drama terms
TRANSCRIPT
Drama Terms
1. DRAMA is a literary art form that re-creates human life and emotions. The medium is dialogue and action within a frame of sequential events. Drama has both written form (a script) and a living form (the stage presentation).
2. DRAMATIC CONVENTIONS are techniques that substitute for reality. These techniques give the audience information they could not get from a straightforward presentation of action. Conventions must be realistic enough that the audience can experience "that willing suspension of disbelief" so essential to a good drama.
3. CONCEALMENT is a dramatic convention that allows a character to be seen by the audience, but remain hidden from fellow actors. This convention shows the differing perceptions of the various characters.
4. A SOLILOQUY allows a character to speak his thoughts aloud, but not directly to the audience. This involves introspection, revealing the character's personal thoughts and feelings that would otherwise remain unvoiced.
5. An ASIDE is a convention that lets a character speak directly to the audience without being overheard by the other characters. This convention permits emphasis of character difference and audience involvement on a more personal level.
6. DRAMATIC IRONY occurs when a character's words or acts carry a larger meaning he does not perceive. The audience, however, is fully aware of the character's situation and can realize the full importance of the action.
7. TRAGEDY is drama that gives the audience a feeling of emotional cleansing (catharsis). The protagonist, a person of nobility, must make a moral decision that in turn influences the outcome of the drama. The protagonist usually has a serious fault - a tragic flaw - that leads to his downfall and death. The terror and pity felt by the audience produces the catharsis, a cleansing or purifying emotion.
8. TRAGIC FLAW is the flaw, error, or defect in the tragic hero that leads to his downfall.
9. DRAMATIC STRUCTURE of a conventional tragedy is essentially
the architecture of a drama. It consists of these components:
The introduction provides exposition. It creates tone, defines setting, and introduces some characters. Introduction is the background information essential to the play.The complication is the rising action - the building of tension caused by the conflict of opposing interests. The complication peaks at the moment of crisis.The climax is the peak of action and emotional intensity. From this high point, action and intensity must necessarily decline, so climax is sometimes referred to as the turning point.The falling action (denouement) stresses action from the forces opposing the protagonist. Suspense must be maintained while action moves swiftly and logically toward the disaster, the tragedy.
The catastrophe is the moment marking the hero's tragic failure, often manifested by his death. This moment of tragedy satisfies the audience in its logical conformity to the order of events and in the nobility of the dying hero.
10. HAMARTIA: The "great error or frailty" through which the fortunes of the tragic hero are reversed. Aristotle asserts that the protagonist of a tragedy should be "a man who is not eminently good or just, yet whose misfortune is brought about not by vice or depravity, but by some error or frailty." This hamartia, often called the Tragic Flaw, may be caused by bad judgment, bad character, inherited weakness, or any of several other possible causes of error; it must, however, express itself through a definite action, or failure to perform a definite action.
11. HUBRIS: Overwhelming pride that results in the misfortune of the protagonist of a tragedy. It is the particular form of hamartia, or tragic flaw, which results from excessive pride, ambition, and overconfidence. HUBRIS leads the protagonist to break a moral law or ignore divine warning with calamitous results.
12. PROTAGONIST: "Hero" - Main character
13. ANTAGONIST: "Villain" - Adversary (character or force)
14. CHORUS is used in drama to express opinions or emotions en mass, or to give exposition. In the earliest Greek plays the chorus was a large group of men dancing and chanting or singing in unison. Eventually the number was reduced to twelve or fifteen, and one member, the chorus leader, was given individual lines. Playwrights used the chorus to interpret and recall past events, to comment on the actions of the characters in the play, or to foretell the future. Although its role and importance varied from play to play, the chorus often voiced the emotions experienced by the audience. The actors participated dressed colorfully in fine garments and wearing masks. The masks symbolized the character being played: a sad mask for a tragic character, a comic mask for a buffoon.
15. FOIL: One character that serves as contrast to another.
Student Center | Instructor Center | Information Center | HomeComplete GlossaryGlossary of Drama TermsGlossary of Fiction TermsGlossary of Poetic TermsCareer ConsiderationsAvoiding PlagiarismSummary & ParaphrasingInternet GuideElectronic ResearchStudy Skills Primer
FeedbackHelp Center
Responding to Literature: Stories, Poems, Plays, and Essays, 4/eJudith Stanford, Rivier College
Glossary of Drama Terms
AllegoryA symbolic narrative in which the surface details imply a secondary meaning. Allegory often takes the form of a story in which the characters represent moral qualities. The most famous example in English is John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, in which the name of the central character, Pilgrim, epitomizes the book's allegorical nature. Kay Boyle's story "Astronomer's Wife" and Christina Rossetti's poem "Up-Hill" both contain allegorical elements.
AlliterationThe repetition of consonant sounds, especially at the
beginning of words. Example: "Fetched fresh, as I suppose, off some sweet wood." Hopkins, "In the Valley of the Elwy."
AntagonistA character or force against which another character struggles. Creon is Antigone's antagonist in Sophocles' play Antigone; Teiresias is the antagonist of Oedipus in Sophocles' Oedipus the King.
AsideWords 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.
AssonanceThe 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."
CatastropheThe 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.
Catharsis 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.
CharacterAn 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.
CharacterizationThe 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.
ChorusA 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.
ClimaxThe 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.
ComedyA 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.
Comic reliefThe use of a comic scene to interrupt a succession of intensely tragic dramatic moments. The comedy of scenes offering comic relief typically parallels the tragic action that the scenes interrupt. Comic relief is lacking in Greek tragedy, but occurs regularly in Shakespeare's tragedies. One example is the opening scene of Act V of Hamlet, in which a gravedigger banters with Hamlet.
ComplicationAn 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."
