Literary Terms
Allegory | a work that represents real-life, non-fictional issues or events
Animal Farm for the Russian Revolution of 1917 |
Atmosphere /
Mood | the feeling or emotion that a narrative conveys to a reader
“There was no moon, and everything beneath lay in misty darkness: not a light gleamed from any house, far or near all had been extinguished long ago: and those at Wuthering Heights were never visible.” (Wuthering Heights) |
Flashback | a scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point in the story
The Great Gatsby as Nick’s memories, the Pensieve in Harry Potter, the narrative structure of Memento |
Foreshadowing | a hint regarding events that will take place later
Regulus Black as R.A.B. in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince |
Frame story | a story within a story, or a play within a play
the story of Pyramus and Thisbe in A Midsummer Night’s Dream |
Imagery | the use of vivid, descriptive language to appeal to one of the five senses
“It was a rimy morning, and very damp. I had seen the damp lying on the outside of my little window… Now, I saw the damp lying on the bare hedges and spare grass… On every rail and gate, wet lay clammy; and the marsh-mist was so thick.” (Great Expectations)
sight → visual imagery
hearing → auditory imagery
smell → olfactory imagery
taste → gustatory imagery
touch → tactile imagery |
Synesthesia | the use of language to appeal to more than one of the five senses at the same time
“Back to the region where the sun is silent.” (Inferno)
“In some melodious plot,
Of beechen green,
Singest of summer in full throated ease.” (“Ode to a Nightingale”) |
In media res | a technique in which a narrative begins in the chronological middle of the plot, a characteristic of epic poems
Iliad, Odyssey |
Juxtaposition | the placement of two contrasting concepts, characters, or images next to each other to create a contrast
“Your heart is burst, you have lost half your soul;
Even now, now, very now, an old black ram
Is tupping your white ewe.” (Othello)
note: juxtaposition is largely interchangeable with contrast |
Metafiction | a work of fiction with an awareness that it is a story, reminding the reader of this fictional quality
Deadpool, The Handmaid’s Tale, Dracula |
Motif | a recurring idea significant in a work
the American Dream in The Great Gatsby, ambition in Macbeth
note: a motif is largely interchangeable with theme, and which term you use for a certain idea depends on the argument of the essay |
Parody | an imitation intended to mock or to criticize the original work
Charlie Chaplin’s impersonation of Adolf Hitler in The Great Dictator |
Satire | a work that criticizes individuals, governments, or societies in humorous and exaggerated ways
Gulliver’s Travels, South Park, Saturday Night Live
note: although they are very similar, a parody tends to have a specific target that it mocks while a satire tends to be an original work |
Suspense /
Tension | the anticipation of the outcome of a plot or of the solution to a mystery
the Hallowe’en night in To Kill a Mockingbird |
Symbolism | the use of important objects—symbols—to signify ideas or qualities
the mockingjay for the rebellion in The Hunger Games
the Horcruxes and the Hallows for death in Harry Potter
note: a motif tends to be an abstract idea while a symbol tends to be a physical object |
Tone / Voice | the attitude of the writer or the narrator towards a subject matter or towards the audience
“If a girl looks swell when she meets you, who gives a damn if she’s late? Nobody.” (The Catcher in the Rye)
note: atmosphere refers to what the reader feels while tone refers to the perspective of the writer or the first-person narrator |
Three types of irony: | |
Dramatic irony | the audience or reader is aware of something critical in the story, but the characters are not
in Oedipus Rex, the audience knows that Oedipus has killed his father and married his mother, but Oedipus does not |
Situational irony | a sharp, often humorous discrepancy between the expected result and the actual result
in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the Wizard is revealed to be a fraud |
Verbal irony | a statement whose intended meaning is drastically different from its literal or ostensible meaning; sarcasm
“as clear as mud” |
Character
Protagonist | the central character of the narrative
Harry Potter, Luke Skywalker, Hamlet, Holden Caulfield, Simba |
Antagonist | the character who opposes the protagonist
Voldemort, Darth Vader, Iago, Thanos, Scar |
Antihero | a protagonist who is morally ambiguous and may do the right thing but not necessarily for the right reasons
Alex in A Clockwork Orange, Deadpool in Deadpool |
Dynamic character | a character who changes over the course of the work |
Static character | a character who does not change |
Everyman | a character who is ordinary but faces extraordinary circumstances
Winston Smith in Nineteen Eighty-Four |
Foil | a character who contrasts with another in order to highlight a particular quality in the pair of characters
Voldemort for Harry in Harry Potter, Laertes for Hamlet in Hamlet |
Round character | a character who is complex, with many different characteristics |
Flat character | a character who is uncomplicated, with only one distinctive quality |
Stock character | a stereotypical character who is easily recognized
the superhero (Superman, Captain America)
the mad scientist (Dr. Frankenstein in Frankenstein) |
Tragic hero | a character who possesses moral qualities and is capable of noble action, but ends up in tragic circumstances and commits wrongs
Macbeth in Macbeth, Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars |
Tragic flaw
(hamartia) | the quality that causes the downfall of a tragic hero
Macbeth’s ambition in Macbeth
Stannis’s righteousness in A Song of Ice and Fire
note: hubris refers to pride as a tragic flaw |
Point of View
First-person | a narrator relays events from his or her own point of view using the first-person pronoun, “I” or “we” |
