SAT II Literature : SAT Subject Test in Literature
Study concepts, example questions & explanations for SAT II Literature
All SAT II Literature Resources
Example Questions
Example Question #61 : Literary Terminology Describing Prose
Passage adapted from Dracula by Bram Stoker (1897)
I thought I must be dreaming, for the three women threw no shadow on the floor. They came close to me, and looked at me for some time, and then whispered together. I seemed somehow to know their faces, and to know it [sic] in connection with some dreamy fear. All three had brilliant white teeth that shone like pearls against the ruby of their voluptuous lips. There was something about them that made me uneasy, some longing and at the same time some deadly fear. I felt in my heart a wicked, burning desire that they should kiss me with those red lips. It is not good to note this down; lest some day it should meet my wife's eyes and cause her pain, but it is the truth [. . . ]. I lay in the bed with an agony of delightful anticipation. One advanced and bent over me till I could feel the movement of her breath. Sweet it was in one sense, honey-sweet, but with a bitter underlying the sweet, a bitter offensiveness, as one smells in blood. It was both thrilling and repulsive, and as she arched her neck she actually licked her lips like an animal.
The bolded and underlined section of the passage contains which of the following literary devices?
Allegory and hyperbole
Simile and metaphor
Antithesis and simile
Antithesis and hyperbole
Allegory and antithesis
Antithesis and simile
Antithesis is the use of two opposing words or phrases in quick succession. In this case, the narrator describes "the agony of delightful anticipation" - agony is negative and painful, while delight is positive and pleasant. Simile is the comparison of two things using a connecting word such as "as" or "like". In this passage, an example of simile is found in "she actually licked her lips like an animal."
Example Question #171 : Literary Terminology And Devices
Passage adapted from Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre (1847)
"Presentiments are strange things! and so are sympathies, and so are signs ; and the three combined make one mystery to which humanity has not yet found the key. I never laughed at presentiments in my life, because I have had strange ones of my own. Sympathies, I believe, exist (for instance, between far-distant, long-absent, wholly estranged relatives ; asserting, notwithstanding, their alienation, the unity of the source to which each traces his origin), whose workings baffle mortal comprehension. And signs, for aught we know, may be but the sympathies of nature with man."
The first sentence of this passage is an example of which literary device?
Assonance
Query
Polysyndeton
Metonymy
Simile
Polysyndeton
The answer is "polysyndeton." A polysyndeton is a stylistic device in which several clauses are stuck together by coordinating conjunctions such as 'and'. This succession is used in order to achieve an artistic or stylistic effect. Note the repetitive use of 'and' in the first sentence : :..."and so are sympathies, and so are signs ; and the three combined...".
Example Question #1 : Literary Terminology Describing Drama
And when, after a long while, this storm had passed, the maid was seen; and she cried aloud with the sharp cry of a bird in its bitterness,-even as when, within the empty nest, it sees the bed stripped of its nestlings. So she also, when she saw the corpse bare, lifted up a voice of wailing, and called down curses on the doers of that deed.
(Fifth century BCE)
The passage contains which literary device?
Juxtaposition
Simile
Alliteration
Hyperbole
Metaphor
Simile
Simile is the correct literary device. This type of simile is called a "submerged simile" oftentimes, because it does not contain the words "like" or "as" as you would normally expect to accompany a simile. The writer uses the submerged simile to compare "the maid" to a bird that discovers its nest to be empty.
(Adapted from the R. C. Jebb translation of Antigone by Sophocles 462-469, Fifth century BCE)
Example Question #2 : Literary Terminology Describing Drama
Yet I would have thee know that o'er-stubborn spirits are most often humbled; 'tis the stiffest iron, baked to hardness in the fire, that thou shalt oftenest see snapped and shivered; and I have known horses that show temper brought to order by a little curb.
(Fifth century BCE)
The passage employs which of the following literary devices?
Metaphor
Paradox
Assimilation
Simile
Hyperbole
Metaphor
This excerpt contains multiple metaphors: it compares a heart breaking to iron breaking and to wild horses being tamed.
(Adapted from the R. C. Jebb translation of Antigone by Sophocles 520-525, Fifth century BCE)
Example Question #3 : Literary Terminology Describing Drama
1 Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
2 That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
3 And then is heard no more; it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
4 Signifying nothing.
(1611)
What literary device is employed in the passage?
Alliteration
Metaphor
Paradox
Simile
Personification
Metaphor
The writer compares life to a shadow that struts. This is a metaphor because it compares life to a shadow but doesn't use 'like' or 'as' (like a simile would).
(Passage adapted from Shakespeare's Macbeth, V.iv.23-28)
Example Question #174 : Literary Terminology And Devices
MEPHISTOPHELES: Tut, Faustus,
Marriage is but a ceremonial toy;
And if thou lovest me, think no more of it.
I’ll cull thee out the fairest courtesans,
And bring them every morning to thy bed;(5)
She whom thine eye shall like, thy heart shall have,
Be she as chaste as was Penelope,
As wise as Saba, or as beautiful
As was bright Lucifer before his fall.
Here, take this book peruse it thoroughly: [Gives a book.] (10)
The iterating of these lines brings gold;
The framing of this circle on the ground
Brings whirlwinds, tempests, thunder and lightning;
Pronounce this thrice devoutly to thyself…
(1592)
What literary device can be found in lines 6-8?
