 | Term | Definition |
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quatrain |
A stanza of poetry containing four lines. A Shakespearean sonnet contains three quatrains followed by a couplet. |
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Recognition |
A scene in which the protagonist recognizes an event, action, or other truth that assures her or his downfall |
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refrain |
A line or group of lines that is repeated throughout a poem or song, often at the end of stanzas, sometimes with small changes in the words. |
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Repetition |
Using the same or similar words, phrases, or images throughout a work for emphasis. |
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resolution |
The sorting out or unraveling of a plot at the end of a play, novel, or story.. |
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reversal |
The point at which the action of the plot turns in an unexpected direction for the protagonist |
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rhyme |
The matching of final vowel or consonant sounds in two or more words. End rhyme indicates rhymes that occur at the end of lines of poetry, while internal rhyme indicates rhymes within lines. |
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rhythm |
Pattern of sound, including the accents of stress in lines of poetry. |
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rising action |
A set of complications, conflicts, and crises in a story, novel, or play that leads to the climax and resolution of the action. |
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rising meter |
Poetic meters such as iambic and anapestic that move or ascend from an unstressed to a stressed syllable. |
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satiric humor |
Comic characters, dialogue, and actions that are used for the purpose of revealing, criticizing and ridiculing human foibles, faults, vices, and idiosyncrasies. |
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sestet |
A six-line unit of verse constituting a stanza or section of a poem; the last six lines of an Italian sonnet. |
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setting |
The time and place where the action of a literary work occurs. |
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simile |
Comparison of two apparently unrelated objects, situations, actions, individuals or settings, using explicit comparative language such as “like” or “as.” |
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Soliloquy |
A speech in a play that is meant to be heard by the audience but not by other characters on the stage. If there are no other characters present, the soliloquy represents the character thinking aloud. |
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sonnet |
A poem written in fourteen lines. The Petrachan sonnet (also called the Italian sonnet) falls into two parts: the first eight lines, called the octave and the final six lines, called the sestet. The lines of the octave rhyme abba, abba, while the lines of the sestet rhyme in variable ways such as cde, cde or cd, cd, cd. The English sonnet (also called the Shakespearean sonnet) is written in three four-line sections (each section is called a quatrain) and a final pair of lines (called a couplet). Most commonly, the three quatrains follow the rhyme patterns abab cdcd efef and the closing couplet rhymes gg. |
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speaker |
The voice heard in a work of fiction, poetry, or drama. |
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stage direction |
A playwright’s descriptive or interpretive comments that provide readers (and actors) with information about the dialogue, setting, and action of a play. |
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staging |
The spectacle a play presents in performance, including the position of actors on stage, the scenic background, the props and costumes, and the lighting and sound effects. |
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stanza |
A division or unit of a poem that is repeated in the same form—either with similar or identical patterns of rhyme and meter, or with variations from one stanza to another. |
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style |
The way an author chooses words, arranges them in lines, sentences, paragraphs, or stanzas, and conveys meaning through the use of imagery, rhythm, rhyme, figurative language, irony, and other devices. |
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subject |
What a story or play is about; to be distinguished from plot and theme. |
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subplot |
A subsidiary or subordinate or parallel plot in a play or story that coexists with the main plot |
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symbol |
An object, action, character, setting, animal or other element in a literary work that stands for something more than its literal meaning. |
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synecdoche |
A figure of speech in which a part is substituted for the whole. An example: “Lend me a hand.” |
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syntax |
The grammatical order of words in a sentence or line of verse or dialogue. The organization of words and phrases and clauses in sentences of prose, verse, and dialogue. |
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tale |
A story that narrates strange happenings in a direct manner, without detailed descriptions of character. |
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theme |
The central idea or ideas, underlying or explicit, of a literary work, as distinguished from its subject and plot. |
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tone |
The implied attitude of a writer toward the subject and characters of a work |
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tragedy |
A drama in which the hero (female or male) is usually a person of great significance in society, often a member of the royal family. The action of the drama shows the changing fortunes of the protagonist, who at the beginning of the play enjoys high status, but by the end has lost everything of value. This protagonist (tragic hero) usually meets her or his downfall because of an error in judgment, because of a character flaw (tragic flaw), or because of the effects of fate or circumstances beyond the control of the individual. |
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tragic flaw |
A weakness or limitation of character, resulting in the fall of the tragic hero. |
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tragic hero |
The main character in a tragic play. |
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understatement |
Use of language in an extremely restrained style, so as to literally state less than what the author anticipates the reader will understand |
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