. This car is mine, but that one is yours.
2. Let’s go and see the birds.
Ones are on the tree.

23. VERBAL SUBSTITUTION
When a verb phrase is elided or substitute.
By using “Do” E.g. Did Marry take that letter?
She might have done.
Do / Do not and auxiliaries.
She can drive the car, but I cannot.
She wrote the homework, but I did no

24. CLAUSAL SUBSTITUTION
When the entire clause or a large part of it is elided or substitute.
By using “So or Not”
E.g.
Do you need a lift?
If so, wait for me;
If not I’ll see you there.

25. ELLIPSIS
. Ellipsis (zero substitution) is the omissionof elements normally required by the
grammar which the speaker/writer assumes are obvious from the context and
therefore need not be raised.
Ellipsis is distinguished by the structure having some missing elements.
Ellipsis
Nominal Verbal Clausal

26. NOMINAL ELLIPSIS • Means the omission of a noun head in a nominal
group
E.g.
Nelly liked the green tiles:
I preferred the blue.
VERBAL ELLIPSIS
• Define as a verbal group whose structure does not fully express its systematic
features.
E.g. What have you been doing? Swimming

27. CLAUSAL ELLIPSIS
Represents the omission of a part of the clause of elements or all of it.
E.g.
If you could be back here at five thirty, I’d like you to be back here at five thirty.
If you could, I’d like you to be back here at five thirty.

28. TENSE AND ASPECT
Tense: related to time when activity
or state occur.
Aspect: in a language comments upon
some characteristic of the activity or state

29. PAST PRESENT FUTURE
PROGRESSIVE PERFECT
ASPECT
TENSE

30. THANK YOU For
Your Attention

31. DISCOURSE
Lecture No. 09
14

32. More Fact than Fiction
14

33. A Novel Perspective
14

34. Reading and Writing
14

35. What time is it?
14

36. Capital D Discourse
“Discourse with a big “D” is always more
than just language.
Discourses are ways of being in the
world, or forms of life
which integrate words, acts, values,
beliefs, attitudes, social identities,
as well as gestures, glances, body
position, and clothes.”
(Gee 19)
14

37. “In the end a Discourse is a `dance’
that exists in the abstract
as a coordinated pattern of words, deeds,
values, beliefs, symbols, tools, objects, times,
and places in the here and now
as a performance that is recognizable as just
such a coordination.”
(Gee 19)
14

38. DIAGOLICANDINTERTEXTUALITY
“[A novel] is made in the head, and has to be
remade in the head by whoever reads it, who
will always remake it differently.”
(Byatt 214)
14

39. THEGREATCHAINOFBEING
God (of monotheism)
gods (of polytheism)
Human
Animal
Plant
Manmade Objects
Simple Objects (Natural)
14

40. THENATUREOF THINGS:
ATTRIBUTESANDBEHAVIORS
God is omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent and immortal…
god is an archetype (messenger, ruler…)
Humans think, laugh, have language…
Animals breathe, move, play, attack, eat, die…
Plants are alive, face the sun…
Concrete Objects are tangible
Abstract Objects are intangible
14

41. In this hierarchy,
each level
encorporates all of
the features and
behaviors of all of
the levels below it.
14

42. MOVINGUPANDDOWNTHEGREATCHAINOF
BEING
God = Deification
god = deification (small d)
Human = Personification or
Anthropomorphism
Animal = Disney Animation or
Religious Animism
Plant = Vivication
Concrete Objects = Reification
Abstract Objects
14

43. INDETERMINACYOF
THEGREATCHAINOFBEING
Depending on your belief system, you will structure the
Great Chain of Being differently in terms of the following:
God
Society
Computers
Money
14

44. SCRIPTS
In all Western countries, the restaurant script
is very much the same. It involves the
following:
Seating, Menu, Waiter, Meal, Payment,
Tipping, Departure
14

45. SUSPENSIONOFDISBELIEF
Addie Bundren, the main character in William Faulkner’s
As I Lay Dying is dead during most of the novel.
She nevertheless dominates the plot and the characters, as she
had made Anse promise to bury her in her birthplace, Jefferson,
Mississippi.
So when she dies, they have to carry her coffin sixty miles over
swollen rivers and submerged bridges.
The journey includes an unwanted pregnancy, the drowning of
mules, and Addie’s slowly decaying corpse.
14

