Parallel Lives Literary Elements

Parallel Lives Literary Elements

Genre

Historical biographic book

Setting and Context

The book is written in the context of a biographical study.

Narrator and Point of View

Third-person narrative and point of view

Tone and Mood

Informative, satirical, enlightening, moving

Protagonist and Antagonist

The protagonists are Romulus and Theseus.

Major Conflict

The major conflict comes when Plutarch deviates from the main points of discussion and focuses on less known characters in the contemporary audiences leaving readers confused.

Climax

The climax comes when Romulus and Theseus fall from their powers due to involvement in corruption.

Foreshadowing

Lack of moral standings from the onset foreshadowed the downfall of great leaders Like Romulus and others in ancient history.

Understatement

Political leadership is understated in the text because leaders have prioritized self-interest at the expense of the poor citizens.

Allusions

The story alludes to the biographical history of ancient Greek figures.

Imagery

An example of the imagery in the text is the description of Theseus' ship, which depicts sight imagery to readers. The decayed parts that were regularly removed from the ship also depict smell imagery.

Paradox

The main paradox is that the leaders who are described as great are all corrupt with incident character. For instance, Romulus and Theseus are all accused of corruption and rape, among other negative vices.

Parallelism

There is parallelism in the lives of the unfortunate Antony and Cleopatra.

Metonymy and Synecdoche

N/A

Personification

Domestic violence and corruption are incarnated as having the human abilities to bring down kingdoms.

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