 | Term | Definition |
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plot |
The series of related events in a story or play. |
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climax |
The exciting or suspenseful moment when the outcome of the conflict is imminent. |
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theme |
Repreated idea that is incorporated throughout a litary work. |
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aside |
a part of an actors lines suposedly not heard by others on stage |
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monologue |
soliloquy |
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soliloquy |
a speech, usually lengthy, in which a character, alone on stage, expresses his thoughts aloud |
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pun |
play on words. The humorous use of a word or phrase so as to emphasize or suggest its different meanings. |
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neologism |
to make up a word or give a new meaning to an old word |
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simile |
comparison of two unlike things using "like" or "as." |
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metaphor |
An association of two completely different objects as being the same thing. Distinuishes itself from a simile by not using "like" or "as." |
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foil |
a character than contrasts another character |
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allusion |
a reference to a mythological situation or character or to another piece of literature |
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hyperbole |
an exaggeration of the truth |
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personification |
Using the qualities of a person to describe an inanimate object |
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foreshadowing |
The use of clues to suggest what might happen later in the plot. |
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dramatic irony |
a circumstance in which characters reveal their inability to understand their own situation. |
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situational irony |
a situation that demonstrates an incongruity between what the reader expects or presumes to be appropriate and what actually occurs. |
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verbal irony |
a speech in which what is said is the opposite of what is meant. |
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onomatopoeia |
The use of a word to indicate a sound. |
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epithet |
a describing word or phrase |
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conflict |
The opposition between two characters, between two large groups of people, or between the protaganist and a larger problem. |
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characterization |
An author's use of description, dialogue, dialect, and action to create in the reader an emotional or intellectual reaction to a character or to make the character more vivid and realistic. |
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