Parallelism is the use of components in a sentence which might be grammatically the same; or similar of their construction, sound, meaning, or meter. Parallelism examples are located in literary works in addition to in everyday conversations.
This approach adds stability and rhythm to sentences, giving thoughts a smoother glide and for this reason persuasiveness, due to the repetition it employs. For example, “Alice bumped into the room, into the garden, and into our hearts.” We see the repetition of a phrase that no longer handiest offers the sentence a balance, but rhythm and float as well. This repetition can also occur in similarly based clauses, such as, “Whenever you want me, anyplace you need me, I might be there for you.”
Common Examples of Parallelism
Like father, like son.
Easy come, easy go.
Whether in class, at work, or at home, Shasta changed into always busy.
Flying is fast, comfortable, and safe.
Short Examples of Parallelism in Speech
They got together, conversed, and dispersed, but to no avail.
He came, he saw, and he conquered.
He desired to have a new residence to live in, and a new vehicle to drive.
The applicant changed into approached via telephone, email, and snail mail.
Their new instructor become neither a Catholic, nor an Anglican.
His favourite foods are chocolate, chips, and soft drinks.
The new airline claims to be rapid, green, and safe.
James liked rapid food, even as Mary liked conventional food.
The boss said, “You want to work difficult and be green to get a promotion.”
The political leader said, “The present authorities has ruined the economy; it has ruined the education device; and it has ruined the health system of our country.”
Shakespeare was a prolific playwright and an notable sonneteer.
The offender became desired lifeless or alive.
He favored fruits to sweets.
The book was interesting in addition to adventurous.
For success in life, one desires to pursue his aim with determination and perseverance.
Examples of Parallelism in Literature
In literature, parallelism is used in specific ways to electrify upon the readers sure messages or ethical lessons. Let us analyze a few examples of parallelism in literature:
Example #1: An Essay on Criticism (By Alexander Pope)
Antithesis is a sort of parallelism wherein two opposite thoughts are prepare in parallel structures. Alexander Pope, in his An Essay on Criticism, makes use of antithetic parallel structure:
“To err is human; to forgive divine.”
Imperfection is a human trait, and God is most forgiving. Through these antithetical but parallel systems, the poet wants to mention that God is forgiving due to the fact his creation is erring.
Example #2: Community (By John Donne)
“Good we must love, and have to hate sick,
For sick is unwell, and precise desirable still;
But there are things indifferent,
Which we may additionally neither hate, nor love,
But one, and then another prove,
As we shall locate our fancy bent.”
Contrasting ideas of “true” and “sick,” “love” and “hate,” are placed collectively in parallel structures to emphasise the reality that we love exact due to the fact it is always right, and we hate bad because it is constantly bad.
Example #3: A Tale of Two Cities (By Charles Dickens)
We see the repetition of parallel structures inside the following traces from A Tale of Two Cities with the aid of Charles Dickens:
“It became the exceptional of times, it turned into the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it turned into the age of foolishness, it became the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it turned into the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it turned into the iciness of despair.”
By repeating “It was…” in the passage, the readers are precipitated to consciousness on the developments of the “age” they will study about in the succeeding passages.
Example #4: The Tyger (By William Blake)
“What the hammer? What the chain?
In what furnace changed into thy brain?
What the anvil? What dread grasp
Dare its lethal terrors clasp?”
Blake uses parallel structures, beginning with “what” in each word, developing a stunning rhythm within the above lines.
Example #5: Henry VIII, Act 3, Scene 2 (By William Shakespeare)
Parallelism takes shape of “Diazeugma,” wherein a single situation is attached with multiple verbs. Read the subsequent traces from the speech of Norfolk in William Shakespeare’s Henry VIII, Act 3, Scene 2:
“My lord, we have
Stood right here watching him: Some peculiar commotion
Is in his brain: he bites his lip, and starts;
Stops on a sudden, appears upon the ground,
Then, lays his finger on his temple; straight,
Springs out into speedy gait; then, stops again,
Strikes his breast tough; and anon, he casts
His eye towards the moon: in maximum atypical postures
We have seen him set himself.”
The use of a couple of verbs in the above lines creates a dramatic effect within the speech of Norfolk, which makes his description vivid.
Example #6: I actually have a Dream speech (By Martin Luther King Jr.)
“I have a dream that sooner or later this state will upward push up and stay out the real which means of its creed: ‘We maintain these truths to be self-evident; that each one guys are created equal.’
“I have a dream that my 4 little youngsters will at some point live in a state where they'll now not be judged through the colour in their skin however through the content of their character.
“I even have a dream these days.”
This is a speech through Martin Luther King, Jr. wherein he repeats the phrase, “I have a dream” several times. This phrase later became the name of the speech. This is a great instance of parallelism.
Example #7: How do I Love Thee (By Elizabeth Barrett Browning)
“I love thee freely, as men try for right.
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.”
These verses from the poem of Elizabeth Barrett Browning have been made parallel by means of the repetition of “I love thee.”
Example #8: Presidential Inauguration Speech (By Barack Obama)
“My fellow citizens: I stand right here these days humbled by using the venture before us, thankful for the consider you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by way of our ancestors.”
In this speech, U.S. President Barack Obama uses structural parallelism in the formidable phrases, giving his speech beauty.
Function of Parallelism
The use of parallel structures in speech or writing permits speakers and writers to hold a consistency inside their work, and create a balanced go with the flow of ideas. Moreover, it could be hired as a device for persuasion.
Popular Literary Devices
- Ad Hominem
- Deus Ex Machina
- Double Entendre
- Flash Forward
- Half Rhyme
- Internal Rhyme
- Line Break
- Non Sequitur
- Pathetic Fallacy
- Poetic Justice
- Point of View
- Red Herring
- Tragic Flaw