ConflictA struggle between opposing forces in a story or play, usually resolved by the end of the work. The conflict may occur within a character as well as between characters. Lady Gregory's one-act play The Rising of the Moon exemplifies both types of conflict as the Policeman wrestles with his conscience in an inner conflict and confronts an antagonist in the person of the ballad singer.
ConnotationThe associations called up by a word that goes beyond its dictionary meaning. Poets, especially, tend to use words rich in connotation. Dylan Thomas's "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night" includes intensely connotative language, as in these lines: "Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright / Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay, / Rage, rage against the dying of the light."
ConventionA 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.
DenotationThe dictionary meaning of a word. Writers typically play off a word's denotative meaning against its connotations, or suggested and implied associational implications. In the following lines from Peter Meinke's "Advice to My Son" the references to flowers and fruit, bread and wine denote specific things, but also suggest something beyond the literal, dictionary meanings of the words:
To be specific, between the peony and rosePlant squash and spinach, turnips and tomatoes;Beauty is nectar and nectar, in a desert, saves--...and always serve bread with your wine.But, son,always serve wine.
DenouementThe 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.
Deus ex machinaA god who resolves the entanglements of a play by supernatural intervention. The Latin phrase means, literally, "a god from the machine." The phrase refers to the use of artificial means to resolve the plot of a play.
DialogueThe 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.
DictionThe 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.
Dramatic monologueA 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.
Dramatis personaeLatin 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.
ExpositionThe 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.
FableA 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.
Falling actionIn the plot of a story or play, the action following the climax of the work that moves it towards its denouement or resolution. The falling action of Othello begins after Othello realizes that Iago is responsible for plotting against him by spurring him on to murder his wife, Desdemona.
FictionAn imagined story, whether in prose, poetry, or drama. Ibsen's Nora is fictional, a "make-believe" character in a play, as are Hamlet and Othello. Characters like Robert Browning's Duke and Duchess from his poem "My Last Duchess" are fictional as well, though they may be based on actual historical individuals. And, of course, characters in stories and novels are fictional, though they, too, may be based, in some way, on real people. The important thing to remember is that writers embellish and embroider and alter actual life when they use real life as the basis for their work. They fictionalize facts, and deviate from real-life situations as they "make things up."
Figurative languageA 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.
FlashbackAn 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.
FoilA 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.
FootA metrical unit composed of stressed and unstressed syllables. For example, an iamb or iambic foot is represented by ˘', that is, an unaccented syllable followed by an accented one. Frost's line "Whose woods these are I think I know" contains four iambs, and is thus an iambic foot.
ForeshadowingHints of what is to come in the action of a play or a story. Ibsen's A Doll's House includes foreshadowing as does Synge's Riders to the Sea. So, too, do Poe's "Cask of Amontillado" and Chopin's "Story of an Hour."
Fourth wallThe 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.
GestureThe 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.
HyperboleA figure of speech involving exaggeration. John Donne uses hyperbole in his poem: "Song: Go and Catch a Falling Star."
IambAn unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one, as in to-DAY. See Foot.
ImageA 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.
ImageryThe 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.
IronyA 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."
Literal languageA form of language in which writers and speakers mean exactly what their words denote. See Figurative language, Denotation, and Connotation.
MetaphorA comparison between essentially unlike things without an explicitly comparative word such as like or as. An example is "My love is a red, red rose,"
From Burns's "A Red, Red Rose." Langston Hughes's "Dream Deferred" is built entirely of metaphors. Metaphor is one of the most important of literary uses of language. Shakespeare employs a wide range of metaphor in his sonnets and his plays, often in such density and profusion that readers are kept busy analyzing and interpreting and unraveling them. Compare Simile.
MeterThe measured pattern of rhythmic accents in poems. See Foot and Iamb.
MetonymyA 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.
Monologue
A speech by a single character without another character's response. See Dramatic monologue and Soliloquy.
NarratorThe voice and implied speaker of a fictional work, to be distinguished from the actual living author. For example, the narrator of Joyce's "Araby" is not James Joyce himself, but a literary fictional character created expressly to tell the story. Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" contains a communal narrator, identified only as "we." See Point of view.
OnomatopoeiaThe use of words to imitate the sounds they describe. Words such as buzz and crack are onomatopoetic. The following line from Pope's "Sound and Sense" onomatopoetically imitates in sound what it describes:
When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw,The line too labors, and the words move slow.
Most often, however, onomatopoeia refers to words and groups of words, such as Tennyson's description of the "murmur of innumerable bees," which attempts to capture the sound of a swarm of bees buzzing.
ParodyA 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."
PathosA 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.
PersonificationThe endowment of inanimate objects or abstract concepts with animate or living qualities. An example: "The yellow leaves flaunted their color gaily in the breeze." Wordsworth's "I wandered lonely as a cloud" includes personification.
PlotThe unified structure of incidents in a literary work. See Conflict, Climax, Denouement, andFlashback.
Point of viewThe angle of vision from which a story is narrated. See Narrator. A work's point of view can be: first person, in which the narrator is a character or an observer, respectively; objective, in which the narrator knows or appears to know no more than the reader; omniscient, in
which the narrator knows everything about the characters; and limited omniscient, which allows the narrator to know some things about the characters but not everything.
Props 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.
ProtagonistThe main character of a literary work--Hamlet and Othello in the plays named after them, Gregor Samsa in Kafka's Metamorphosis, Paul in Lawrence's "Rocking-Horse Winner."
QuatrainA four-line stanza in a poem, the first four lines and the second four lines in a Petrachan sonnet. A Shakespearean sonnet contains three quatrains followed by a couplet.
RecognitionThe 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.
ResolutionThe sorting out or unraveling of a plot at the end of a play, novel, or story. See Plot.
ReversalThe 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.
Rising actionA set of conflicts and crises that constitute the part of a play's or story's plot leading up to the climax. See Climax, Denouement, and Plot.
