What’s the literary term for that?
Eg: King Lear’s madness and the storms.
It came up when I was writting a letter, it’s on the tip of my tongue and I can’t think of it! I spent the last hour looking for, if I’d just skipped it, I’d be done by now.
It’s not allusion, and it’s not personification.
Please help.
Hmm…I can think of a couple of things you might mean. I’m not really clear which one you are getting at in your example (I’m a little vague on what you mean by “State of the King -->state of the country”), but I’m pretty sure that you are talking about a metaphor, analogy, or a simile. In all three of these constructions, similar attributes are transferred to a new object or concept.
No, I remember from my last year of english, there is a specific literary term used for the idea that the fitness of country is a reflection of the fitness of the monarch. This also shows up in the Arthurian stories. When the king goes bad, so does the nation. And there’s a name for it, I’m sure. And I’m still looking through the archives.
Argh!
Oh, and welcome to the SDMB
A microcosmic-macrocosmic relationship?
Here’s a link dealing with the issue in Celtic/Grail mythology (The Fisher King and/or the Maimed King), but I don’t remember a specific literary term for the relationship. Frazer talks about it a lot in the Golden Bough, if that’s any help.
Thanks NP
Great link, it’s nice to know the idea exists outside my own head.
Cosmic sympathy
heb sed
its down the page a bit
but i understand that if the king (pharaoh) was not succesful in this rite it forebode ill for upper and lower eqypt.
the celtic link is excellent
