Epigraph: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

The quotation of a line, excerpt or poetry done at the beginning or (more rarely) at the ending of a work, segment or chapter. Frequent in [[Literature]], shows up occasionally otherwise.

 

{{examples}}

* One of the trailers for ''[[End of Evangelion]]'' opens with a quote from Milton's ''Paradise Lost'' - namely, verses 146-150 from book 2.

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

 

 

== [[Film]] ==

* ''[[Kill Bill]]'' quotes "Revenge is a dish best served cold" which is (falsely) attributed as being an [[The Original Klingon|old Klingon proverb]].

** Which is parodied in ''AMV Hell 3'', which starts with "At least I have chicken"...still credited as an old Klingon proverb.

* To bring context to the brutality that is about to be shown, The Passion of the Christ brings us this abbreviated quote from Isaiah 53: 5 "He was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; by His wounds we are healed"

* The opening credits sequence of [[The Breakfast Club]] includes a four-line quotation of the song "Changes" by [[David Bowie]].

 

== [[Literature]] ==

* Joe Abercrombie quotes the line from which the [[Literary Allusion Title|title of each of his books is taken]], in ''[[The First Law]]'' series.

* ''[[Watership Down]]'' has one for each chapter.

(Recipe for Puff Pastry in I.S. Rombauer and M.R. Becker, ''The Joy of Cooking''.) }}

** Consder this, one of the two epigraphs from ''Cat's Eye'', which makes the way the story is constructed make far more sense:

* Ellen Kushner's ''[[Swordspoint]]'' - and most of her novels - has one

** His "The Hollow Men", a ''shorter'' poem, not only has an epigraph, but ''the section in his Selected Poems containing only "The Hollow Men" has one as well''. If you look up "The Hollow Men" on the web you'll probably find the two given one after the other; they're ''both'' relevant to the poem's meaning.

* The chapters in Annie Dillard's ''The Writing Life'' each begin with an epigraph.

* '' City of Bones'', the first book of ''[[Mortal Instruments]]'', has quotes from ''Julius Ceasar'' and ''[[Paradise Lost]]''.

* Perhaps in deference to the opening quote, Junot Diaz's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, ''[[The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao]]'' takes its epigraph from ''[[Fantastic Four]]'' #49, penned by Stan Lee.

* [[Philip Pullman]]'s ''[[His Dark Materials]]'' makes use of this trope in two of its installments: ''The Golden Compass/Northern Lights'' begins with a quote from ''Paradise Lost,'' and ''The Amber Spyglass,'' along with giving almost every chapter a short quote, uses Walt Whitman's ''America, a Prophecy'' and two other poems to set a very poignant mood. Less seriously, ''Spring-Heeled Jack'' starts off every chapter with quotes, including chestnuts such as "It was a dark and stormy night" and "Meanwhile, back at the ranch...."

* ''The Secret Life of Bees'' begins each chapter with some small, pithy note on bees and their life.

* F. Scott Fitzgerald's ''[[The Great Gatsby]]'' opens with a wonderful epigraph (which almost provided the title), by "Thomas Parke D'Invilliers" - actually a fictional character in Fitzgerald's first novel, ''This Side of Paradise.''

* Mary Janice Davidson opens every one of her books with three to four epigrahs. Of these, two are serious and the last one is outright silly. (In the ''[[Betsy the Vampire Queen]]'' books, the last one is usually Betsy herself.

* Carl Sagan's novel ''[[Contact (Literature)|Contact]]'' has so many quotes at the beginning of the parts and chapters that it looks like an anthology of quotations.

* Studs Terkel's collection of interviews, ''Working,'' begins with four quotations on the subject of working, from the Bible to a Nixon speech and an ad.

* All of [[Jasper Fforde]]'s books (''[[Thursday Next]]'' and ''[[Nursery Crime]]'' series) have an excerpt from a fictional article or book at the start of every chapter.

* Fictional examples are used in ''[[The War Against the Chtorr]]'', ranging from newspaper articles and quotes by Solomon Short (a newspaper columnist) in the first two books, limericks in the third book, and quotes from ''[[Encyclopedia Exposita|The Red Book]]'' in the fourth.

* [[Mark Twain]]'s ''Pudd'nhead Wilson'' begins every chapter with two quotes from "The Calendar of Pudd'nhead Wilson."

* Gerald Durrell does this at the beginning of every chapter in some of his books.

* In the war novels by [[Sven Hassel]], every chapter begins with a short section of prose, often unrelated to the novel but showing events in the wider war.

