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Literary & Dramatic
Terms
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Alliteration | The repetition of the same consonant sounds in a phrase. |
| Antithesis | two sharply contrasting ideas are placed side-by-side in parallel words, phrases or structure. |
| Apostrophe | Addressing a person or abstract idea directly even though it is not or cannot be present. |
| Aside | A brief remark made by a character and intended to be heard by the audience but not by the other characters on stage. |
| Blank Verse | refers to the type of writing or speech that contains no rhyme, nor is the right margin justified. It most resembles the natural rhythm of spoken English. |
| Allusion | a reference to the events or character in Greek or Roman mythology (Classic allusion) or the Bible (Biblical allusion). |
| Conceit | an extended metaphor noteworthy for its elaborateness of language. |
| Double epithet | two successive adjectives used to describe a character, setting, or object. |
| Dramatic irony | occurs when a statement made by a character has one meaning for the speaker and a different meaning for the audience. |
| Enjambment | a 'run-on' line on which the sentence carries through without a break |
| Equivocation | the use of words in two distinct meanings which are deliberately ambiguous with the intention to deceive/mislead. |
| Foil | a character, who by contrast, illuminates the hero's qualities. (The term literally refers to a sheet of metal placed under a precious stone to heighten its luster). |
| Forshadowing | a premonitory warning of what may occur later. |
| Hamartia or tragic flaw | the tragic hero inevitably makes a disastrous error of judgement that ultimately leads to his destruction. |
| Hurbis | a form of hamartia-one of pride or over-confidence which leads the hero to overlook a divine warning or to break a moral law. |
| Hyperbole | an exaggeration or overstatement to illustrate a point. |
| Metaphor | comparison of two terms that have no literal connection. |
| Nemesis | just punishment for wrongdoing. In Ancient Greek thought this was usually personified as a goddess or as the force which, struck down men possessed by hurbris |
| Oxymoron | two contradictory ideas. |
| Paradox | An apparent contradiction or illogical statement which, upon closer examination, contains some truth. |
| Parallelism | the fact that two characters find themselves in similar situations. |
| Pathetic Fallacy | representation of nature as being in sympathy with or affected by the deeds of feelings of a character. |
| Pathos | the quality in drama which arouses pity or sadness as we contemplate and share in imagination the suffering undergone by a character. |
| Personification | the effect of giving human attributes to a non-living object. |
| Prologue | An opening speech which introduces a play. |
| Prose | refers to written text or speech that contains no rhyme and is justified between left and right margins. (a devious character may shift between verse and prose depending on with whom he is talking and what facade he is presenting.) |
| Pun | is a play on words based on similarity in sound which results in a double meaning. |
| Rhyming couplet | two successive rhymes at the end of a verse which signals the end of a scene to an audience in a theatre without curtains. |
| Shakespearean sonnet | a poem with 3 quatrains plus a rhyming couplet. Rhyming pattern is abab cdcd efef gg. Written in iambic pentameter. |
| Simile | a comparison using like or as. |
| Soliloquy | The speech given by a main character when s/he is alone on stage. Its purpose is to reveal to the audience his/her inner thoughts and feeling. |
| Verse | refers to a type of speech of writing that has a specific rhyming pattern found at the end of each line. This is written in iambic pentameter (line of poetry with five metrical feet). It sounds like a heartbeat. |
| Expostion | creates tone, defines setting and introduces some characters, conflicts |
| Complication | the building of tension caused by the conflict of opposing interest includes all the events leading up to the climax of the story |
| Climax | is a peak of action and emotional intensity. |
| Falling Action | stresses action from the forces opposing the protagonist. Suspense must be amaintaned while the action moves swiftly and logically toward the disaster, the tragedy. |
| Catastrophe | the moment that marks the protagonist's tragic failure, often manifested by the character's death. |
Created by:
WheelsOfSteel789
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