46. Chapter 40 of As I Lay Dying is entitled “Addie,” and contains a
monologue telling about Addie’s bitter life and joyless marriage.
It tells about “Addie’s alienation, her feelilng of having been a stranger
to her family all her life, and her wish to punish her husband Anse for
being an unintelligent, devious, inflated self-centered, loveless man”
It ends, “Anse. Why Anse. Why are you Anse.”
(Faulkner 165; Mey 245-246)
14

47. But some critics are not able to suspend disbelief:
“Addie’s confessional, crucial as it is to an understanding of the
book, is quite unwarranted from the point of view of
verisimilitude, since, when she starts to speak, Addie has been
dead for five days.”
(Bleikasten 54)
14

48. !TENDENCY
Probably the most important aspect of any discourse is its
“tendency.” Discourse tendency relates to the purpose of a
discourse.
Is the discourse designed to teach, to impress, to entertain, or
what. Any aspect of the discourse which supports this tendency is
good, and anything which distracts from the tendency (or purpose)
of the discourse is bad.
14

49. !!SOCIAL DISCOURSE
This is what happened at a meeting of a tenure and promotion
committee some time ago.
The committee was trying to decide whether several articles
written by an engineer on the subject of prestressed concrete
were original contributions or “borrowed” from existing
information. It was late in the day, and the group needed some
entertainment.
14

50. !!!HOT-POTATO DISCOURSE
One committee member commented, “Well, at least he’s steady.” From across
the table came, “Definitely one of the hard sciences,” followed by comments
from other committee members: “Yes, very solid,” “A weighty topic?” and “Lots of
concrete data.”
This discourse was generated by the entire group, and showed in-group bonding.
But there were also witty judgments communicated in the flippant comments.
But most importantly, they demonstrated that a discourse can be generated by a
group as well as by an individual.
(Nilsen & Nilsen 294)
14

51. POINT OF VIEW:
THE NOVEL: THE AD: THE TEXT BOOK:
ETHOS PATHOS LOGOS
TOUGH SWEET STUFFY
1ST PERSON 2ND PERSON 3RD PERSON
SUBJECTIVE SUBJECTIVE OBJECTIVE
INFORMAL INTIMATEFORMAL
14

52. 14

53. It is the language of intimacy, the language of no pretentions. The
words are simple and the grammar is simple.
The writing is not planned, but just happens, in a stream of
consciousness kind of way—you are there.
The sentences are short and choppy. If there is conjunction it is
coordination, not subordination.
It is the language of the loosened tie and the rolled up shirt
sleeves, with no pretentious multi-syllable or low-frequency
words.
14

54. Being egocentric, it is subjective, and whether it is written
from the author participant or the author omniscient
point of view, it is concerned with communicating
people’s innermost feelings.
Tough language is the language of fiction, and therefore
the process of “in medias res” is totally appropriate to
this style—”In the late summer of that year we lived in a
house in a village that looked across the river and the
plain to the mountain.
14

55. SWEET LANGUAGE
Sweet language is the language of advertisers. Walker Gibson calls this language
AROMA (Advertising Rhetoric of Madison Avenue).
Sweet language is listener-oriented in an attempt to seduce listeners into buying
products they don’t want or need.
14

56. It is language full of innovative spellings, creative grammar, and
wild punctuation.
Sweet writing contains many sentence fragments, and would rather
flaunt a grammatical rule than conform to it: “Winston tastes good
like a cigarette should. What do you want, good grammar, or good
taste?”
14

57. Sweet language is the language of sensationalism, the language of
superlatives and hyperbole.
It is the language of diversion; it plays tricks on the reader with its
puns, its word coinages, its humor, its packaging, its sex, and other
aspects which have nothing to do with the product itself.
It is informal, or sometimes even intimate or cutesy in tone.
Contractions, clippings, blendings, and deletions abound, making it
all the more cryptic and intimate.
14

