| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Antagonist | a person who is opposed to, struggles against, or competes with another; opponent; adversary |
| antihero | a protagonist who lacks the attributes that make a heroic figure, as nobility of mind and spirit, a life or attitude marked by action or purpose |
| archetype | An original model or pattern from which other later copies are made, especially a character, an action, or situation that seems to represent common patterns of human life |
| dynamic character | one whose personality changes or evolves over the course of a narrative or appears to have the capacity for such change |
| flat character | a simplified character who does not change or alter his or her personality over the course of a narrative, or one without extensive personality and characterization |
| foil | A character that serves by contrast to highlight or emphasize opposing traits in another character |
| hero | : a man of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities |
| protagonist | the leading character, hero, or heroine of a drama or other literary work |
| round character | is depicted with such psychological depth and detail that he or she seems like a "real" person |
| static character | a simplified character who does not change or alter his or her personality over the course of a narrative |
| stereotype | A character who is so ordinary or unoriginal that the character seems like an oversimplified representation of a type, gender, class, religious group, or occupation |
| stock character | A character type that appears repeatedly in a particular literary genre, one which has certain conventional attributes or attitudes |
| Hamartia | applied to an archer who misses the target a misperception, a lack of some important insight, or some blindness that ironically results from one's own strengths and abilities |
| byronic hero | a romanticized but wicked character |
| hubris | It is a negative term implying both arrogant, excessive self-pride or self-confidence, and a lack of some important perception or insight due to pride in one's abilities |
| abstract | expressing a quality or characteristic apart from any specific object or instance |
| ambiguity | a vague or equivocal expression when precision would be more useful |
| concrete | constituting an actual thing or instance; real |
| connotation | the extra tinge or taint of meaning each word carries beyond the minimal, strict definition found in a dictionary |
| denotation | the minimal, strict definition of a word as found in a dictionary, disregarding any historical or emotional connotation |
| dialect | the language of a particular district, class, or group of persons |
| diction | the choice of a particular word as opposed to others |
| figurative | a deviation from what speakers of a language understand as the ordinary or standard use of words in order to achieve some special meaning or effect |
| literal | is one intended only (or primarily) as a factual account of a real historical event rather than a metaphorical expression, an allegorical expression of a larger symbolic truth, or a hypothetical example |
| rhetorical | used for, belonging to, or concerned with mere style or effect |
| analogy | the modification of grammatical usage from the desire for uniformity |
| foreshadowing | suggesting, hinting, indicating, or showing what will occur later in a narrative |
| motif | a conspicuous recurring element, such as a type of incident, a device, a reference, or verbal formula, which appears frequently in works of literature |
| syntax | the standard word order and sentence structure of a language, as opposed to diction the actual choice of words) or content (the meaning of individual words) |
| bathos | descent in literature in which a poet or writer striving too hard to be passionate or elevated--falls into trivial or stupid imagery, phrasing, or ideas |
| pathos | a writer or speaker's attempt to inspire an emotional reaction in an audience usually a deep feeling of suffering, but sometimes joy, pride, anger, humor, patriotism, or any of a dozen other emotions |
| metonymy | a figure of speech in which one thing is represented by another that is commonly and often associated with it |
| synecdoche | type of symbolism in which a part of a thing represents that thing itself |
Combine with other sets
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