Third-person omniscient | a narrator who is not one of the characters has knowledge of everything in the story |
Third-person limited | a narrator who is not one of the characters follows only a specific number of focal characters |
Free indirect speech | a third-person narrative that conveys a character’s thoughts without interruption in the narration
“As Mr. Dursley drove around the corner and up the road, he watched the cat in his mirror. It was now reading the sign that said Privet Drive – no, looking at the sign; cats couldn’t read maps or signs.” (Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone) |
Alternating point of view | a style in which the point of view alternates between first- and third-person, or among multiple characters
A Song of Ice and Fire |
Stream-of-consciousness | a method of narration in which a character’s thoughts and feelings are depicted as they pass through the mind
“a quarter after what an unearthly hour I suppose theyre just getting up in China now combing out their pigtails for the day well soon have the nuns ringing the angelus theyve nobody coming in to spoil their sleep except an odd priest or two for his night office the alarmlock next door at cockshout clattering the brains out of itself let me see if I can doze off 1 2 3 4 5 what kind of flowers are those they invented like the stars the wallpaper in Lombard street was much nicer the apron he gave me was like that something only I only wore it twice better lower this lamp and try again so that I can get up early” (Ulysses) |
Unreliable narrator | a narrator whose credibility is in doubt due to his or her bias, ignorance, insanity, or dishonesty
Humbert Humbert in Lolita, the unnamed narrator of “The Tell-Tale Heart”
note: since every person possesses some level of bias, one could argue that all first-person narrators are unreliable |
Narrative
Setting | the time, place, and social environment in which a narrative occurs
1930s southern United States in To Kill a Mockingbird an uninhabited island in Lord of the Flies
the Wizarding World in Harry Potter |
Conflict | the challenge that the main characters must resolve to achieve certain goals |
Five types of conflict: | |
Person against person | the conflict is between specific characters, usually a protagonist and an antagonist
Harry Potter, The Lion King |
Person against nature | the conflict is between characters and forces of nature
Robinson Crusoe, Titanic |
Person against self | the conflict is internal to a character
Fight Club, “The Tell-Tale Heart” |
Person against machine | the conflict is between characters and human-created machines
The Terminator, The Matrix |
Person against society | the conflict is between characters and social constructs, systems, or institutions
The Handmaid’s Tale, Nineteen Eighty-Four |
Five parts of a narrative: | |
Exposition | introduces important background information about character, plot, setting, etc. |
Rising action | introduces conflict and builds the story towards climax |
Climax | point of highest tension, a turning point in the conflict |
Falling action | conflict resolves and tension falls |
Dénouement | concludes the story |
Anticlimax | the conflict is resolved in an unexpected or banal manner
aliens are defeated by the common cold in The War of the Worlds |
Figurative Language
Allusion | a reference without explanation to a work of literature, historical event, the Bible, mythology, or popular culture
the writing on the wall in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets to the Bible
the expression “down the rabbit hole” to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland |
Anachronism | any part of a narrative that appears in a wrong time period
in Aladdin (1992), the Sphinx is being chiselled
in The Great Gatsby (2013), the music of Jay-Z and Beyoncé is used |
Anthropomorphism | giving human characteristics to an animal or a non-human entity
the Rabbit in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
the Big Bad Wolf of “Little Red Riding Hood”
note: although anthropomorphism may be the more accurate term in certain situations, personification is the more commonly used term, so the two may be used interchangeably |
Apostrophe | addressing something that cannot respond, such as an inanimate object or an abstract concept
“Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee! I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.” (Macbeth) |
Cliché | an expression, idea, or technique that has been overused to the point of no longer being effective or meaningful
“once upon a time”
“star-crossed lovers” (Romeo and Juliet) |
Double entendre | a particular way of wording intended to be understood in two ways, having a double meaning
In Othello, Iago’s honesty refers both to other characters’ viewpoints of his virtue and to his own candor about his goal to disgrace Othello |
Hyperbole | an exaggeration
“Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand? No.” (Macbeth) |
Metaphor | a comparison of one thing to another
“All the world’s a stage” (As You Like It) |
Extended metaphor | a metaphor that is repeated or continued for a significant length
“All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances” (As You Like It) |
Metonymy | referring to an object or idea by something closely associated with it
“crown” → monarchy, “dish” → meal, “tongue” → language |
Oxymoron | two seemingly contradictory ideas placed next to each other
“open secret”
“jumbo shrimp”
“Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health!” (Romeo and Juliet) |
Paradox | a statement that is self-contradictory or logically unacceptable
“I know that I know nothing” |
Personification | giving human characteristics or human form to a non-human entity or an abstract concept
Death in “The Tale of the Three Brothers” from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Greek gods for natural phenomena, such as Zeus for lightning and Poseidon for the ocean |
Pun | a word play based on a word with multiple meanings or on words with similar sounds
“I wondered why the ball was getting bigger. Then it hit me.”