SatireA 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.
SettingThe time and place of a literary work that establish its context. The stories of Sandra Cisneros are set in the American southwest in the mid to late 20th century, those of James Joyce in Dublin, Ireland in the early 20th century.
SimileA figure of speech involving a comparison between unlike
things using like, as, or as though. An example: "My love is like a red, red rose."
SoliloquyA 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.
Stage directionA 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.
StagingThe 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.
StanzaA division or unit of a poem that is repeated in the same form--either with similar or identical patterns or rhyme and meter, or with variations from one stanza to another. The stanzas of Gertrude Schnackenberg's "Signs" are regular; those of Rita Dove's "Canary" are irregular.
StyleThe way an author chooses words, arranges them in sentences or in lines of dialogue or verse, and develops ideas and actions with description, imagery, and other literary techniques. See Connotation, Denotation, Diction, Figurative language, Image, Imagery, Irony, Metaphor, Narrator, Point of view, Syntax, and Tone.
SubjectWhat 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.
SubplotA subsidiary or subordinate or parallel plot in a play or story that coexists with the main plot. The story of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern forms a subplot with the overall plot of Hamlet.
SymbolAn object or action in a literary work that means more than itself, that stands for something beyond itself. The glass unicorn in The Glass Menagerie, the rocking horse in "The Rocking-Horse Winner," the road in Frost's "The Road Not Taken"--all are symbols in this sense.
SynecdocheA figure of speech in which a part is substituted for the whole. An example: "Lend me a hand." See Metonymy.
SyntaxThe 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."
TercetA three-line stanza, as the stanzas in Frost's "Acquainted With the Night" and Shelley's "Ode to the West Wind." The three-line stanzas or sections that together constitute the sestet of a Petrarchan or Italian sonnet.
ThemeThe idea of a literary work abstracted from its details of language, character, and action, and cast in the form of a generalization. See discussion of Dickinson's "Crumbling is not an instant's Act."
ToneThe implied attitude of a writer toward the subject and characters of a work, as, for example, Flannery O'Connor's ironic tone in her "Good Country People." See Irony.
TragedyA 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.
Tragic flawA 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.
Tragic heroA privileged, exalted character of high repute, who, by virtue of a tragic flaw and fate, suffers a fall from glory into suffering. Sophocles' Oedipus is an example. See Tragedy and Tragic flaw.
UnderstatementA 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."
UnitiesThe 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.
VillanelleA 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."
2003 McGraw-Hill Higher EducationAny use is subject to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
McGraw-Hill Higher Education is one of the many fine businesses of The McGraw-Hill Companies.
Academic drama Acatalectic Accent Accentual verse Acrostic Allegory Alliteration Allusion Allution Anachronism Analects Analogue Analogy Anapest Anaphora Anastrophe Anecdote Angry Young Men Annal Annotation Antagonist Antepenult Anthology Anticlimax
Anti-hero Anti-masque Anti-romance Antinovel Antistrophe Antithesis Antonym Aphorism Apocope Apocrypha Apollonian and Dionysian Apologue Apology Apothegm Aposiopesis Apostrophe Apron stage Arcadia Archaism Archetype Aristeia Argument Arsis Art for art's sake Asemic Aside Assonance Atmosphere Attitude Aube Aubade Audience Autobiography Autotelic Avant-garde
[edit] B
"The Leopard" from the 13th-century bestiary "Rochester Bestiary." Ballad Ballade Ballad stanza Bard Baroque Bathos Beast epic Beast poetry Beat Generation Beginning rhyme Belles-lettres Bestiary Beta reader Bibliography Bildungsroman Biography Black humor Blank verse Bloomsbury Group Body Bombast Boulevard drama Bourgeosis drama Bouts-rimés Bowdlerize Breviloquence Broadside
Burlesque Burletta Burns stanza Buskin Byronic hero
[edit] C Caca Cadence Caesura Calligram Canon canso Canticum Canto Canzone Capa y espada Captivity narrative Caricature Carmen figuratum Carpe diem Catachresis Catalectic Catalexis Catastrophe Catharsis Caudate sonnet Cavalier drama Cavalier poetry Celtic Renaissance Celtic Twilight Cesura Chain of Being Chain verse Chanson de geste Chansonnier Chant royal Chantey Chanty Chapbook Character Characterization Charactonym Chaucerian stanza Chiasmus Chivalric romance
Choriamb Choriambus Chorus Chronicle Chronical play Cinquain Classicism Classification (literature) Classification of rhymes (Peter Dale) Clerihew Cliché Climax Cloak-and-sword play Closed heroic couplet Closet drama Comédie larmoyante Comedy Comedy of errors Comedy of humors Comedy of intrigue Comedy of manners Comedic relief Commedia dell'arte Comic relief Common measure Commonplace book Common rhyme Comoedia erudate Comparative linguistics Compensation Complaint Conceit Concordance Concrete universal Confessional literature Confidant /confidante Conflict Connotation Consistency Consonance Contradiction Contrast Convention Copyright Counterplot Coup de théâtre
Couplet Courtesy book Courtly love Cowleyan ode Cradle books Craft cycle Crisis Criticism Cross acrostic Crown of sonnets Curtain raiser Curtal sonnet
[edit] D Dactyl Dada Dale's classification of rhymes Dandyism Débat Decadence Decasyllabic verse Decorum Denotation Denouement Description Descriptive lingustics Detective story Deus ex machina Deuteragonist Dialect Dialogue Dibrach Diction Didactic Digest Digression Dime novel Diameter Dipody Dirge Dissociation of sensibility Dissonance Distich Distributed Stress Dithyramb Diverbium
Divine afflatus Doggerel Dolce stil nuove Domestic tragedy Donnée Doppelgänger Double Double rhyme Drama Drama of sensibility Dramatic character Dramatic irony Dramatic lyric Dramatic monologue Dramatic proverb Dramatis personae Dramatugy Dream allegory Dream vision Droll Dumb show Duodecimo Duologue Duple meter /duple rhythm Dystopia
[edit] E Echo verse Eclogue Edition Elegiac couplet Elegiac meter Elegy Elision Emblem Emblem book Emendation Emotive language Encomiastic verse End rhyme End-stopped line English sonnet Enjambment Entr'acte Envoy /envoi Èpater le bourgeois
Epic poetry Epic simile Epic Theater Epigram Epigraph Epilogue Epiphany Episode Epistle Epistolary novel Epistrophe Epitaph Epithalamion Epithet Epizeuxis Epode Eponymous author Equivalence Erziehungsroman Essay Ethos Eulogy Euphony Euphuism Evidence Exegesis Exemplum Existentialism Exordium Experimental novel Explication de texte Exposition Expressionism Extended metaphor Extension Extrametrical verse Extravaganza Eye rhyme
[edit] F Fable Fabliau Falling action Falling rhythm Fancy and imagination Fantasy
Farce Feeling Feminine ending Feminine rhyme Fiction Figurative language Figure of speech Fin de siècle Flashback Flat character Fleshly school Foil Folio Folk drama Folklore Folk tale Foot Foreshadowing Form Four levels of meaning Four meanings of a poem Fourteener Frame story Free verse French forms Freytag's pyramid Fugitives and Agrarians Fustian Futurism
[edit] G
From the 13th-century Carmina Burana, a collection of love and vagabond songs in Goliardic verse from Benediktbeurn Monastery.