58. STUFFY LANGUAGE
Where tough language is I-oriented, and sweet language is you-oriented, stuffy
language is it-oriented.
It is the language of laboratory experiments , of research papers and theses and
dissertations and scholarly books, and academia in general.
14

59. Stuffy language is highly grammatical and highly formal.
The syntax contains a great deal of subordination, and the
sentences are frequently long and complex.
Infinitives, gerunds, present and past participial
constructions, nominative absolutes, perfect,
progressive, and passive constructions are almost totally
confined to this style of writing.
14

60. It is an impersonal style to the extent that first-person
pronouns are seldom allowed. For this and other
reasons, passive constructions and impersonal
constructions with abstract subjects are common.
Stuffy language is also the language of limitations,
restrictions and qualifications because the writer doesn’t
want to make claims beyond the evidence.
Limiting (as opposed to descriptive) adjectives are
frequent, as are prepositional phrases and relative
clauses.
14

61. !THEBIRMINGHAMRIOTS:
REPORTEDINTHREEDIFFERENTSTYLES
STUFFY:
“The police and firemen drove hundreds of
rioting Negroes off the streets today with high
pressure hoses and an armored car.”
(New York Times May 8, 1963)
14

62. MORE INTERESTING:
“Three times during the day, waves of
shouting, rock-throwing Negroes had
poured into the downtown business
district, to be scattered and driven back
by battering streams of water from
high-pressure hoses and swinging clubs
of policement and highway patrolmen.”
(New York Herald Tribune)
14

63. POETIC:
“The blaze of bombs, the flash of
blades, the eerie glow of fire, the
keening cries of hatred, the wild
dance of terror at night—all this
was Birmingham, Alabama.”
(Time, May 7, 1963)
14

64. Parallelism in
Discourse
Course Code: ENG-6102-b
Lecture No. 10

65. Parallelism
Parallelism Definition
What is parallelism? Here’s a quick and simple
definition:

66. Parallelism is a figure of speech in which two or more elements of
a sentence (or series of sentences) have the same grammatical
structure.
These "parallel" elements can be used to intensify the rhythm of
language, or to draw a comparison, emphasize, or elaborate on an
idea.
The following well-known adage is an example of parallelism:
"Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish,
and you feed him for a lifetime." The grammatical structures of the
first and second sentences parallel each other.

67. Some Additional Key Details About
Parallelism:
Parallelism can be as simple as choosing grammatically similar
elements when writing a list, as in "First do X, second do Y, third do Z."
In some cases, parallelism involves the exact repetition of words, but
all that is required to fit the definition of parallelism is the repetition of
grammatical elements.
Parallelism is a prominent feature of Hebrew and Middle Eastern
poetry, and it appears frequently in both the Old and New Testaments
of the Bible

68. Parallelism in Grammar
vs
in Rhetoric and in Literature
The term "parallelism" is used to describe both a
figure of speech and a principle in grammar,
although its use in each context is slightly different.

69. Parallelism in Grammar
In grammar, parallelism is the principle that using similar grammatical
elements in certain contexts—when making a list, for example—leads
to sentences that flow in a more natural way. In the following sets of
sentences, the first version is parallel while the second is not. Note
how the examples without parallelism are awkward and a little
confusing.
In this first set of sentences, the first sentence contains a list of three
parallel nouns, while the second combines two nouns with a verb.

70. Examples
PARALLELISM:
Their son loved playing chess,
video games, and soccer.
In the second set of sentences,
the first contains parallel
adjectives.
Parallelism (adjectives): The Bach
Sonata was beautiful, moving,
and inspiring.
NO PARALLELISM:
Their son loved chess, video
games, and to play soccer.
while the second combines two
adjectives with a verb.
No parallelism: The Bach Sonata
was beautiful, moving, and it
inspired.

71. Parallelism in Rhetoric and Literature
In contrast to the strictly grammatical view of parallelism, in
rhetoric and literature parallelism can do much more than just
create a pleasing and grammatical sentence structure.
Writers use parallel grammatical elements within one sentence
or, more broadly, between and among different sentences in a
paragraph, for effect:
to emphasize ideas or themes, suggest connections, or highlight
contrasts, all while adding rhythm to the structure of their
expression

72. Parallelism and Related Figures of Speech
While parallelism is itself a figure of speech, it can also be
seen as a kind of "umbrella" category of a number of
different figures of speech.
Put another way: there are a number of figures of speech
that make use of parallelism in specific ways.
It's useful to know what these other terms mean, since
technically speaking they are specific types of parallelism.