note: a pun tends to be humorous while a double entendre usually carries deeper implications or sexually explicit innuendos |
Simile | a comparison of one thing to another using “like” or “as”
“I slept like a log”
“as busy as a bee” |
Synecdoche | referring to the whole by a part, or to a part by the whole
“wheels” → vehicle, “Band-Aid” → any bandage, “head count” → number of people, “the pill” → birth-control pill |
Understatement | making a situation seem less important than it really is
“I have to have this operation. It isn’t very serious. I have this tiny little tumor on the brain.” (The Catcher in the Rye)
note: an understatement is the opposite of a hyperbole |
Poetry Terms and Sound Devices
Lyric poem | a poem that expresses personal emotions or feelings |
Narrative poem | a poem that tells a story, providing the voices of a narrator and characters |
Epic poem | a very long narrative poem that has a vast setting; concerns heroic deeds or culturally significant events; begins in media res; and invokes a muse
Iliad, Odyssey, Paradise Lost |
Meter | the basic rhythmic structure of a verse |
Foot | a basic metrical unit, composed of syllables, that forms a part of a line
iamb: a poetic foot composed of one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable |
Stanza | a grouped set of lines in a poem, spatially separated from other stanzas |
Verse | the way poetry is written, in metrical lines, as opposed to prose, which the way regular fiction is written |
Alliteration | a repetition of the initial consonant sound
“Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers” |
Assonance | a repetition of vowel sounds
“on a proud round cloud in white high night” |
Consonance | a repetition of consonant sounds
“coming home,” “hot foot” |
Caesura | a pause in a line, typically at the end of the line; complete syntax
“A glooming peace this morning with it brings.
The sun, for sorrow, will not show his head.
Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things.
Some shall be pardon’d, and some punishèd.” (Romeo and Juliet) |
Enjambment | an incomplete syntax, or lack of a pause, at the end of a line
“April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.” (The Waste Land) |
Onomatopoeia | a word that phonetically imitates or resembles the sound that it describes
“tick tock” → clock, “oink” → pig |
Rhyme | a repetition of similar sounds in the final syllable(s)
note: rhyming words at the end of lines create end rhyme while rhyming words within one line create internal rhyme |
Rhyme scheme | a pattern of rhymes at the end of each line in a poem or song, each set of rhyming lines designated by a distinct letter
Inferno in Italian: aba bcb cdc ded |
Half rhyme /
slant rhyme | similar but not identical sounds
“And be prosperous, though we live dangerous” (“N.Y. State of Mind”) |
Eye rhyme | similar spelling but different sounds
Sean Bean |
Shakespeare Terms
Elizabethan era | the reign of Elizabeth I (1558-1603), a period of international expansion, economic stability, and cultural growth in England
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) continued to write plays during the reign of James I (1603-1625), who succeeded Elizabeth I |
Tragedy | a play with a sad ending in which the protagonist and many major characters die
Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet |
Comedy | a play with a happy ending in which conflict is successfully resolved
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Merchant of Venice |
Second Quarto | an early publication of Shakespeare’s plays from 1604-05, providing some elements of modern versions |
First Folio | a later collection of Shakespeare’s plays published in 1623, providing the basis of modern versions
note: modern editions of Shakespeare have been compiled from the two sources by various scholars, causing some differences among editions, which are particularly noticeable in electronic copies |
Iambic pentameter | a type of poetic rhythm in which every line contains ten syllables that alternate between unstressed and stressed sounds; each line consists of five iambs
“When I do count the clock that tells the time” (“Sonnet 12”) |
Blank verse | poetry written in iambic pentameter without a rhyme scheme
note: in a Shakespearean play, characters from a high social class speak in blank verse while commoners speak in prose; if an upper class character who normally speaks in blank verse starts to speak in prose, the play is indicating conflict or emotional turmoil |
Five acts | Shakespeare’s plays always have five acts, with a varying number of scenes in each act |
Couplet | a pair of lines; a rhyming couplet usually concludes a scene or an act
“So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee” (“Sonnet 18”) |
Soliloquy | a dramatic device in which a character speaks to himself or herself and shares thoughts and feelings with the audience
“To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them.” (Hamlet) |
Aside | a dramatic device in which a character makes a brief comment audible only to the audience
“A little more than kin, and less than kind.” (Hamlet) |
Comic relief | the use of a humorous character, scene, or dialogue to relieve tension in an otherwise serious context
Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the grave-digger in Hamlet |
Sonnet | a lyric poem with the following characteristics:
- iambic pentameter
- fourteen lines in three four-line stanzas and one couplet - rhyme scheme: abab eded efef gg
- typically addresses the theme of love |
Language used in older time periods contains some differences from today’s English:
thou | “you” as a subject, informal |
thee | “you” as an object, informal |
you | “you,” formal or plural |
thy | “your” before a consonant |
thine | “your” before a vowel |
wherefore | “why” |
wherein | “how” |
ere | “before” |