Cacophony

Cacophony

Definition

A situation in literature in where harsh and discordant sounds in words are used to create a hissing and/or unmelodious feeling to the text. Cacophony uses single consonants or combinations of consonants that require effort to deliver correctly.

Example- from Canterbury Tales

"And what Hippocrates and Rufus knew and Dioscorides, now dead and gone, Galen and Rahzes, Hali, Serapion, Averroes, Avicenna, Constantine, Scotch Bernard, John of Gaddesden, Gilbertine" (440-444).

"No quicksilver, lead ointments, tartar creams, Boracic, no, nor brimstone, so it seems, could make a salve that had the power to bite, clean up or cure his whelks of knobby white or purge the pimples sitting on he cheeks" (645-649).

Function

In the first example, the use of cacophony is quite basic. The many uses of the letters g, r, s, j, and the combination sc create a very unappealing sound to the reader that may end up creating a sense of brokenness to the text. The second example uses cacophony in a way that emphasizes the nastiness of the Summoner's blemishes. The use of cacophony makes the cures (Boracic and brimstone) sound very strong and powerful, yet they still can not clear up the Summoner's face.

Another example

"It came to the edge of the fire and the light faded as if a cloud had bent over it. Then with a rush it leaped across the fissure. The flames roared up to greet it, and wreathed about it; and a black smoke swirled in the air. Its streaming mane kindled, and blazed behind it. In its right hand was a blade like a stabbing tongue of fire; in its left it held a whip of many thongs" (Tolkien 320).

Non-original mnemonic

Original mnemonic

CAC-OPHONY sounds like a nasty cough and a sneeze mixed together. No one likes to hear coughing and sneezing.