Gallows humor Gamebooks Gathering Genetic fallacy Genius and talent Genre Georgian poetry Georgic Gesta Gloss Gnomic verse Golden line Goliardic verse Gongorism Gonzo journalism Gothic novel Grand Guignol Graveyard poetry Graveyard school Greek tragedy Grub Street Grundyism Guignol
[edit] H Hagiography
Hagiology Haikai Haikai no renga Haiku Half rhyme Hamartia Handwaving Headless line Head rhyme Hebraism -Hellenism "The Hedgehog and the Fox" Hemistich Hendecasyllable Hendecasyllabic verse Heptameter Heptastrich Heresy of Paraphrase Hero Heroic couplets Heroic drama Heroic quatrain Heroic stanza Hexameter Hexastich Hiatus High comedy Higher criticism Historical linguistics Historical novel Historic present History play Hokku Holograph Homeric epithet Homeric simile Homily Horatian ode Horatian satire Hornbook Hovering accent Hubris Hudibrastic verse Humor Humours Hybris Hymn
Hymnal stanza Hyperbole Hypercatalectic Hypermetrical Hypocorism Hysteron-proteron
[edit] I Iambic pentameter Ideology Idiom Imagery Imagism Impressionism Indeterminacy Inference In medias res Internal rhyme Interpretation Intertextuality Irony
[edit] J Jacobean era Jeremiad Journal Judicial criticism Juncture Juggernaut Juvenalian satire Juxtaposition
[edit] K Kabuki Katharsis Kenning Kigo "King's English" Kireji Kitsch Künstlerroman
[edit] L Lai Lake Poets
Lament Lampoon L'art pour l'art Laureate Lay Leaf Legend Legitimate theater Leonine rhyme Letters Level stress (even accent) Libretto Light ending Light poetry Light rhyme Light stress Light verse Limerick (poetry) Linguistics Linked rhyme Link sonnet Literary ballad Literary criticism Literary epic Literary realism Literary theory Literature Litotes Litterateur Liturgical drama Living newspaper Local color Logaoedic Logical fallacy Logical stress Logos Long measure Loose sentence Lost Generation Low comedy Lyric
[edit] M Macaronic verse Madrigal Magical realism
Malapropism Märchen Marginalia Marinism Marivauge Marxist literary criticism Masculine ending Masculine rhyme Masked comedy Masque Maxim Meaning Medieval drama Meiosis Melic poetry Melodrama Memoir Menippean satire Mesostich Metaphor Metaphysical conceit Metaphysical poetry Meter Metonymy Metre Metrical accent Metrical foot Metrical structure Middle Comedy Miles gloriosus Miltonic sonnet Mime Mimesis Minnesinger Minstrel Miracle play Miscellanies Mise en scène Mixed metaphor Mock epic Mock heroic Mode Modernism Monodrama Monody Monograph
Monologue Monometer Monopody Monostich Monograph Mood Mora Moral Morality play Motif Motivation Movement Mummery Muses Musical comedy Mystery play Mythology
[edit] N Narrative point of view Narrator Naturalism Neologism Non-fiction Non-fiction novel Novel Novelette Novella Novelle narrative poem
[edit] O Objective correlative Objective criticism Obligatory scene Octameter Octave Ode Oedipus complex Onomatopoeia Open couplet Orchestra_(literary term) Oxymoron
[edit] P Palinode Pantoum Pantun Parable Paraclausithyron Paradelle Paradox Pararhyme Partimen Pastourelle Pathetic fallacy Pathya Vat Parallelism Parody Pastoral Pathos Pentameter Periodic sentence Peripetia perspective Persona Personification Pièce bien faite Picaresque novel Plain Style Platonic Plot Poem Poem and song Poetic diction Poetic transrealism Poetry Point of view Polysyndeton Post-colonialism Postmodernism Pound's Ideogrammic Method Prologue Progymnasmata Prose Prosimetrum Prosody Protagonist Proverb Pruning poem
Psychoanalytic literary criticism Psychoanalytic theory Pun Purple patch Pyrrhic
[edit] Q Quadrivium Quantitative verse Quantity Quarto Quatorzain Quatrain Quiproquo
[edit] R Reader-response criticism Realism Refrain Renga Renku Repetition Resolution Rhapsodes Rhetoric Rhyme Rhythm Roman a clef Romance novel Romanticism Russian formalism
[edit] S Satire Scanning Scansion Scene a faire Sea shanty Semiotics Semiotic literary criticism Setting Shanty Sestet Shakespearean sonnet Simile
Slice of life Sobriquet Soliloquy Sonnet
o Sonneteer Speaker Sprung rhythm Stanza Static character Stereotype Stock epithet Stream of consciousness Structuralism Subplot Syllogism Symbol Synecdoche Synaesthesia Syntax
[edit] T Tableau Tail rhyme Tagelied Tale Tall Tale Telestich Tanka Tenor Tension Tercet Terza rima Tetrameter Tetrastich Textual criticism Texture Theater of Cruelty Theatre of the Absurd Theme Thesis Thesis play Threnody Tirade Tone Tract Tractarian Movement
Tragedy Tragedy of blood Tragic flaw Tragic Hero Tragic irony Tragicomedy Tranche de vie Transcendentalism Transferred epithet Transition Translation Travesty Triad Tribe of Ben Tribrach Trimeter Triolet Triple rhyme Triple meter Triple rhythm Triplet Tristich Tritagonist Trivium Trobar clus Trochee Trope (literature) Troubadour Trouvère Truncated line Tumbling verse Type character
