Question

Which literary device is employed in the following sentence from Herman Melville’s short story "Bartleby, the Scrivener"?

And here Bartleby makes his home, sole spectator of a solitude which he has seen all populous—a sort of innocent and transformed Marius brooding among the ruins of Carthage!



allegory



irony



allusion



symbolism

Answer 1

C allusion

Step-by-step explanation:

Answer 2

In my opinion, the correct answer is C. Allusion.

An allusion is a reference to a particular event from history or literature, which is usually well-known. In this case, Melville alludes to the Roman general Gaius Marius. According to Plutarch, Marius went to the ruined city of Carthage, after being banished from Rome.