Rhetorical Devices: Anadiplosis

In my fourth article on rhetorical devices, we will talk about anadiplosis.  Anadiplosis is from the Latin anadiplosis, from the Ancient Greek anadiplosis (ἀναδίπλωσις).  The word is a compound of “ana” and “diploun”, which literally means “to double”.  In English, the plural of anadiplosis is anadiploses.

An anadiplosis is a figure of speech, a rhetorical device, in which a word or phrase used at the end of a clause or expression is repeated near the beginning of the next clause or expression.  It is used to emphasise a specific concept or thing.  The repetition of the word calls attention to it as a main point of the speech.  The word need not be the very first word in the sentence.

The most famous example of anadiplosis is Yoda’s counsel about the Dark Side, in Star Wars: “Fear is the path to the Dark Side.  Fear leads to anger.  Anger leads to hate.  Hate leads to suffering. Suffering leads to the Dark Side.” This quote is a series of four anadiploses within a larger anadiplosis, the Dark Side of the Force.  It highlights four related concepts in a series of escalating consequences: fear, anger, hate and suffering.  This is, in itself, also a form of climax, another rhetorical device.

Whilst Yoda’s quote is famous in pop culture, it is actually a variation of an older quote, from William Shakespeare’s Richard II: “The love of wicked men converts to fear, that fear to hate, and hate turns one or both to worthy danger and deserved death.”

Another example is the oft-used slogan, “When we win, we win big.”

Yet another example, from literature, is from John Milton’s poem, Lycidas:

“For Lycidas is dead,

Dead ere his prime,

Young Lycidas and hath not left his peer.”