73. Parallelism and Antithesis
One literary device that often makes use of parallelism is antithesis. In antitheses, two
elements of a sentence are placed in contrast to one another.
This opposition is clearest when a writer puts the ideas in parallel positions.
Neil Armstrong used antithesis with parallelism when he first stepped onto the surface of
the moon in 1969,
using the parallel structure of the two halves of his sentence to highlight the contrast
between his "small step" and the "giant leap" that this step represented in the history of
humanity.
That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind

74. Parallelism and Anaphora
Another specific type of parallelism is anaphora. This figure of speech
involves the repetition of at least one word at the beginning of successive
clauses or phrases. In one of Winston Churchill's most famous speeches
during World War II, he makes stirring use of anaphora:
....We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with
growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever
the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we
shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never
surrender...
Note that there are also other uses of parallelism in this excerpt of
Churchill's speech that do not fall into the category of anaphora. The
different locations that Churchill names ("on the beaches...on the landing
grounds...in the fields and in the streets...in the hills") create parallelism
through their grammatical similarity.

75. Parallelism and Asyndeton
In asyndeton, a conjunction (such as "and") is omitted between parts of a sentence
to create a certain rhythm. Often, this is made possible by parallelism, which helps
the reader to interpret the sentence's meaning even when it is not (technically)
grammatically correct. In Julius Caesar's famous boast to the Senate after his victory
at the Battle of Zela, he makes use of asyndeton because he omits the word "and"
before the final clause.
Veni, vidi, vici: I came, I saw, I conquered.
Technically this omission of "and" makes the sentence an example of "comma
splicing," which is a grammatical no-no, but the parallelism allows the meaning to
come through and creates a pleasing rhythm.

76. Parallelism and Epistrophe
Epistrophe is the opposite of anaphora. Instead of repeated word(s) at the
beginning of successive phrases, epistrophe involves repeating words at the
end of successive phrases. Abraham Lincoln employed epistrophe when he
declared in his Gettysburg Address that the Union was fighting to defend a
government "of the people, by the people, for the people." Again, this is an
example of parallelism as well as epistrophe, since epistrophe is just a
specific type of parallelism.

77. Parallelism Examples
Parallelism Examples in Literature
Parallelism occurs frequently in poetry and prose, from ancient Hebrew
poetry to contemporary fiction.

78. Parallelism in Psalms of the Old Testament
Parallelism is found throughout both the Old and New Testaments of the Christian
Bible. In this pair of verses from Psalm 24, there are two examples of what biblical
scholars call synonymous parallelism, meaning that the idea of the first clause is
repeated and rephrased with a parallel grammatical structure in the second clause to
emphasize or amplify the point.
The earth is the LORD's and everything in it,
the world, and all who live in it;
for he founded it upon the seas
and established it upon the waters.

79. Parallelism in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar
In Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Mark Antony is given the opportunity to speak at the funeral of his recently
assassinated friend, Caesar. He uses this chance to incite a riot in the hopes of winning back control of the Senate
from the conspirators who assassinated Caesar in the first place.
Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.
The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones...
The first use of parallelism in Antony's speech comes in the list of nouns with which he calls the crowd to
attention, naming their reasons to be loyal listeners as friends and patriotic citizens. Antony then uses parallelism
again (with antithesis) to state his intended purpose by contrasting the verbs "to bury" and "to praise." The third
instance of parallelism is also an example of antithesis.

80. Parallelism in Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell
to Arms
In this passage from A Farewell to Arms, Hemingway uses repetition and parallelism to create a rhythm that
gives his simple style a precise and powerful effect. This repetition continues the matter-of-fact tone in which the
narrator is describing the events of the war. This particular parallelism could also be called an example of
epistrophe because its repetition occurs at the end of successive clauses.
Up the river the mountains had not been taken; none of the mountains
beyond the river had been taken. That was all left for next year.

