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Allegory
Definition of Allusion
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to other literary works, famous individuals, historical events, or philosophical ideas... read full definition
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to other literary works, famous individuals... read full definition
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to... read full definition
Volume 1, Chapter 1
Explanation and Analysis—Hostile Races:
In the first chapter of Ivanhoe, the narrator employs allusion to outline the historical context of Saxon-Norman hostility in early 12th-century Britain, setting the stage for many of the novel's ensuing conflicts:
A circumstance which greatly tended to enhance the tyranny of the nobility, and the sufferings of the inferior classes, arose from the consequences of the conquest by Duke William of Normandy. Four generations had not sufficed to blend the hostile blood of the Normans and Anglo-Saxons, or to unite, by a common language and mutual interests, two hostile races, one of which still felt the elation of triumph, while the other groaned under all the consequences of defeat.
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Volume 1, Chapter 2
Explanation and Analysis—Chaucer:
Scott frequently alludes to English writer Geoffrey Chaucer, particularly through Ivanhoe’s epigraphs. In so doing, he imaginatively places his novel’s romantic adventure and chivalry within the context of The Canterbury Tales, a celebrated English work from the late 1300s:
Unlock with LitCharts A+A Monk there was, a fayre for the maistrie,
An outrider that loved venerie;
A manly man, to be an Abbot able,
Full many a daintie horse had he in stable:
And when he rode, men might his bridle hear
Gingeling in a whistling wind as clear,
And eke as loud, as doth the chapell bell,
There as this lord was keeper of the cell.
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Volume 2, Chapter 10
Explanation and Analysis—Pearls and Diamonds:
In this passage, the author employs allusion and metaphor to reveal Bois-Guilbert's possessive, limited view of Rebecca's value. As he reveals himself when he finds her in Castle Torquilstone, he admits to being himself and not an unknown ruffian:
Unlock with LitCharts A+‘And thou, who canst guess so truly,’ said Brian de Bois-Guilbert, dropping the mantle from his face, ‘art no true daughter of Israel, but in all, save youth and beauty, a very witch of Endor. I am not an outlaw, then, fair rose of Sharon. And I am one who will be more prompt to hang thy neck and arms with pearls and diamonds, which so well become them, than to deprive thee of those ornaments.’
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Explanation and Analysis—Sword of Damocles:
As Scott describes Dame Urfried guarding the imprisoned Rebecca in the tower at Torquilstone, he employs allusion and foreshadowing to emphasize the stakes of the perilous position she is in. Rebecca's training to bear fear and master her temper become crucial here, as the narrator tells the reader:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Like Damocles at his celebrated banquet, Rebecca perpetually beheld, amid that gorgeous display, the sword which was suspended over the heads of her people by a single hair.
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Volume 2, Chapter 14
Explanation and Analysis—Gentle Nurse:
As he describes the care Rebecca provides for the injured Ivanhoe, Scott alludes to the medieval Romance genre's trope of the gentle, healing female lover:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The youngest reader of romances and romantic ballads, must recollect how often the females, during the dark ages as they are called, were initiated into the mysteries of surgery, and how frequently the gallant knight submitted the wounds of his person to her cure, whose eyes had yet more deeply penetrated his heart.
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Explanation and Analysis—Coeur-de-Leon:
Speaking to Rebecca about his concerns should Richard I return, Isaac references King Richard I's famous moniker “The Lionheart” and the Crusades. He does so to express his fear of meeting King Richard because of his dealings with Prince John, employing allusion and metaphor to emphasize his point:
Unlock with LitCharts A+And him whom the Nazarenes of England call the Lion’s Heart, assuredly it were better for me to fall into the hands of a strong lion of Idumea than into his, if he shall have assurance of my dealing with his brother.
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Explanation and Analysis—But Sooth:
After hearing all of her reasons for wanting to nurse him herself, Isaac concedes to Rebecca's refusal to let someone else heal Ivanhoe using an idiom and allusion:
Unlock with LitCharts A+‘Thou art speaking but sooth, Rebecca,’ said Isaac, giving way to these weighty arguments – ‘it were an offending of Heaven to betray the secrets of the blessed Miriam; for the good which Heaven giveth us, is not rashly to be squandered upon others, whether it be talents of gold and shekels of silver, or whether it be the secret mysteries of a wise physician.'
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Volume 3, Chapter 5
Explanation and Analysis—Daniel in the Den:
In Ivanhoe Scott draws a parallel between the return of King Richard I from his captivity in Europe to the emergence of Daniel from the den of lions in the Bible. This allusion serves as an allegory for Richard's journey and his influence, as Nathan Ben Samuel says to Isaac:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Go thou [...] and be wise, for wisdom availed Daniel, even in the den of lions into which he was cast; and may it go well with thee, even as thy heart wisheth.
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Explanation and Analysis—Nazarene Law:
As Isaac nervously speaks to Nathan Ben Samuel about visting the Preceptory of Templestowe, home of the Grand Master of the Knights Templar, Scott uses allusion and an idiom to convey the fearsome reputation Lucas de Beaumanoir commands:
Unlock with LitCharts A+‘It is well known unto me,’ answered Isaac; ‘the Gentiles deliver this Lucas Beaumanoir as a man zealous to slaying for every point of the Nazarene law; and our brethren have termed him a cruel destroyer of the Saracens, and a cruel tyrant to the Children of the Promise.’
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