Personification is a literary device whereby something non-human (such as an animal, object, or even abstract idea) is ascribed human qualities. It is used by authors to add drama or interest or to engage their audience.
Personification examplesFear stalked the village that night as they awaited the coming storm.
The trees and flowers rejoiced in the early spring sunshine.
Personification describes giving a non-human entity human-like qualities—be they actions, thoughts, feelings, or emotions. It is often used by authors in prose and poetry alike.
Personification helps to bring text to life and to make it more vivid, but it is also something we use in everyday speech and writing (e.g., the idea of a “lazy wind” that’s too lazy to go round you and seems to go right through you).
NotePersonification doesn’t have to live on its own [notice that example of personification?] but it can be used with other devices, such as metaphor (e.g., “The Louisiana heat was a weighted wet blanket that wrapped around you and made every action difficult) or simile (“I tried to slam the door on the fear that assailed me like a malign intruder, but its foot was stuck in the crack, and I felt its ice-cold hand reach in to grab my heart”).
Personification vs anthropomorphism
Sometimes the difference between personification and anthropomorphism can be confusing. They both involve giving human attributes to nonhuman things, but they are different in the way they are used.
Personification gives human qualities to nonhuman beings or objects. For example, “The dandelion heads skipped across the lawn, catching the rays of the setting sun,” treats the dandelion heads as if they were people skipping.
Anthropomorphism treats nonhuman creatures or objects as if they were human; for example, the wardrobe and candlestick in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast are portrayed as if they are human.
Put simply, personification is used metaphorically, or as a simile, to add depth or color to a description, and anthropomorphism treats nonhuman things as though they were human and is normally sustained throughout the work (e.g., Tom and Jerry in the eponymous cartoons).
Personification examples
In the memorable opening to Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, Marlowe, the narrator, describes the scene on the Thames as evening starts. The sky is personified to add to the menace and sense of real and metaphorical gloom so central to the work.
Personification in Heart of Darkness exampleOnly the gloom to the west, brooding over the upper reaches, became more sombre every minute, as if angered by the approach of the sun.
And at last, in its curved and imperceptible fall, the sun sank low, and from glowing white changed to a dull red without rays and without heat, as if about to go out suddenly, stricken to death by the touch of that gloom brooding over a crowd of men.
Donna Leon’s Inspector Brunetti is traveling back to his native Venice in Fatal Remedies as Leon uses personification to describe the quiet and stillness of the passing landscape.
Personification in Fatal Remedies exampleAs the sleeping fields on the outskirts of Venice swept past the window of the train, Brunetti wondered how it could seem so simple to Signor Iacovantuono and yet so complicated to him.
Personification isn’t confined to the world of fiction. In his memoir, Moab is My Washpot, Stephen Fry recalls advice given to him by what we would nowadays call a speech therapist. The therapist knew the power of an image in communicating an idea to the listener.
Personification in nonfiction example“I would like your tongue tosee the words ahead, each one a little flower on the wayside, that can only be picked up as you pass.”
“Fear stalked the village as night fell” is an example of personification. Fear is an emotion, so it cannot “stalk a village or anywhere else. This is also an example of how personification can bring a description to life.
Other examples of personification are:
The cold slapped me in the face.
As I passed through the kitchen, the ice cream called to me from the freezer.
Authors use personification to add depth or interest to their descriptions or narrative. Instead of writing “The villagers became afraid,” they might write “Fear stalked the village.”
By giving “fear” the attributes of a menacing hunter, the atmosphere in the village is more strikingly conveyed.
Personification can also be used for humor. In Three Men and a Boat, Jerome K. Jerome’s narrator describes his dog, Montmorency:
“To hang about a stable, and collect a gang of the most disreputable dogs to be found in the town, and lead them out to march round the slums to fight other disreputable dogs, is Montmorency’s idea of “life;” and so, as I before observed, he gave to the suggestion of inns, and pubs., and hotels his most emphatic approbation.”
If the description of Montmorency were sustained throughout the novel, then it could be regarded as anthropomorphism, where animals are portrayed as if they are human.
An example of personification in poetry can be found in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. The first dialogue between the soon-to-be lovers is in the form of a sonnet, shared between them. In it, we find this example of personification:
“If I profane with my unworthiest hand
This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this:
My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.”
Romeo calls his lips “two blushing pilgrims,” which helps him to coyly express his attraction to Juliet.
T. S. Eliot personifies evening in this passage from “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock:”
“And the afternoon, the evening, sleeps so peacefully!
Smoothed by long fingers,
Asleep … tired … or it malingers,
Stretched on the floor, here beside you and me.”
“The distant echo of faraway voices Boarding faraway trains …
The glazed dirty steps … partially naked …” —“Down in the Tube Station at Midnight” by The Jam.
Personification is present when “voices” board the trains and when “steps” are said to be “partially naked.”
In his song “Visions of Johanna,” Bob Dylan personifies night to add mystery to the scene he is setting:
“Ain’t it just like the night To play tricks when you’re trying to be so quiet?”
The Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil” can be seen as an extended metaphor where human evil is personified as the devil, responsible for “(stealing) many a man’s soul and faith.” Having detailed a list of historical events being claimed by the narrator, he eventually answers the “what’s my name?” refrain with the explanation “I tell you one time, you’re to blame.” —“Sympathy for the Devil,” by Mick Jagger/Keith Jones.
The personification helps to make this a thought-provoking and challenging song.
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Trevor has a BA (Hons) in English Literature and Language, an MSc in Applied Social Studies, and Qualified Teacher Status in the UK. He has worked as a probation officer, social worker, and teacher. Having taught English Literature and Language in two schools in Prague for 15 years, he is now freelancing as a photographer and writer.
