The main character in a story, the one with whom the reader is meant to identify. The person is not necessarily “good”, but is the person whom the reader is most invested in. Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye

Counterpart to the main character/protagonist and source of a story’s main conflict. It may not even be a person

Sequence of events in the story. Exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution

Time and place in which the story occurs.

A struggle between opposing forces which drive the story. This is what keeps the reader reading! The outcome of the story is usually a resolution of the conflict. The opposing force does not have to be a person. The basic types of conflict are: Man vs. Self, Man vs.

Man, Man vs. Nature, Man vs. Society or Man vs. Machine.

The dramatic high of the story. Right before the climax is the turning point, usually where something goes wrong.

The climax then ensues and comes to a resolution. A resolution does not necessarily mean the problem has been solved; only that the high point has ended.

A motif is a recurring important idea, structure or image; it differs from a theme in that it can be expressed as a single word or fragmented phrase. e.g. comparing a person’s stages of life to seasons of the year. A theme usually must be expressed as a complete sentence. A theme is a main universal idea or message conveyed by the piece.

e.g. Little Red Riding Hood’s theme may be “Don’t talk to strangers.”A symbol is an object, colour, person, character or figure used to represent abstract ideas. A symbol, unlike a motif, must be tangible or visible.

The mood or emotional condition created by within the setting. Atmosphere refers to the general sense or feeling which the reader is supposed to get from the text and is not necessarily referring to the characters’ state of mind.

The identity of the narrator’s voice, the point of view from which the reader sees the story. It may be first person (there is no narrator) or third person (the story is told by a character or direct observer in the story).

Where an entire story is representative/symbolic of something else, usually a larger abstract concept or important historical/geopolitical event (e.

g. Animal Farm is an allegory of Soviet totalitarianism).

The repetition of consonant sounds, usually used consecutively in the same sentence (e.g. Silly Sally saw sixty slithering snakes)

Where animals or inanimate objects are portrayed as people.

(e.g. in Animal Farm the animals can talk, walk, and interact like humans).

The repetition of similar vowel sounds in a sentence or a line of poetry or prose, as in “I rose and told him of my woe.” Whitman’s “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer” contains assonantal “I’s” in the following lines: “How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick, / Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself.”

Latin for “God out of the machine”, this term describes the primary conflict being solved out of nowhere, as if God or a miracle could only solve the complex conflict.

The selection of words in a literary work. A work’s diction forms one of its centrally important literary elements, as writers use words to convey action, reveal character, imply attitudes, identify themes, and suggest values. We can speak of the diction particular to a character, as in Iago’s and Desdemona’s very different ways of speaking in Othello. We can also refer to a poet’s diction as represented over the body of his or her work, as in Donne’s or Hughes’s diction.

Where the audience or reader is aware of something important, of which the characters in the story are not aware. Situational irony is different in that the readers are not aware; the results are unexpected and mocking in relation to what was expected (the usual use of the term irony). Verbal irony is an expression that is opposite of what it is intended to mean (e.

g. the Ministry of Love is actually a place of torture and brainwashing in the novel 1984).

Linguistic style means by which an unpleasant, negative or objectionable matter is expressed veiling or euphemistically. A euphemism softens language, what you do not want to express in a direct way. – Example: To die for the word, there are many euphemisms: asleep peacefully, are called to God, passed away.

When an author interrupts a story in order to explain something – usually to provide important background information. An exposition can also be essential information which is given at the beginning of a play or short story, about the plot and the events which are to follow.

An interruption of a work’s chronology to describe or present an incident that occurred prior to the main time frame of a work’s action. Writers use flashbacks to complicate the sense of chronology in the plot of their works and to convey the richness of the experience of human time. Faulkner’s story “A Rose for Emily” includes flashbacks.

A character who is meant to represent characteristics, values or ideas which are opposite to another character (usually the protagonist).

Laertes, in Hamlet, is a foil for the main character; Sydney Carton and Charles Darnay from A Tale of Two Cities are also classic foils.

