Literary Technique -- Allusion
Written by Teresa Knudsen. Published on Suite 101 July 18, 2010.
Republished January 11, 2012 on Sweet Suite Writings

Literary Technique – Allusion

Allusion is one of the ways for writers and film makers to add resonance to their work. In only one deft movement, an audience can make a connection from the work to the person, place, thing, or idea being referenced. The literary technique of allusion helps an audience access the themes and intents in a piece of creative work.

Allusion in Literary Works

One of the most enduring allusions in literature is the connection to the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve, and the loss of Paradise. There is an overt allusion in John Milton's 1667 masterpiece Paradise Lost, which directly retells the story of Lucifer being thrown out of Heaven, and his subsequent tempting of Adam and Eve to lose the Garden of Eden by eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

Yet, Milton keeps his unique perspective by briefly recasting the fallen Lucifer as like a Greek tragic hero. Originally one of God's favorite angels, Lucifer fulfils the three main qualities of the tragic hero: nobility by being one of the highest angels; attempting the impossible and showing hubris by trying to take God's place; and enacting the tragic fall of being thrown from heaven to hell.

"...his Pride
Had cast him out from Heav'n, with all his Host
Of Rebel Angels, by whose aid aspiring
To set himself in Glory above his Peers,
He trusted to have equal'd the most High, "[ 40 ]

Milton's vision of Lucifer's fall influenced countless writers in more subtle allusions, notably beginning with the British Romantic poets. Lord Byron (1788 to 1824) based his life and work such as Don Juan (1819)on the notion of the Satanic hero. Byron's friend Percy Shelley (1792 to 1822) wrote Promethus Unbound, which examined the Greek hero who gave fire to mortals by stealing it from the gods.

The theme again resurfaced in the work of Shelley's wife, Mary (1797 to 1851). At the age of nineteen, she wrote Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus (1818), about the fall of Dr. Victor Frankenstein, who attempted God's work at creation, only to find himself and his family fall victim to a monster, itself a victim by being born without a soul, and rejected by its creator.

Allusion in Film

The medium of film allows for many opportunities for allusion, whether overt or subtle.

Fritz Lang's German Expressionist film Metropolis (1927) makes use of overt allusion in many scenes. An example is the depiction of the downtrodden workers in the underground steam plant. As the workers begin trudging to the slavery of their jobs, the film overlays a depiction of an Egyptian pyramid, with slaves being whipped to work. The reference is clear, that the workers in Metropolis are trudging in the same desolate and hopeless ground as the slaves in Egypt.

In the film The Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers, (2002), a more subtle allusion is created when Saruman shows Wormtongue the army of warriors, ready to fight for the Dark Lord Sauron. Saruman walks to a balcony overlooking a stadium-type enclosure, filled with warriors shouting a war chant to the beat of drums. The scene certainly can stand on its own, sharing with the viewer the idea that the warriors are mindlessly serving the Dark Lord and Saruman.

For viewers familiar with the rise of Adolph Hitler, the scene runs deeper. German movie maker Leni Reifenstahl (1902 to 2003) was asked by Hitler to create a series of films to promote his philosophy of superiority.

In one of her most famous works, Triumph of the Will (1935) Reifenstal filmed a large rally in a 1934 Nuremberg stadium, filled with Germans chanting their allegiance. When a viewer compares her images of the rally to the images of the rally at Isengard, the similarities indicate that film maker Peter Jackson is making an allusion, and comparing the warriors' mindless obedience to Saruman and Saron with Hitler's rise to power.

Denials of Allusion

The author of The Lord of the Rings, (1955) J.R.R. Tolkien denied that his writing alluded to the Nazis, despite his naming Sauron's Black Riders "Nazguls." Yet, many readers of his book, and viewers of Jackson's film do make a connection.
National Geographic's documentary Beyond the Movie: Lord of the Rings (2002) creates many parallels concerning Tolkien's experiences with English shire villages being threatened by the Industrial Revolution and war, which still resonate with his readers and viewers of the films.

References

Milton, John. Paradise Lost. 1667. Online at Dartmouth.
National Geographic Beyond the Movie: Lord of the Rings. (2002)