Genre
Essay
Setting and Context
18th and 19th Century London
Narrator and Point of View
Elia, a pseudonym Charles Lamb used to write subjective, conversational essays
Tone and Mood
Whimsical, comical, contemplative, elegiac
Protagonist and Antagonist
Elia is the protagonist. Antagonist N/A.
Major Conflict
N/A
Climax
N/A
Foreshadowing
The fact that the South-Sea House ran a hoax foreshadows that Lamb's entire account is a fabrication.
Understatement
Lamb describes the delicate scene in the old china teacup.
Allusions
Lamb makes several allusions to works of Shakespeare.
Imagery
The sooty-faced chimney sweepers flashing white teeth
Paradox
Nobility often doesn't behave in a noble way, and the poor actually have the most nobility.
Parallelism
N/A
Metonymy and Synecdoche
The chimney sweepers' dirty faces are a metonym of their lowly rank in society.
Personification
The day of the year are personified in and enjoy a festival together in "Rejoicings Upon the New Year's Coming of Age."