* Both used and parodied in several of Steven Brust's novels, as when each chapter of ''Teckla'' is presaged by an excerpt from the protagonist's laundry list.

** ''[[Earthsea Trilogy|A Wizard of Earthsea]]'' and ''[[Earthsea Trilogy|The Other Wind]]'' both begin with in-universe epigraphs, "The Creation of Ea" and "The Song of the Woman of Kemay" respectively.

** ''The Telling'' begins with a line from ''The [[Mahabharata]]''.

** ''The Lathe of Heaven'' uses epigraphs, many from Taoist thinkers, at the beginning of each chapter.

* Frank Herbert's ''[[Dune]]'' books begin every single chapter with an epigraph, always from an in-universe source.

* Brandon Sanderson likes doing this with his fantasy works - at the beginning of each chapter is a quotation form an in-universe source. In The Final Empire, the epigraphs are from {{spoiler|the diary of Alendi, the supposed Hero of Ages, whose packman Rashek killed him and became the Lord Ruler}}. In The Well of Ascension, the epigraphs were written by {{spoiler|Kwaan, the man who first announced Alendi as the Hero of Ages, and gives some hints into the prophecies behind the Hero of Ages}}. In the third and final book, the epigraphs are written by {{spoiler|the Hero of Ages, Sazed, after he takes in both Ruin and Preservation and fixes the world, detailing what he did and how he did it as Harmony}}.

** It gets even more complicated in The Way of Kings, the first book of the Stormlight Archive, because the epigraphs are from different sources. In Part 1, the epigraphs are cryptic quotes from people just before their death, which are {{spoiler|being collected by Taravangian}}. They are supposedly the first glimpses of the world beyond, having started seven years before the story starts, roughly when Gavilar first investigated the Shattered Plains, and at least one is a quote from the Lost Herald. In Part 2, the epigraphs are from a letter, probably (but not certainly) written by {{spoiler|Hoid}} and addressed to an unknown person, {{spoiler|almost certainly a Shardbearer}}, in which the writer begs whoever the recipient is to end his neutrality and help him in the coming war against Odium]]. This letter gives hints as to {{spoiler|the workings of the Cosmere at large, talking about the Shards on Sel (and how Odium killed them) as well as talking of Odium's ally Bavadin and a mysterious group called 'The Seventeenth Shard}}. The epigraphs in Part 3 are notes from Jasnah's research on the Voidbringers. Part 4 returns to the quotes from the dying, and Part 5 doesn't have any epigraphs, but considering the massive amount of reveals in those chapters, it doesn't need any.

* ''A Darkling Plain'', the last book in the ''[[Mortal Engines]]'' quartet, has the last stanza of Matthew Arnold's ''Dover Beach'' as its epigraph.

 

== [[Live Action TV]] ==

* ''[[The Wire]]'' has an epigraph to each episode, always a quote from later in that episode, usually with an ironic subtext in hindsight.

* Each ''[[Andromeda]]'' episode begins with a (fictional) quote.

* ''[[Iron Chef]]'' always begins with a quote from French epicurean Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin: "Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are."

 

 

== [[Theatre]] ==

* The published script of Tony Kushner's ''[[Angels in America]]'': ''Millenium Approaches'' begins with this one:

and lives by breaking.|Stanley Kunitz, "The Testing Tree"}}

{{quote|Because the soul is progressive, it never quite repeats itself, but in every act attempts the production of a new and fairer whole."|Ralph Waldo Emerson, "On Art"}}

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* Common in [[Interactive Fiction]].

* ''[[Too Human]]'' used the Nietzsche quote "Be careful when you fight the monsters, lest you become one" in its advertising material. Not sure if it's used in the game itself.

* A variation of sorts exists in some ''[[Call of Duty]]'' games: upon most player deaths, the game usually displays a quote about warfare.

* Occurs several times in The Elder Scrolls": The first (The best techniques are passed on by the survivors) and the third (Each event is preceded by prophesy; but without the Hero there is no event).

{{quote|Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the Garden of Eden. He drove out the man; and He placed at the east of the Garden of Eden Cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life. |Conclave Bible, Datalinks}}

** There's a video [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=035cpHEowS4 here].

*** Alpha Centauri also has quotes for each tech and facility. Most of them are fictional quotes from the faction leaders, while there are literary or other references sprinkled in.

* Before the title screen, ''[[Eternal Darkness]]'' has the first stanza from "The Raven" by [[Edgar Allan Poe]].

* The ''[[Total War]]'' series tends to feature epigraphs in its loading screens.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Paratext]]

[[Category:Epigraph]]