[edit] U Ubi sunt Underground culture Underground press Understatement Unities Unity Universality University Wits Unobtainium Utopia Utopian and dystopian fiction Unreliable narrator
[edit] V Variable syllable Variorum Varronian satire (Menippean satire) Vates Vaudeville Vehicle Verbal irony Verisimilitude Verism Vers de société Verse Verse paragraph Vers libre Verso Victorianism Viewpoint Vignette Villain Villanelle Virelay Virgule Voice (of the writer) Voice (in phonetics) Volta Vorticism Vulgate
[edit] W Wardour Street English Weak ending Weak foot Well-made play Wellerism Western fiction Wimmering Wit Word accent Wrenched accent Watermark
Glossary of Theatre/Drama Terms 1
Act: A major division of a play. Acts may be further divided into scenes. Either may be used to indicate a change of time or place.
Actor: One who performs a role or represents a character in a play. *The term is now used for both male and female performers.
Actress: A woman or a girl who represents a character
Audience: The group of persons assembled in a theatre to watch a play.
Audition: (n) The chance to read for a part in a play. (v) Reading for a part in a play.
Beat: The length of a pause between words, speeches or actions. One beat is roughly equivalent to a count of one.
Blocking: The process of determining the movements of actors on stage
Cast: All the actors performing in a play
Casting: The process of auditions and interviews by which the director selects the actors to play the roles in the play
Costume: Clothing and accessories worn by the actors in a performance. Costumes can represent time and place; the income, the personality and even the state of mind of a character.
Cue: A signal to begin
Dialogue: Speech between two or more characters
Director: The person charged with overall interpretation of a dramatic work, who conducts the rehearsals, blocks the action and helps the actors in developing their characters.
Fourth Wall: The imaginary fourth wall that is removed from the box set so that the audience can see the action on stage. The term now applies to the “wall” separating audience and performers on any type of stage or even film and television. The term “breaking the fourth wall” refers to an actor speaking directly to the audience.
Freeze: To remain motionless onstage for a predetermined number of beats.
Monologue: Speech by a single actor. The actor generally makes the speech as if speaking to himself/herself and the speech is revealing of his/her thoughts and feelings.
Play: Any work written to be acted on stage.
Playwright: One who writes plays.
Set: The surroundings on stage, visible to the audience, in which the action of the play takes place.
Sight Lines: The imaginary lines of sight from the audience to the stage. These lines of sight – from the extreme sides of the auditorium and from the rear of the balcony – determine the limit of the area on stage in which action can take place and be visible to the entire audience.
Stage: The performance space; the area where the action of a play takes place.
Stage Directions: Indications in a script for entrances and exits and for movement in relation to the set within particular scenes.
Stage a play: To “stage a play” means to rehearse and then perform it.
Suspension of Disbelief: The willingness of an audience to accept what is seen on stage.
Tableau (plural: Tableaux): French for “living picture”, a tableau is a grouping of silent, motionless actors representing an incident and presenting an artistic spectacle; i.e. a frozen picture.
A
allegory:
An extended narrative that carries a second meaning along with the surface meaning. The second meaning is similar in structure to the surface story, shedding light on a story the author expects his reader to recognize. Thus, George Orwell’s Animal Farm sheds light on the development of communism in Russia and does it very well by comparing the revolution to the rebellion of pigs on a farm. The story of how the pigs take over and the corruption that ensues parallels the events in twentieth century Russia. (Beckson 8)
alliteration:
The repetition of consonant sounds at the beginnings of words.To sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock,In a pestilential prison, with a life-long lock,Awaiting the sensation of a short, sharp shock,From a cheap and chippy chopper on a big, black block!W. S. Gilbert, The MikadoAnglo-Saxon prosody was based on alliteration rather than rhyme. (Beckson 9)
allusion:
When a writer or speaker refers to something from history or literature and expects her audience to understand to what she is referring, she is alluding or making an allusion.
