Personification in Prose by Nannette Croce
Personification is a device we most often associate with poetry. It means assigning human characteristics to nonhumans or inanimate objects, as in the classic, and probably overused example of Joyce Kilmer's Trees.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the sweet earth's flowing breast
A tree that looks at God all day
And lifts its leafy arms to pray
Here, Kilmer poetically describes the tree and the earth as having the physical attributes of a person––mouth, breast, eyes (looks), and arms.
Those of you who follow my zine writer blog zinewriter.blogspot.com/ know that I have been revisiting the classics through audiobooks on my iPod. Listening recently to Thomas Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge had me thinking of ways to employ personification in my own prose. (BTW, there are some things I do love about Google Books). In this scene, Michael Henchard (the Mayor) has suspicions that Lucetta, the woman he is courting as his second wife, has fallen in love with someone else.
"Her windows gleamed as if they did not want him; her curtains seemed to hang slily, as if they screened an ousting presence."
Those lines blew me away, not just for the use of personification, but for the unusual way it is used. In this case, the personification doesn't enhance the description of the object. I can't imagine what a "sly" curtain might look like. What the personification does here is give us insights into the viewer's suspicious state of mind and his personality (sensitive to the smallest slight).
More often, but just as effectively, personification attributes a physical action to an inanimate object, like this line from John Steinbeck's story "Flight."
"The farm buildings huddled like the clinging aphids on the mountain skirts, crouched low to the ground as though the wind might blow them into the sea."
In the real world, windows do gleam and curtains do hang, but buildings don't "huddle" and "crouch." The use of personification here does more than describe the buildings themselves. With just a few words, Steinbeck broadens his description to include the location––the seacoast at the foot of a mountain––and the weather––so windy it could blow the buildings into the sea. Without personification, that description might have taken an entire paragraph.
Personification also serves to make descriptions––well––more poetic. No surprise Will Shakespeare employed it.
"Come gentle night, come, loving, black-brow'd night." [Romeo and Juliet]
That language, where the character addresses the object or time of day, is probably a little over-the-top for modern fiction, even very literary fiction, but poetic personification can still work well. For example, "The black brow of night enveloped the orchard."
When we think about adding depth to our writing, we usually focus on sensual details and descriptive settings. Things like weather can also add mood. Personification is another way to round out descriptions or tell more about the characters.
Nannette Croce is Prose Editor for Rose & Thorn Journal.
I had a critique "partner" once ream me for personification . . . then I wasn't confident in myself and I changed the story - now I know better.
What a great post!
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I really like employing personification, even if some people argue strongly that it's old fashioned and such. Nice post!
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Great piece.
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I used to think that way about "old fashioned" writing also, but sometimes I feel all these modern restrictions have driven us into a deep rut.
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