Where future events in a story, or perhaps the outcome, are suggested by the author before they happen. This suggestion can be made in various ways such as a flashback, an object, or a previous minor situation which reflects a more significant situation later on. This sort of warning sign can also be called a red herring.

A description which uses exaggeration or extremes to convey emphasize a characteristic; e.

g. “I told you a thousand times!” does not mean the person has been one thousand times.

The pattern of related comparative aspects of language, particularly of images, in a literary work. Imagery of light and darkness pervade James Joyce’s stories “Araby,” “The Boarding House,” and “The Dead.” So, too, does religious imagery.

Interjections are exclamatory words and feelings that are woven into sentences (also in the spoken language) to express a certain feeling intensified. – Examples: Whoa, where do you come from? Oh, if only you knew!

A contrast or discrepancy between what is said and what is meant or between what happens and what is expected to happen in life and in literature. In verbal irony, characters say the opposite of what they mean.

In irony of circumstance or situation, the opposite of what is expected occurs. In dramatic irony, a character speaks in ignorance of a situation or event known to the audience or to the other characters. Flannery O’Connor’s short stories employ all these forms of irony, as does Poe’s “Cask of Amontillado.”

A metaphor is direct relationship where one thing IS another (e.g. “Juliet is the sun”).

A simile, on the other hand, is indirect and usually only likened to be similar to something else. Similes usually use “like” or “as” (e.g. “Your eyes are like the ocean”).

The use of words to imitate the sounds they describe. Words such as buzz and crack are onomatopoetic.

Style character in text, in which two originally contradictory concepts connected to an expression to each other. The aim is to increase the vividness of speech and expression in a text – examples: a young old man, black snow, bitter sweet

The use of similar or identical language, structures, events or ideas in different parts of a text.

A humorous, mocking imitation of a literary work, sometimes sarcastic, but often playful and even respectful in its playful imitation. Examples include Bob McKenty’s parody of Frost’s “Dust of Snow” and Kenneth Koch’s parody of Williams’s “This is Just to Say.”

When the mood of the character is reflected in the atmosphere (weather) or inanimate objects.

Where inanimate objects or abstract concepts are given human thoughts, actions, perceptions and emotions. E.

g. “The moon danced mournfully over the water” – you see that a moon cannot actually dance or with mourning, therefore it is being personified in order to create artistic meaning.

When a specific word, phrase, or structure is repeated several times, usually in close proximity, to emphasize a particular idea.

A figure of speech in which a writer or speaker says less than what he or she means; the opposite of exaggeration. The last line of Frost’s “Birches” illustrates this literary device: “One could do worse than be a swinger of birches.”

Words spoken by an actor directly to the audience, which are not “heard” by the other characters on stage during a play. In Shakespeare’s Othello, Iago voices his inner thoughts a number of times as “asides” for the play’s audience.

The repetition of similar vowel sounds in a sentence or a line of poetry or prose, as in “I rose and told him of my woe.” Whitman’s “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer” contains assonantal “I’s” in the following lines: “How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick, / Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself.”

The action at the end of a tragedy that initiates the denouement or falling action of a play. One example is the dueling scene in Act V of Hamlet in which Hamlet dies, along with Laertes, King Claudius, and Queen Gertrude.

The purging of the feelings of pity and fear that, according to Aristotle, occur in the audience of tragic drama. The audience experiences catharsis at the end of the play, following the catastrophe.

An imaginary person that inhabits a literary work. Literary characters may be major or minor, static (unchanging) or dynamic (capable of change).

In Shakespeare’s Othello, Desdemona is a major character, but one who is static, like the minor character Bianca. Othello is a major character who is dynamic, exhibiting an ability to change.

The means by which writers present and reveal character. Although techniques of characterization are complex, writers typically reveal characters through their speech, dress, manner, and actions.

Readers come to understand the character Miss Emily in Faulkner’s story “A Rose for Emily” through what she says, how she lives, and what she does.

A group of characters in Greek tragedy (and in later forms of drama), who comment on the action of a play without participation in it. Their leader is the choragos. Sophocles’ Antigone and Oedipus the King both contain an explicit chorus with a choragos. Tennessee Williams’s Glass Menagerie contains a character who functions like a chorus.