I felt like Custer at Little Big Horn when all of the freshmen were attacking me with questions about their lockers and combinations. (The speaker is alluding to the massacre of General George Armstrong Custer Little Big Horn.)How long has it been raining? It seems as if it has been forty days and forty nights. (The speaker likens the weather to Noah's flood which lasted forty days and forty nights.)Do not confuse allusion with the word illusion.
anachronism:
Something that is misplaced in a story because it is out of time. In Julius Caesar, a clock strikes though there were no clocks in Caesar’s day. In the movie Ben-Hur, Charlton Heston anachronistically wears a wristwatch during the chariot race.
anagram:
A word or name created by mixing up the letters of another word. For example, Samuel Butler’s Erewhon is an anagram for the word nowhere. (Beckson 12)
antagonist:
The force or character that opposes the protagonist. In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Bob Ewell serves as antagonist to the Finch family, but actually the greater antagonist is the bigotry and prejudice.
anthology:
A compilation of stories, poems or plays found in one book. Most English classes use an anthology as the main text.
anti-hero:
This is a kind of hero who seems to express qualities that are opposite that of the traditional hero such as courage, honor or honesty. The anti-hero succeeds, but does it on his or her own terms. The anti-hero may reject the qualities that society deems noble, but battles forces in his or her own way. In the film Cool Hand Luke, the protagonist is a career criminal yet his battle against the established order makes him a hero.
archetype:
From the Greek arché, meaning “original” or “primitive,” plus typos , “form.” The term, employed by the psychoanalyst C. G. Jung, has been used in criticism to characterize a pattern of plot or character which evokes what Jung calls a “racial memory.” Thus, the voyage in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is an archetype of the spiritual journey which all people experience, the Ancient Mariner himself an archetype of the man who offends God. Such “primordial images,” as Jung call them, lie in the “collective unconscious,” which is the repository of the experience of the race.
aside
An aside is words spoken to the audience or perhaps to another character while other characters are on stage. The other characters pretend to not hear and we the audience get to listen in on the thoughts. In William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Trebonius is told to stay close to Caesar's side and he replies to Caesar: "Caesar, I will (and in an aside to the audience) and so near will I be,/That your best friends shall wish I had been further." (II. iv. 124-125) The audience hears everything, but everyone pretends that Caesar does not hear Trebonius' threatening words. It is a device used so that the audience gets to hear the candid, inner thoughts of the characters.
atmosphere:
The mood the reader gets from the setting, the characterization and the tone of the narrator.
autobiography:
The life story of a person written by the person. It is a story.
avant-garde:
French: “vanguard.” In literature, a term designating new writing that contains innovations in form or technique.
B
ballad:
A narrative poem that is often meant to be sung.
bard:
A word originally use to refer to an ancient Celtic order of minstrel-poets who composed and sang verses celebrating the achievements of chiefs and warriors; now a synonym for poet. (Beckson 22)
black humor
This term denotes a kind of humor dealing with extremely serious and maybe horrible subjects, usually death and mayhem. The movie M*A*S*H, and sometimes the television show was known for its black humor. Also famous for it is the Stanley Kubrick film Dr. Strangelove (or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb) a black comedy about nuclear destruction. Synonyms for "black humor" are sometimes "dark humor" or "gallows humor." In the sophomoreyear curriculum are a story "Where Have You Gone,
Billy Boy" and a novel The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien that contain black humor.
blank verse
Blank verse is unrhymed iambic pentameter. The "blank" is the unrhymed part. It consists of five (penta) iambs. An iamb is a foot (a section of a line) that has two syllables, the first unaccented and the second accented. (Example: remark or repeat are both iambic because they have two syllables and the second syllable is stronger than the first.) The full line of the poem would have five feet. Poor Thomas threw his money all away.-(Listen for the stresses or stronger syllables.)Poor THOMas THREW his MONey ALL aWAY.-(The capitalized syllables are the stressed ones. Every pair of unaccented and accented syllable form an iambic foot. There are five feet in the line so it will be pentameter. This is iambic pentameter.
C
carpe diem
Latin for "seize the day." This is a term that is popular in the Western world and springs from the realization that life is short and precarious and that tomorrow is promised no one. Balancing this philosophy is the other belief that one must plan and save (energy, money, resources) for the future. The tension between these two philosphies is an important part of everyone's life.
character
Click on the word "character" for information about this subject.
cliché
An old, tired and worn out idea or expression. On Star Trek, every time there came a problem that was too difficult to handle the writers would have someone travel back in time to solve it. This plot line became cliche. Every hospital show has to have a young idealistic intern and an old, cranky administrator that won't give him free reign. These streotypes have become cliche. The motto on top of this page by Socrates is in danger of becoming a cliche, but that just goes to show you (last fove words are a cliche) that just because something is a cliche it doesn't mean it is not true.
climax
The climax of a story is the point where the reader knows who wins the conflict. It has nothing to do with "the most exciting part of a story" or anything else like it. You know yourself that many stories you read in school have no exciting parts. This is strictly a technical term the denotes the part of the story where, now that it has been read or seen, the reader or audience can see when either the protagonist or the antagonist won. Any
story that has conflict has a climax unless it is designed like Frank Stockton's "The Lady or the Tiger" where the whole point of the story was that there is no climax. Click on the word "climax" for more information.
comic relief
conceit
conflict
connotation
consonance
couplet
D
denotation
denouement
deus ex machina
diction
dramatic monologue
dynamic character:
This is a character that fundamentally changes his or her personality or view of life by the end of the story. By the end of the story, Jem Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee has fundamentally changed his view of the town and the town’s people. He has changed from seeing fairy tale monsters to seeing the real monsters in his town of Maycomb. He has gained a greater understanding of human courage and virtue.
E
elegy
epic
epigram
euphemism
Existentialism
F
fable
farce
flashback
flat character:
This character has only one or two sides of a personality. This character can be summed up in one or two sentences. This character, or caricature, lacks surprises or complexity. This is a term used by E. M. Forster in his Aspects of the Novel (1927).
foil:
A foil is a character whose personality and attitude is opposite the personality and attitude of another character. Because these characters contrast, each makes the personality of the other stand out. In Sophocles' Antigone, Ismene is a foil for Antigone. Where Antigone is aware of the world, Ismene denies knowledge and hides from it. Where Antigone stands up to authority, Ismene withers before it. Antigone is active and Ismene is passive. Ismene's presence in the play highlights the qualities Antigone will display in her conflict with Creon making her an excellent foil.
