Allusion
Definition
noun
an expression designed to call something to mind without mentioning it explicitly; an indirect or passing reference.
Examples
Martin Luther King Jr's Allusion to Gettysburg
Martin Luther King, Jr., alluded to the Gettysburg Address in starting his "I Have a Dream" speech by saying 'Five score years ago..."; his hearers were immediately reminded of Abraham Lincoln's "Four score and seven years ago", which opened the Gettysburg Address. King's allusion effectively called up parallels in two historic moments.
Season 5 Ep. 4 o Family Guy is entitled "Saving Private Brian. This is an allusion to the movie "Saving Private Ryan"
In Act 1 of Romeo & Juliet, Romeo makes an allusion to Greek mythology by saying, " she hath Dian's wit." In this line he is making a reference to Dian, the Greek Goddess of Chastity.
In the poem below, Frost's title is a reference to Shakespeare's Macbeth. It alludes to Macbeth's speech after the death of his wife, where he comments on the frailty and pointlessness of life.
Out, Out
by Robert Frost
The buzz saw snarled and rattled in the yard
And made dust and dropped stove-length sticks of wood,
Sweet-scented stuff when the breeze drew across it.
And from there those that lifted eyes could count
Five mountain ranges one behind the other
Under the sunset far into Vermont.
And the saw snarled and rattled, snarled and rattled,
As it ran light, or had to bear a load.
And nothing happened: day was all but done.
Call it a day, I wish they might have said
To please the boy by giving him the half hour
That a boy counts so much when saved from work.
His sister stood beside him in her apron
To tell them ‘Supper.’ At the word, the saw,
As if to prove saws knew what supper meant,
Leaped out at the boy’s hand, or seemed to leap—
He must have given the hand. However it was,
Neither refused the meeting. But the hand!
The boy’s first outcry was a rueful laugh,
As he swung toward them holding up the hand
Half in appeal, but half as if to keep
The life from spilling. Then the boy saw all—
Since he was old enough to know, big boy
Doing a man’s work, though a child at heart—
He saw all spoiled. ‘Don’t let him cut my hand off—
The doctor, when he comes. Don’t let him, sister!’
So. But the hand was gone already.
The doctor put him in the dark of ether.
He lay and puffed his lips out with his breath.
And then—the watcher at his pulse took fright.
No one believed. They listened at his heart.
Little—less—nothing!—and that ended it.
No more to build on there. And they, since they
Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs.
Frost's title is a reference to Shakespeare's Macbeth. It alludes to Macbeth's speech after the death of his wife, where he comments on the frailty and pointlessness of life. The full text is:
Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
Allusions in Art
"Graveyard Guernica" by Ron English is an allusion to Pablo Picasso's "Guernica"
Links
"Graveyard Guernica" by Ron English
"Guernica" by Pablo Picasso
W.H. Auden's Allusion to The Fall of Icarus
Auden's poem makes several allusions to Brueghel's famous painting, "The Fall of Icarus."
Musee des Beaux Arts
W. H. Auden
About suffering they were never wrong,
The old Masters: how well they understood
Its human position: how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along;
How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting
For the miraculous birth, there always must be
Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating
On a pond at the edge of the wood:
They never forgot
That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course
Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot
Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer's horse
Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.
In Breughel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may
Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,
But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone
As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green
Water, and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen
Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,
Had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.
Pieter Brueghel, The Fall of Icarus
Oil-tempera, 29 inches x 44 inches. Museum of Fine Arts, Brussels.
See also:
Allusions to Shakespeare
Gnomeo & Juliet makes many subtle references to William Shakespeare. For example, a newspaper ad shows a house for sale in "Stratford"...this is an allusion to Shakespeare's place of birth.
Gnomeo & Juliet also makes many allusions to the works of William Shakespeare.
The scene below, for example, is an allusion to Hamlet's famous speech that begins, "To be, or not to be. That is the question."
"Verona Drive" is an allusion to the Setting of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, which takes place in Verona, Italy.
Allusion to Dead Poets Society (and several other Robin Williams movies)
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia's Allusion to E.T.
If you've seen E.T., you'll recognize this clip as an allusion to a very famous scene.
If you haven't seen E.T., here's the original scene: