Figures of Speech Climax
In literature, the climax is the point of highest tension and drama in a narrative. It is the moment when the conflict reaches its peak, and the outcome of the story becomes inevitable. The climax is often considered the turning point of the plot, where the protagonist faces the most significant obstacle or confronts the antagonist in a decisive confrontation.
Functions of Climax:
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- Intense Conflict Resolution: Climax is the narrative’s peak, where the main conflict reaches its height. It leads to resolution or revelation.
- Emotional Catharsis: It produces powerful emotional responses from readers. It creates a cathartic experience as tension and anticipation are released.
- Character Transformation: The climax drives character development, pushing them to confront challenges and evolve.
- Plot Conclusion: It reduces various story elements, subplots, and character arcs. It provides a satisfying conclusion to the narrative.
- Reader Engagement: The climax captivates readers. It ensures their sustained interest and investment in the story’s resolution.
Examples:
1. “Beauty is but a vain and doubtful good;
A shining gloss that vadeth suddenly;
A flower that dies when first it gins to bud;
A brittle glass that’s broken presently:
A doubtful good, a gloss, a glass, a flower,
Lost, vaded, broken, dead within an hour.”[Shakespeare]
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Ans: The phrase “dead within an hour” is placed at the very end as it marks the climax of the fate of beauty which he introduces as “a vain and doubtful good”. Climax is here used to render balance and brevity.
2. “This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable Rights of Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” [Martin Luther King]
Ans: The aforementioned line qualifies as the climax of Martin Luther’s speech, which criticizes and rejects racial discrimination suffered by black Americans at the hands of white Americans.
Previous Years Questions and Solutions
NTRCA Exam- 2006
1. What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god!
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Ans: This is an instance of climax. In the climax, a series of events or ideas are arranged in order of increasing importance. Here, the speaker (Hamlet) is describing man as the ultimate work, noble in reason, infinite in his intellectual potential, express and admirable whilst moving, angelic in action, and fearful like a god. It testifies to Hamlet’s disillusionment with mankind: he describes the virtues of our species in glowingly poetic terms. Still, he says he can no longer admire or take any pleasure in them.
NTRCA Exam-2017
1. He smiled, he laughed, he roared.
Ans: This is an instance of climax. In the climax, a series of events or ideas are arranged in order of increasing importance. Here, the speaker says that he first smiled, then laughed and finally roared. Thus, the sentiments of the speaker are stated in a manner that the meaning rises from a less important stage to a more important stage. The climax is here used to render balance and brevity.