G
genre
H
haiku
hyperbole
I
iamb
imagery
innocence to experience motif
invocation
irony
Essentially the term irony is the expectation of one event and another, completely different event happens and still makes sense. There has to be sense to it.There are three types of irony:verbal irony: Someone uses verbal irony when she says one thing, means the opposite, and everyone understands she means the opposite. Isn't language remarkable?Ex.: After the overworked mother picked up the toys, scrubbed the bathroom floor and tile, cleaned the cat box and got ready to taxi the kids to the mall, she casually remarked, "I simply can't take all this glamour."Ex.: After working non-stop, eighteen hours a day for a solid year, the publisher and his staff saw their magazine finally turn a profit. At a celebratory party, the publisher told his staff how they really ought to be working harder and they laughed.situational irony: The opposite of what is expected to happen, happens. But it still makes sense.Ex.: The firehouse burned down.Ex.: The police station was robbed.Ex.: The teacher failed his test.dramatic irony: The essential part about dramatic irony is that someone, usually an audience, knows something that someone else doesn't know.Ex.: The day after the assassination, someone saw Mary Todd Lincoln and asked her how she enjoyed the play the night before. (We know and Mary knows that Abraham Lincoln was shot at the theater the night before, but the person did not.)
J
jargon
K
kenning
L
lampoon
limerick
local color
M
melodrama
metaphor:
The metaphor is a figure of speech in which one object is compared with another very different kind of object. With the metaphor the qualities that the two objects share are so important and similar that they seem to be the same thing.The ship plowed through the waves. (The ship and the plow go through things so similarly that one is the other in this sentence.You can count on Pete. The guy is a rock. (The solidness of the two objects, Pete and the rock, make it seem as if they are one type of thing.Notice that the metaphor is different from the simile which states that one object is like another.
metonymy:
Metonymy literally means "change of name" and it is essentially just that. When we name a thing by calling it by something that is closely related to it, we use metonymy.Johann was writing another of his stories back in the corner of the room, when his brother poked his head in and called, "Hey, Shakespeare, come here. I need you." (Johann, who is known to be a writer, is called Shakespeare, a famous writer, by his brother.)Mary McGrory is a famous member of the press. (The word press is metonymy because the "press" is a machine closely related to newspapers and reporting.)The marshall was backed up by five guns who signed on as deputies. (The men who were the deputies were being closely related to their guns.)
mock epic
mood
motif:
A motif is an idea, a theme that is repeated or carried through an individual work as when John Steinbeck's narrator constantly compares Lenny to an animal such as horse or bear throughout the novel Of Mice and Men. There are musical motifs as well. In Jaws, the approach of the shark is always signaled by a strumming of bass strings slowly as the music builds in pitch and speed.A motif is also an idea which is so powerful and recognizable that it will be used by many authors and artists in many different works in many different ages. Many writers will liken the ages of a person to the seasons of the year. In the spring of one's life is youth and the winter is old age when older persons are said to have snow on the roof. Other motifs used in many works includes the savior motif and the innocence to experience motif .
myth
N
naturalism
nom de plume
novel
novella
O
ode
onomatopoeia
oxymoron
The oxymoron is a figure of speech which seems to be self contradictory.She had a terrible beauty.There was a deafening silence.The word sophomore is oxymoronic because it means "wise (soph) fool (more)."
P
palindrome
A palindrome is a word that can be read forwards and backwards the same. Small palindromes are dad, boob, race car and such. Or you could have more complicated palindromes like the following. (Please note that none of these are original, though I do not know who first created them.): Words possibly said by Napoleon following his exile: Able was I ere I saw Elba.These words might have been the first words said from one human being to another: Madam, I'm Adam.A cafe could emphasize food for the sweet tooth with this sign: Desserts StressedExclaim you preference for Italian food with: Go hang a salami! I'm a lasagna hog.
parable
paradox:
A paradox is a statement or situation that contradicts itself. The best forms of paradox are those which make sense even though they are self contradictory.Ex.: For millions of Christians the world over, eternal life awaits them after they die.Ex.: If God is omnipotent, can God make a stone that God cannot lift?Ex.: Everything I write is a lie.
Ex.: "Nature's first green is gold." (Robert Frost)
parallelism
parody
persona
The persona is a character the author creates to represent herself. The persona could simply be a narrator or it could be a character that pretends to be the author. In any case, the persona is always a character that is created by the author and is never to be assumed to be the author. In many poems the speaker will voice words or opinions as if the speaker is the poet. This is false. The speaker is also always said to be a creation of the poet. Don't be fooled by this.
personification:
Personification is a kind of metaphor that specifically states that a non-living object has living or life-like qualities.Nature smiles down on us.The angry winds blew.The unrelenting weather dealt us another blow.
Go to Top
plot:
Structure of the Plot:I. Introduction: Several things may be introduced at the beginning of the story.
A.Setting: Where and when the story takes placeB.Protagonist: The main character of the story; who the story is about; this character sets the action in motion.C.Mood: The emotional feeling the reader gets from the setting and character description; the atmosphere.D.Tone: The attitude of the speaker or narrator.
II. Rising Action: This essentially the point where the protagonist meets the antagonist.
A.Conflict: One force meets an opposing force.1. Person vs. Person (External Conflict)2. Person vs. Nature (External Conflict)3. Person vs. Himself or Herself (Internal Conflict)4. Person vs. Society (External Conflict)5. Person vs. Fate, Destiny, God (External Conflict)
B. Antagonist: The character or force which opposes the protagonist.III. Climax: The point at which the reader can see who will inevitable win the conflict. This can often not be seen until the story is over and the reader looks
back on the plot. The climax is not the most exciting part of the story! Some stories do not have exciting parts.IV. Denouement: This is French for “unknotting” and is essentially the wrapping up of all the loose details of the plot in order to satisfy the reader or audience.
