Apostrophe
Also known as rhetorical apostrophe
A figure of speech in which a speaker turns to address someone or something that cannot answer, such as the dead, an absent lover or an object: "O Romeo, Romeo" or "Death, be not proud."
- Statement
- She missed her father every day.
- Apostrophe
- Dad, you would have hated this funeral.
In practice
An apostrophe is a figure of speech in which a speaker turns away from the listeners in front of them to address someone or something that cannot answer: a dead or absent person, an object, an idea or a force of nature. "O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?" is Juliet speaking to a man she believes is not there, and "Death, be not proud" is John Donne talking straight to death. The name comes from the Greek apostrophē, "a turning away."
The device has nothing to do with the punctuation mark that shares its name. The mark, as in "Juliet's balcony", shows possession or a missing letter; the figure of speech is a way of talking. A literary apostrophe usually arrives with an exclamation such as "O" or a name followed by a comma, and it usually signals strong feeling, because people speak to the absent and the inanimate when grief, love, anger or wonder has outrun ordinary conversation.
On screen the device survives wherever a character talks to someone who cannot reply: a widow at a grave, a son at a photograph, or Tom Hanks's castaway pleading with a volleyball named Wilson in Cast Away (2000). Audiences hear it as a window into the character, since nobody performs for an empty chair.
Apostrophe in a scene
INT. GARAGE WORKSHOP - NIGHT
Boxes everywhere. NORA (40s) holds an old tape measure, its case worn smooth by a thumb that is no longer here.
NORA
You labeled every screw in this place, and you never once labeled what you meant to tell me.
She sets the tape measure on the bench, beside a framed photo of a man in safety glasses.
NORA (CONT'D)
(to the photo)
Fine. Keep your secrets. I'm keeping the tape measure.
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Nora speaks to her dead father twice, first through his tool and then through his photograph, and neither can answer. That is apostrophe: the speech is aimed at someone absent, so it reveals what she feels instead of moving a conversation forward. The parenthetical makes the target clear, and the joke in the last line keeps the grief from turning maudlin.
Apostrophe examples in poems, plays and songs
Poetry is full of it. William Wordsworth opens a sonnet with "Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour" (1802), Percy Bysshe Shelley begins "O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being" (1820), and John Keats addresses a vase, "Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness", in "Ode on a Grecian Urn" (1819). Walt Whitman's "O Captain! my Captain!" (1865) mourns Abraham Lincoln by talking to him as if he were still on deck.
Drama uses it at moments of crisis. Hamlet holds the skull of the jester Yorick and asks it, "Where be your gibes now?"; Macbeth sees a dagger in the air and speaks to it, "Come, let me clutch thee." Everyday speech has it too, from the nursery rhyme "Twinkle, twinkle, little star" to a driver yelling at a red light.
Songs rely on it constantly, because a lyric addressed to an absent "you" lets a singer say what could never be said face to face. Elton John and Bernie Taupin's "Candle in the Wind" (1973) speaks to Marilyn Monroe, who had died eleven years earlier, and countless breakup songs are apostrophes to someone who has already left.
Apostrophe vs. personification, soliloquy and monologue
Personification gives human qualities to something that is not human ("the wind howled"). Apostrophe talks to it. The two often travel together, since speaking to the moon already treats the moon as someone who could listen, but a line can personify without addressing ("Death came for him at dawn") or address without much personifying ("O Romeo").
A soliloquy lets a character think aloud, usually while alone. A monologue is an extended speech by one speaker. Either can contain apostrophe: Macbeth addresses an imagined dagger during a soliloquy. Apostrophe describes whom the words address, rather than how long the speech is or who else is onstage.
Why speakers and poets use apostrophe
Classical rhetoric treated it as a way to move an audience. The Roman teacher Quintilian described it as turning one's words away from the judge to address someone else, and an orator who suddenly speaks to the dead victim, the gods or the nation borrows the emotional weight of that absent listener. Politicians still do it whenever they address "the families watching tonight" or a fallen soldier by name.
In lyric poetry it creates intimacy and drama at once: the reader overhears a private address. The critic Jonathan Culler argued in his essay "Apostrophe" (1977) that it is the most characteristic gesture of the lyric, because it turns a poem from a description into an event, something happening between a speaker and a listener now.
How to use apostrophe in your writing
Save it for pressure. An apostrophe announces that ordinary speech has failed, so it lands hardest after a scene has built enough feeling to justify it. Used in calm moments it reads as melodrama or parody, which is why mock-heroic poems and comedy sketches use it so often.
On screen, give it a physical anchor. A grave, a photograph, a voicemail, an empty chair or an object that belonged to the person gives the actor something to play to and the audience something to look at. Keep the lines short; the power of the device is that no answer comes back, and a long speech fills the silence that should be doing the work.
Let the address reveal the relationship. What a character says to the absent person, and the form of address they choose, a pet name, a title or a curse, tells the audience who that person was to them faster than any exposition. Nora's one line about labeled screws sketches a whole father.
Common questions
What is an apostrophe in literature?
A figure of speech in which a speaker addresses someone or something that cannot answer, such as a dead person, an absent lover, an object or an idea. "O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?" and "Death, be not proud" are classic examples.
What is an example of apostrophe?
Juliet's "O Romeo, Romeo", Hamlet speaking to Yorick's skull, Whitman's "O Captain! my Captain!" and the nursery rhyme "Twinkle, twinkle, little star" all address someone or something that cannot reply.
Is apostrophe the same as personification?
No. Personification gives human traits to something non-human; apostrophe speaks directly to it. They often appear together, as in "O wild West Wind", but either can appear without the other.
How is the literary device different from the apostrophe mark?
They share a Greek name and nothing else. The punctuation mark shows possession or a missing letter (Juliet's, don't); the literary device is a speaker turning to address an absent or silent listener.
Why do writers use apostrophe?
To show strong emotion, to make an absent person present and to let the audience overhear something private. A character who speaks to a grave or a photograph reveals feelings they would not say to anyone who could answer.
How do you spot an apostrophe in a poem?
Look for direct address to someone who is not there or cannot respond, often with "O" or a name followed by a comma or exclamation mark, and words such as "you" or "thou" aimed at an object, an idea or the dead.
Is apostrophe used in film?
Yes, whenever a character talks to someone who cannot answer: graveside speeches, conversations with a photograph, messages left for the dead, or Chuck Noland talking to Wilson the volleyball in Cast Away.