Antonomasia. Personification
A rhetorical term for the substitution of a title, epithet, or descriptive phrase for a proper name (or of a personal name for a common name) to designate a member of a group or class.
From the Greek, "instead of" plus "name"
Examples and Observations:
Calling a lover Casanova, an office worker Dilbert, Elvis Presley the King, Bill Clinton the Comeback Kid, or Horace Rumpole's wife She Who Must Be Obeyed
"When I eventually met Mr. Right I had no idea that his first name was Always."
"I told you we could count on Mr. Old-Time Rock and Roll!"
"I'm a myth. I'm Beowulf. I'm Grendel."
Antonomasia. This trope is of the same nature as metonymy, although it can not be said to exhibit the idea more vividly. It consists in putting in place of a proper name, another notion which may be either in apposition to it or predicated of it. Its principal use is to avoid the repetition of the same name, and the too frequent use of the pronoun. The most frequent forms of it are, naming a person from his parentage or country; as, Achilles is called Pelides; Napoleon Bonaparte, the Corsican: or naming him from some of his deeds; as, instead of Scipio, the destroyer of Carthage; instead of Wellington, the hero of Waterloo. In making use of this trope such designations should be selected as are well known, or can be easily understood from the connection, and free from ambiguity--that is, are not equally applicable to other well-known persons."
Personification
Personification is a figure of speech in which a thing, an idea or an animal is given human attributes. The non-human objects are portrayed in such a way that we feel they have the ability to act like human beings. For example, when we say, “The sky weeps” we are giving the sky the ability to cry, which is a human quality. Thus, we can say that the sky has been personified in the given sentence.
Common Examples of Personification
Look at my car. She is a beauty, isn’t it so?
The wind whispered through dry grass.
The flowers danced in the gentle breeze.
Time and tide waits for none.
The fire swallowed the entire forest.
We see from the above examples of personification that this literary device helps us relate actions of inanimate objects to our own emotions.
Function of Personification
Personification is not merely a decorative device but it serves the purpose of giving deeper meanings to literary texts. It adds vividness to expressions as we always look at the world from a human perspective. Writers and poets rely on personification to bring inanimate things to life, so that their nature and actions are understood in a better way. Because it is easier for us to relate to something that is human or that possesses human traits. Its use encourages us to develop a perspective that is new as well as creative.
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