The turning point of the action in the plot of a play or story. The climax represents the point of greatest tension in the work. The climax of John Updike’s “A & P,” for example, occurs when Sammy quits his job as a cashier.

A type of drama in which the characters experience reversals of fortune, usually for the better. In comedy, things work out happily in the end. Comic drama may be either romantic–characterized by a tone of tolerance and geniality–or satiric. Satiric works offer a darker vision of human nature, one that ridicules human folly. Shaw’s Arms and the Man is a romantic comedy; Chekhov’s Marriage Proposal is a satiric comedy.

An intensification of the conflict in a story or play. Complication builds up, accumulates, and develops the primary or central conflict in a literary work.

Frank O’Connor’s story “Guests of the Nation” provides a striking example, as does Ralph Ellison’s “Battle Royal.”

A customary feature of a literary work, such as the use of a chorus in Greek tragedy, the inclusion of an explicit moral in a fable, or the use of a particular rhyme scheme in a villanelle. Literary conventions are defining features of particular literary genres, such as novel, short story, ballad, sonnet, and play

The resolution of the plot of a literary work. The denouement of Hamlet takes place after the catastrophe, with the stage littered with corpses. During the denouement Fortinbras makes an entrance and a speech, and Horatio speaks his sweet lines in praise of Hamlet.

The conversation of characters in a literary work. In fiction, dialogue is typically enclosed within quotation marks.

In plays, characters’ speech is preceded by their names.

The selection of words in a literary work. A work’s diction forms one of its centrally important literary elements, as writers use words to convey action, reveal character, imply attitudes, identify themes, and suggest values. We can speak of the diction particular to a character, as in Iago’s and Desdemona’s very different ways of speaking in Othello. We can also refer to a poet’s diction as represented over the body of his or her work, as in Donne’s or Hughes’s diction.

A type of poem in which a speaker addresses a silent listener. As readers, we overhear the speaker in a dramatic monologue.

Robert Browning’s “My Last Duchess” represents the epitome of the genre

Latin for the characters or persons in a play. Included among the dramatis personae of Miller’s Death of a Salesman are Willy Loman, the salesman, his wife Linda, and his sons Biff and Happy.

The first stage of a fictional or dramatic plot, in which necessary background information is provided. Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, for instance, begins with a conversation between the two central characters, a dialogue that fills the audience in on events that occurred before the action of the play begins, but which are important in the development of its plot.

A brief story with an explicit moral provided by the author. Fables typically include animals as characters. Their most famous practitioner in the west is the ancient Greek writer Aesop, whose “The Dog and the Shadow” and “The Wolf and the Mastiff” are included in this book.

A form of language use in which writers and speakers convey something other than the literal meaning of their words. Examples include hyperbole or exaggeration, litotes or understatement, simile and metaphor, which employ comparison, and synecdoche and metonymy, in which a part of a thing stands for the whole.

A character who contrasts and parallels the main character in a play or story. Laertes, in Hamlet, is a foil for the main character; in Othello, Emilia and Bianca are foils for Desdemona.

The imaginary wall of the box theater setting, supposedly removed to allow the audience to see the action. The fourth wall is especially common in modern and contemporary plays such as Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, Wasserstein’s Tender Offer, and Wilson’s Fences.

The physical movement of a character during a play. Gesture is used to reveal character, and may include facial expressions as well as movements of other parts of an actor’s body. Sometimes a playwright will be very explicit about both bodily and facial gestures, providing detailed instructions in the play’s stage directions. Shaw’s Arms and the Man includes such stage directions.

See Stage direction.

A concrete representation of a sense impression, a feeling, or an idea. Imagery refers to the pattern of related details in a work. In some works one image predominates either by recurring throughout the work or by appearing at a critical point in the plot. Often writers use multiple images throughout a work to suggest states of feeling and to convey implications of thought and action. Some modern poets, such as Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams, write poems that lack discursive explanation entirely and include only images. Among the most famous examples is Pound’s poem “In a Station of the Metro”: The apparition of these faces in the crowd; Petals on a wet, black bough.

