| Term | Definition |
|---|
| aside | short speech delivered by an actor expressing the character's thoughts - directed to the audience and not heard by the other actors |
| atmosphere | feeling created by images, dialogue, description, setting, characterization and plot |
| blank verse | unrhymed iambic pentameter |
| characterization | The personality a character displays; also, the means by which an author reveals that personality |
| climax | the highest point of interest in a literary work |
| couplet | a pair of rhyming lines |
| direct characterization | when an author directly states a character's traits |
| dramatic foil | when contrasting characters are on stage |
| dramatic irony | when the audience knows something the characters do not |
| epic | long poem; usually based on a hero; series of great achievements or events is narrated in elevated style |
| fable | A brief story or poem that is told to present a moral, or practical lesson. The characters in fables are often animals who speak or act like human beings. |
| foreshadowing | clues that suggest events that are yet to come |
| haiku | a japanese poem about nature made from only 17 syllables |
| hyperbole | exaggeration or overstatement |
| iambic pentameter | line of 5 iams - stressed or unstressed |
| imagery | words used to activate you five senses |
| in medias res | in the middle of things |
| indirect characterization | when the audience must learnabout a character through words and actions |
| irony | when something unexpected happens |
| metaphor | comparison between two unlike things without using the words "like" or "as" |
| monologue | long speech of a character in a play within a conversation |
| motif | a recuurent thematic element in a n artistic or literary work. A dominant theme or central idea |
| motivation | what causes a character to act or react |
| myth | a type of literature that attempts to explain how something was created or why things are the way they are - a system of stories, religious in nature |
| narrative poem | a collection of events that tells a story, which may be true or not, placed in a particular order and recounted through either by telling or writing |
| oxymoron | figure of speech in which pairs of contradictory words are combined |
| personification | a type of figurative language in which a non-human subject is given human characteristics |
| plot | the sequence of events in a literary work |
| proglogue | introduction to poem or play; introductory lines spoken by a member of cast or chorus |
| prose | ordinary form of written language - everyday language |
| rhapsodes | singers of tales; bards; minstrels |
| satire | making fun of something in order to get your point across - mocking |
| sentence inversion | switch around order of sentence so it rhymes or follows the rhythm |
| setting | when and where a story takes place |
| simile | a comparison using the words "like" or "as" |
| soliloquy | lines spoken only to the audience, not for other characters to hear |
| sonnet | 14 line lyric poem |
| stage directions | notes that describe how the work is to be performed or staged |
| symbol | anything that stands for or represents something else. They are usually concrete objects or images that represent abstract ideas |
| theme | a message about life, society, or human nature |
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