Metonymy, or the Husband's Revenge

June 7, 2000

1.) Metonymy is the naming of an object associated with a thing in place of the name of the thing itself. The two examples from the story are of this figure of speech in its standard use. The author said that her hero had his chest unbuttoned and what she meant was his shirt was unbuttoned. The Latin professor said, "the sparkling cup is for the wine that is sparkling." The jealous husband shot the mailman, instead of the sergeant who's in love with his wife. 

2.) Irony is a difference between appearance and reality. The shopkeeper kills the mailman instead of the sergeant. The reader expects the shopkeeper to kill the sergeant, not the mailman. The ending of the story is ironic, because the sergeant is the man who's in love with the shopkeeper's wife. The mailman had nothing to do with it, and he got killed.

3.) Allusion is a rhetorical technique in which reference is made to a person, event, object, or work from history or literature. The literary allusion that Queiroz makes in this story are like Tristan and Isolde or Paolo and Francesca. These pairs of people were adulterous lovers. Tristan and Isolde are from literature, and Paolo and Francesca are from history.