81. Parallelism in Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow's "Paul Revere's Ride"
In this famous poem, Longfellow chronicles the ride of Paul Revere on his way to warn colonists of the
attacking British soldiers. The first two instances of parallelism are simple repetitions of grammatical
elements—first the repetition of a verb phrase, and then a series of adjectives. The third instance is also an
example of antithesis (as well as anaphora, with the repetition of "now"). This third parallelism also sets the
scene with the striking imagery of the horse's hooves.
He has left the village and mounted the steep
And beneath him, tranquil and broad and deep,
Is the Mystic, meeting the ocean tides;
And under the alders, that skirt its edge,
Now soft on the sand, now loud on the ledge
Is heard the tramp of his steed as he rides.

82. Parallelism in Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake
In this short excerpt from Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake, there are several examples of parallelism used to
create rhythm within a sentence while elaborating on an idea. Here you can see how even without using the
more elaborate versions of parallelism (anaphora, antithesis, asyndeton, etc.), the simple choice to use
elements that are grammatically parallel within a sentence helps these sentences to flow effectively.
Without a single grandparent or parent or uncle or aunt at her side, the baby's birth, like most everything else
in America, feels somehow haphazard, only half true. As she strokes and suckles and studies her son, she can't
help but pity him. She has never known of a person entering the world so alone, so deprived.

83. Parallelism Examples in Rhetoric
Parallelism can add pleasing rhythm to speech
that makes it seem more eloquent, can help to
highlight or emphasize ideas, and through its
use of repetition can make a speech more
persuasive. No wonder politicians and other
speech-makers use it all the time.

84. Parallelism in President John F. Kennedy's
Inaugural Address
In his first speech to the American public as President, JFK explicitly
sent a message to the nations of the world that the United States
would undergo any difficulty to defend liberty around the world. In
just this one sentence, he uses parallelism in a few places, two of
which could also be classified as antitheses.
Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall
pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend,
oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.

85. Parallelism in President George W. Bush's
Address to the Nation on Terrorism
(September 20th, 2001).
In this speech, delivered just over a week after the attacks of
September 11th, President Bush declared a "war on terror." There are
three instances of parallelism in just these two sentences, with the
first also being an example of anaphora, since it involves a repetition of
words at the beginning of a phrase. The second and third uses of
parallelism are lists whose parallel structures create rhythm and
establishes a link between the many different responses to the
terrorist attack.
We have seen the state of our Union in the endurance of rescuers,
working past exhaustion. We've seen the unfurling of flags, the lighting
of candles, the giving of blood, the saying of prayers—in English,
Hebrew, and Arabic.

86. Parallelism Examples in Song
Parallelism is a common feature of
many song traditions.
Song writers use parallelism to create rhythm
and link ideas together.

87. Parallelism in "The House of the Rising Sun"
In this traditional folk song from the American South, made famous by The
Animals, parallelism paints a picture of the singer's background, while
contrasting his mother's honest profession (tailor) with his father's
dishonest one (gamblin' man):
My mother was a tailor
She sewed my new blue jeans
My father was a gamblin' man
Down in New Orleans.

88. Parallelism in "Days Like This" by Van
Morrison
In this song, Van Morrison uses several forms of parallelism, including both
anaphora and epistrophe —which, when used together, create symploce.
This example makes the rhythmic potential of parallelism clear, and shows
its usefulness in song-writing.
When it's not always raining there'll be days like this
When there's no one complaining there'll be days like this
When everything falls into place like the flick of a switch
Well mama told me there'll be days like this.

89. Why Do Writers Use Parallelism?
Parallelism is an important tool at any writer's disposal, and can be used for a variety of
purposes:
To emphasize the relationship between two or more sentences in a paragraph, or two or more
ideas within a single sentence.
To compare or contrast two different things or ideas.
To create a stronger sense of rhythm in a text.
To drive home a point through repetition.
To elaborate on an idea.
Notice how even the bulleted listed above is an example of parallelism. It's easy to read in
part because the grammatical structure of each line is identical, beginning with an
infinitive ("to" + verb). Parallelism is everywhere because it's one of the rules of grammar that
makes ideas (both simple and complex) easier to understand.