Allusion
Colloquialism
Apostrophe
Consonance
Ellipsis
Allusion
In lines 6-8 we have a literary allusion or reference to Penelope, Saba, and Lucifer, all characters from other works of literature. Apostrophe is a direct address to the reader (e.g. Herman Melville’s “Call me Ishmael”). Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds (e.g. “a bitter debtor”). Colloquialism is the use of an informal, conversational, or regional bit of speech (e.g. “y’all” for “you all”). Ellipsis is the deliberate omission of one or more words for the purpose of concision.
Passage adapted from Christopher Marlowe’s The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus (1592)
Example Question #5 : Literary Terminology Describing Drama
MEPHISTOPHELES: Tut, Faustus,
Marriage is but a ceremonial toy;
And if thou lovest me, think no more of it.
I’ll cull thee out the fairest courtesans,
And bring them every morning to thy bed;(5)
She whom thine eye shall like, thy heart shall have,
Be she as chaste as was Penelope,
As wise as Saba, or as beautiful
As was bright Lucifer before his fall.
Here, take this book peruse it thoroughly: [Gives a book.] (10)
The iterating of these lines brings gold;
The framing of this circle on the ground
Brings whirlwinds, tempests, thunder and lightning;
Pronounce this thrice devoutly to thyself…
(1592)
What other literary device can be found in lines 6-8?
Epistles
Parallelism
Synecdoche
Hyperbole
Litotes
Parallelism
Here we have parallelism, the use of clauses with identical grammatical patterns, syntax, or meter (usually undertaken for emphasis or to achieve a pleasing sound). Synecdoche is a specific type of metonymy in which the real word for something is replaced by a word for a part of that thing (e.g. someone saying they need a “hand” when they really need the entire person’s help). Hyperbole is the use of extreme exaggeration (e.g. “this suitcase weighs a ton”). Litotes, on the other hand, is the deliberate use of understatement or double negatives. Epistles are letters, and epistolary is an adjective that describes the use of letters as a storytelling device in a larger narrative.
Passage adapted from Christopher Marlowe’s The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus (1592)
Example Question #6 : Literary Terminology Describing Drama
MEPHISTOPHELES: Tut, Faustus,
Marriage is but a ceremonial toy;
And if thou lovest me, think no more of it.
I’ll cull thee out the fairest courtesans,
And bring them every morning to thy bed;(5)
She whom thine eye shall like, thy heart shall have,
Be she as chaste as was Penelope,
As wise as Saba, or as beautiful
As was bright Lucifer before his fall.
Here, take this book peruse it thoroughly: [Gives a book.] (10)
The iterating of these lines brings gold;
The framing of this circle on the ground
Brings whirlwinds, tempests, thunder and lightning;
Pronounce this thrice devoutly to thyself…
(1592)
What literary device can be found in line 2?
Conceit
Allegory
Paradox
Metaphor
Simile
Metaphor
The answer choices here are largely similar. “Marriage is but a ceremonial toy” is a metaphor, a comparison that does not employ “like” or “as.” Don’t mistake this for a simile, a comparison using “like” or “as” (e.g. “the still pond is like a looking glass”). An allegory is an extended metaphor (e.g. a metaphor that takes up the entire passage), as is a conceit. Paradoxes are contradictory statements, something that seems impossible (e.g. Odysseus’ “I am no man” in The Odyssey).
Passage adapted from Christopher Marlowe’s The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus (1592)
Example Question #4 : Literary Terminology Describing Drama
MEPHISTOPHELES: Within the bowels of these elements,
Where we are tortured and remain forever.
Hell hath no limits, nor is circumscribed
In one self place, for where we are is hell,
And where hell is must we ever be. (5)
And, to conclude, when all the world dissolves,
And every creature shall be purified,
All places shall be hell that is not heaven.
(1604)
The beginning of lines 5-7 can be seen as an example of what literary device?
Oxymoron
Redundancy
Epanalepsis
Polysyndeton
Prolepsis
Polysyndeton
With the repetition of “and,” we can tell that this is polysyndeton, the excessive use of conjunctions. (It could also be considered anaphora, repetition of the beginnings of subsequent clauses). It is not epanalepsis (chiasmus), oxymoron (contradictory term), or redundancy. It is also not prolepsis (flash forward).
Passage adapted from Christopher Marlowe’s The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus (1604)
Example Question #181 : Literary Terminology And Devices
MEPHISTOPHELES: Within the bowels of these elements,
Where we are tortured and remain forever.
Hell hath no limits, nor is circumscribed
In one self place, for where we are is hell,
And where hell is must we ever be. (5)
And, to conclude, when all the world dissolves,
And every creature shall be purified,
All places shall be hell that is not heaven.
(1604)
Lines 4-5 contain an example of what literary device?
Chiasmus
Enjambment
Provocation
Imagery
Onomatopoeia
Chiasmus
In these lines we have an example of the relatively rare chiasmus: the use of a crisscross or reverse structure in a sentence or paragraph. Enjambment is a poetic technique in which the meaning and syntax of one line are carried over and finished in the next line (e.g. Robert Frost’s “And there's a barrel that I didn't fill / Beside it”). Imagery is language that calls upon vivid sensory descriptions (e.g. Gerard Manley Hopkins “a candycoloured… a gluegold-brown / Marbled river, boisterously beautiful”). Onomatopoeia is the use of a word that mimics the sound of the thing it is describing (e.g. “pop” or “buzz”).
Passage adapted from Christopher Marlowe’s The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus (1604)
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