The Cheshire cat, a well-known example of prosopopoeia
The notion of prosopopeia comes from the Greek word prosōpopoiḯa . The term is used in the field of rhetoric to refer to a literary figure that allows attributes of human beings to be attributed to animals or plants .
Personification
The concept is also used to provide abstract or inanimate elements with the characteristics of an animated being . The resource, even known as personification , is very common in the field of cinema and literature .
Many Walt Disney creatures demonstrate prosopopoeia. Take the case of Mickey and Minnie mice: these rodents walk on two legs, talk and wear clothes. These peculiarities can also be seen in other characters such as Donald Duck , Goofy and many more.
Prosopopeia is one of the pillars of "Animal Farm" , a novel written by the Englishman George Orwell . In this story released in 1945 , the animals on a farm rebel against the people and even establish their own system of government, which ends up becoming a dictatorship . Through talking pigs, horses, donkeys, sheep and other animals, Orwell turned to prosopopoeia to construct an allegory and criticize Soviet totalitarianism .
As for objects that come to life through prosopopoeia, it is possible to find them in several fairy tales in which there are spells or magical practices of this type. In "Beauty and the Beast" , for example, a candelabra, a clock , a teapot, a cup and a duster appear that reason, move by themselves, talk, etc.
Applied to objects
In addition to granting qualities typical of human beings to animals and plants, prosopopoeia allows us to do the same with objects, both concrete and abstract or incorporeal . A clear example is often given when death is personified. This literary figure is precisely fictional, since its result does not reflect reality as we see it materially, but rather presents a story created in the mind of the writer.
Unlike what happens when prosopopoeia is applied to an animal in a work of fiction, to make it walk on two legs, speak and wear clothes, its use in objects or abstract things opens the doors to mystery, since this can be reveal about the ending, for example. While it is true that it is also possible to hide the reasons why an animal behaves like a person, or even make it lead a "double life", depending on whether it is alone or accompanied, it would not be very useful to make it speak only in the last chapter , while it could be shocking to say that one of the main characters was death itself.
Death is abstract, but can be personified through prosopopoeia.
Subjectivity in prosopopoeia
Depending on the point of view we adopt, we can say that prosopopoeia is reduced to a resource of personification or that it allows the author to show us the world as he sees it. We cannot deny that a camera or a mirror cannot take images such as an animal acting as a person or poetry represented in the form of a human being ; However, if this comes "naturally" to the writer, then his use of prosopopoeia is more of a necessity than a stylistic whim.
This shows us that even a literary figure that falls within the group of fiction can have a relatively realistic meaning for the person who uses it, if it serves to capture their perception of the world. Perhaps this does not apply to the simplest examples, which are generally linked to children's works, where prosopopoeia is abused for convenience, for knowing that it will be effective in the audience.