Parallelism means that two or more words or constructions stand in an identical grammatical relationship to the same
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thing. In Jack and Jill went up the hill the subjects, Jack and /*//, are parallel because both relate to the verb went. In the following sentence, the italicized clauses are parallel, both modifying the verb will come:
We will come when we are ready and when we choose.
Parallelism occurs in all types of sentences as a way of or- ganizing minor constructions. When major ideas are involved, we speak of a parallel style, as in this sentence, where three parallel objects follow the preposition "in":
In its energy, its lyrics, its advocacy of frustrated joys, rock is one long symphony of protest. Time magazine
And here, three infinitive phrases modifying the word
"campaign":
The Department of Justice began a vigorous campaign to break up the corporate empires, to restore the free and open market, and to plant the feet of the industry firmly on the road to competition.
Thurman Arnold
Parallel constructions are subject to a strict rule of style:
they must be in the same grammatical form. Consider this opening of a sentence by the eighteenth-century political writer Edmund Burke:
To complain of the age we live in, to murmur at the present pos- sessors of power, to lament the past, to conceive extravagant hopes of the future, are the common dispositions of the greatest part of mankind. . . .
According to the rule the four subjects of the verb are must be in the same grammatical form, and Burke has made them all infinitives. They could have been gerunds {complaining, murmuring, lamenting, conceiving) or nouns {complaints,
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murmurs, laments, conceptions). But in any case the point is that they must all be the same. To combine different forms would violate the rule—for example, mixing an infinitive with a gerund (To complain of the age we live in, murmuring against the present possessors of power). Such awkward mixtures are called shifted constructions and are regarded as a serious breach of style, sloppy and often ambiguous.
Extended parallelism is not a hallmark of modern writing, as it was in the eighteenth century, when the parallel style was predominant in formal prose. On the other hand it is foolish and unseeing to dismiss parallel sentences as out-of-date.
They are still useful and by no means uncommon:
We must somehow take a wider view, look at the whole landscape, really see it, and describe what's going on out there.
Annie Dillard The professor shuffled into the room, dumped his notes onto the desk, and began his usual dull lecture. College student
Advantages of Parallelism
Parallel sentences have several advantages. First, they are im- pressive and pleasing to hear, elaborate yet rhythmic and or- dered, following a master plan with a place for everything and everything in its place.
Second, parallelism is economical, using one element of a sentence to serve three or four others. Piling up several verbs after a single subject is probably the most common parallel pattern, as in the two examples just above. Paralleling verbs is particularly effective when describing a process or event.
The sequence of the verbs analyzes the event and establishes its progress, and the concentration on verbs, without the re- current intervention of the subject, focuses the sentence on action. Here is an example, a description of prairie dogs, writ- ten by the American historian Francis Parkman:
As the danger drew near they would wheel about, toss their heads in the air, and dive in a twinkling into their burrows.
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And another, an account of an invasion of Italy in 1494 by Charles VIII of France:
Charles borrowed his way through Savoy, disappeared into the Alps, and emerged, early in September, at Asti, where his ally met him and escorted him to the suburbs. Ralph Roeder
A third advantage of parallelism is its capacity to enrich meaning by emphasizing or revealing subtle connections be- tween words. For instance, in the example by Roeder the par- allelism hints at the harebrained nature of Charles's expedi- tion. Similarly Bernard Shaw, writing about Joan of Arc, insinuates a sardonic view of humanity below the surface of this prosaic summary of Joan's life:
Joan of Arc, a village girl from the Vosges, was born about 1412, burnt for heresy, witchcraft, and sorcery in 1431; rehabilitated after a fashion in 1456; designated venerable in 1904; declared Blessed in 1908; and finally canonized in 1920.
Of course, Shaw's irony is carried essentially by the words themselves, but the rapid parallel progression of the verbs enables us to see more easily the wicked folly of which human beings are capable, destroying a woman whom later they would deem saintly.
The meaning reinforced by a parallel style does not have
^to be ironic. It can have any emotional or intellectual coloring.
In the first of the following examples we can hear a sly amuse- ment; in the second, anger; and in the third, eloquence:
She laid two fingers on my shoulder, cast another look into my face under her candle, turned the key in the lock, gently thrust me be- yond the door, shut it; and left me to my own devices.
Walter de la Mare He [George III] has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
Thomas Jefferson
174 T H E SENTENCE Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and success of liberty. John F. Kennedy