A figure of speech in which a closely related term is substituted for an object or idea.

An example: “We have always remained loyal to the crown.” See Synecdoche.

A humorous, mocking imitation of a literary work, sometimes sarcastic, but often playful and even respectful in its playful imitation. Examples include Bob McKenty’s parody of Frost’s “Dust of Snow” and Kenneth Koch’s parody of Williams’s “This is Just to Say.” 0

A quality of a play’s action that stimulates the audience to feel pity for a character. Pathos is always an aspect of tragedy, and may be present in comedy as well.

Articles or objects that appear on stage during a play. The Christmas tree in A Doll’s House and Laura’s collection of glass animals in The Glass Menagerie are examples.

The point at which a character understands his or her situation as it really is. Sophocles’ Oedipus comes to this point near the end of Oedipus the King; Othello comes to a similar understanding of his situation in Act V of Othello.

The point at which the action of the plot turns in an unexpected direction for the protagonist. Oedipus’s and Othello’s recognitions are also reversals. They learn what they did not expect to learn.

See Recognition and also Irony.

A literary work that criticizes human misconduct and ridicules vices, stupidities, and follies. Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels is a famous example. Chekhov’s Marriage Proposal and O’Connor’s “Everything That Rises Must Converge,” have strong satirical elements.

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. Hamlet’s “To be or not to be” speech is an example. See Aside.

A playwright’s descriptive or interpretive comments that provide readers (and actors) with information about the dialogue, setting, and action of a play. Modern playwrights, including Ibsen, Shaw, Miller, and Williams tend to include substantial stage directions, while earlier playwrights typically used them more sparsely, implicitly, or not at all. See Gesture.

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. Tennessee Williams describes these in his detailed stage directions for The Glass Menagerie and also in his production notes for the play.

What a story or play is about; to be distinguished from plot and theme. Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” is about the decline of a particular way of life endemic to the American south before the civil war. Its plot concerns how Faulkner describes and organizes the actions of the story’s characters. Its theme is the overall meaning Faulkner conveys.

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A figure of speech in which a part is substituted for the whole. An example: “Lend me a hand.” See Metonymy.

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.

In the following example, normal syntax (subject, verb, object order) is inverted: “Whose woods these are I think I know.”

A type of drama in which the characters experience reversals of fortune, usually for the worse. In tragedy, catastrophe and suffering await many of the characters, especially the hero.

Examples include Shakespeare’s Othello and Hamlet; Sophocles’ Antigone and Oedipus the King, and Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. See Tragic flaw and Tragic hero.

A weakness or limitation of character, resulting in the fall of the tragic hero. Othello’s jealousy and too trusting nature is one example. See Tragedy and Tragic hero.

The idea that a play should be limited to a specific time, place, and story line. The events of the plot should occur within a twenty-four hour period, should occur within a give geographic locale, and should tell a single story.

Aristotle argued that Sophocles’ Oedipus the King was the perfect play for embodying the unities.

A nineteen-line lyric poem that relies heavily on repetition. The first and third lines alternate throughout the poem, which is structured in six stanzas –five tercets and a concluding quatrain. Examples include Bishop’s “One Art,” Roethke’s “The Waking,” and Thomas’s “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night.”

This is the one device most commonly associated with poetry by the general public. Words thathave different beginning sounds but whose endings sound alike, including the final vowel sound andeverything following it, are said to rhyme.

Example: time, slime, mimeDouble rhymes include the final two syllables. Example: revival, arrival, survivalTriple rhymes include the final three syllables. Example: greenery, machinery, sceneryA variation which has been used effectively is called slant rhyme, or half rhyme. If only the finalconsonant sounds of the words are the same, but the initial consonants and the vowel sounds aredifferent, then the rhyme is called a slant rhyme or half rhyme.

When this appears in the middle of linesrather than at the end, it is called consonance.Example: soul, oil, foul; taut, sat, knitAnother variation which is occasionally used is called near rhyme. If the final vowel sounds are the