Omission & Flow

Aposiopesis

ap-oh-sy-oh-PEE-sis / ˌæpəsaɪəˈpiːsɪs

Breaking off mid-sentence and leaving it unfinished — a dash into silence. What goes unsaid reads louder than words: threat, grief, or the unspeakable, left to the reader.

"I will have such revenges on you both, / That all the world shall— I will do such things—" — King Lear

Don't confuse it with Ellipsis. Ellipsis omits words the reader can reconstruct; aposiopesis abandons the sentence at a cliff edge.

Drill this device — 4 excerpts

In the Reader — 4 excerpts

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer

— William Shakespeare, Hamlet · open the passage →

stretch out our arms farther... And one fine morning—

— F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby · open the passage →

…maybe, I don't know. I got a telegram from the home: "Mother deceased. Funeral tomorrow. Faithfully yours." That doesn't mean anything. Maybe it was yesterday.

— Albert Camus, The Stranger · open the passage →

…the date: I was born in Doctor Narlikar's Nursing Home on August 15th, 1947. And the time? The time matters, too. Well then: at night. No, it's important to be more... On the stroke of midnight, as a matter of fact.

— Salman Rushdie, Midnight's Children · open the passage →

Travels with

Devices that share a passage with aposiopesis most often — company reveals character.

Anaphora 4

The rest of the family

Asyndeton Polysyndeton Ellipsis Brachylogia Enjambment