These are the four classic parts of a plot. Depending upon the artist, a story may not have all the parts. Many stories are without a denouement. A story like “The Lady or the Tiger” by Frank Stockton does not have a climax.poetry
point of view:
The point of view of the story is the stand point from which the story is told. There are several points of view:first person: With the first person point of view, a character in the story tells the story. There will be uses of the pronoun "I" or "me" or "my." The first person point of view is limited because the character may not know all the facts, may be lying, or may be fooling himself.third person omniscient: The third person omniscient narrator knows all about all the characters and is only limited by what she may want to tell you.third person limited omniscient: This oxymoronic phrase describes a narrator who knows everything but only follows the point of view of one particular character. This narrator will follow the actions and thoughts of this one character, but not any of the others. Thus you are limited to what that one character knows.second person: There actually is a "second person narrator," although in reality it is a grammatically challenged third person narrator. The style which gained some popularity in the 90s wears thin in anything other than a short story. The narrator sounds something like: "You wake up in the morning feeling like warm, dried spit, but you crawl out of bed anyway. Head hanging and bent, you move slowly to the bathroom so you can start your day." The narrator is not you. It is not even about you. It is about a character that is similar to you. The character is similar enough to be you and by using this familiar tone, the writer hopes to create an identification with the character on your part. It is a trick.
prologue:
The prologue is essentially an introductory portion of the play which lets the audience know the important information it needs in order to see the action begin. In Sophocles' Antigone, the prologue sets up the character of Antigone and what she believes she must do for the honor of her family. Her characteristics are highlighted by the use of the foil Ismene. The opposite of the prologue is the epilogue.
prose:
Normal, everyday language and writing. Your geography text book is written in prose. Your essays are also in prose. When you try to create a musical quality to your writing you are venturing into prosody or the rules of poetry.
prosody:
The theory of versification or the theory of poetry.
protagonist :
The main character of the story. The action of the plot centers about this person. In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird a strong case for Atticus Finch as the protagonist can be made, but the story’s focus is really Jem and what he learns about life, courage and human virtue. The story begins by explaining that this is the story of how Jem broke his arm. It is he who sets the action in motion and about whom the action centers. Scout is our narrator and observer who serves to give us the story from the children’s perspective.
pun
Q
R
refrain
rhetoric
rhetorical question
rhyme
rhyme scheme
rising action
round character :
A life-like, three dimensional character. This character is believable enough to have actually lived. This is a term used by E. M. Forster in his Aspects of the Novel (1927).
S
saga
sarcasm
satire
savior motif
setting
short story:
simile:
The simile is a figure of speech which states that one object is similar to or like another object.The ship went through the ocean like a plow.Pete will stick by us. He's like a rock.Note that a simile will state that one object is like another where the metaphor , a more direct comparison and thus a stronger one, states that one object is the other.
Single Effect:
slapstick
soliloquy:
A soliloquy is a long speech given by an actor alone on the stage which expresses the private inner thoughts of the character. Hamlet gives his famous soliloquy that begins, " To be or not to be, that is the question," at point in the play where he is contemplating whether he should go on with his tasks in life and suffer the "slings and arrows of outrageous fortune," or should he die. The audience gets to hear all of the contemplations of the characters thoughts as he considers his life.
stanza
static character :
Though he is one of the greatest characters taught in high school literature, Atticus Finch of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is a static character. He is essentially the same strong, courageous person at the beginning of the novel as he is at the end. It is the children's view of him that changes, not Atticus.
symbol:
A symbol is an object that represents a very, very, very, very, very, very complex idea.I could ask fifty different people what the American flag represented without allowing for duplicate answers and get fifty different ideas that the flag represents. A symbol does not represent an object it represents an idea. The object can represent itself. The idea sometimes needs to be framed into a context that can be more easily understood or remembered.
T
theme
The essential idea, group of ideas, or philosophy that the writer wants the reader to understand from the story she is telling. A simple theme from the folk tale about Little Red Riding Hood might be "Don't talk to strangers." More complex stories discuss more complex ideas. For instance, The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, delves deeply into all the aspects of sin and evil in the human heart. Each chapter is an exploration of different facets of sin and its effect on the personalities of the people involved. Yet, this exploration of sin is only a part of the many themes found in this excellent novel.For more on finding a theme, click here .For more about theme, click here .
tone
U
understatement
V
verisimilitude:
Verisimilitude is achieved by a writer or storyteller when he presents striking details which lend an air of authenticity to a tale. For example, a teenager (not you of course) goes somewhere without her parents permission and tells her parents that she was really at the library. If the teenager adds creative details about what happened while she was there (even though she is making the details up), she is attempting to add verisimilitude to her story. Writers of fiction also do this.
vignette:
A vignette is a short, well written sketch or descriptive scene. It does not have a plot which would make it a story, but it does reveal something about the the elements in it. It may reveal character, or mood or tone. It may have a theme or idea of its own that it wants to convey. It is the description of the scene or character that is important.
W
Theater
aside:
An aside is words spoken to the audience or perhaps to another character while other characters are on stage. The other characters pretend to not hear and we the audience get
to listen in on the thoughts. In William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Trebonius is told to stay close to Caesar's side and he replies to Caesar: "Caesar, I will (and in an aside to the audience) and so near will I be,/That your best friends shall wish I had been further." (II. iv. 124-125) Caesar on stage “does not hear” the words said to the audience and the audience agrees to suspend its disbelief long enough to receive the information. It is a break of the magic fourth wall between the actors and the audience. The audience hears everything, but everyone pretends that Caesar does not hear Trebonius' threatening words. It is a device used so that the audience gets to hear the candid, inner thoughts of the characters.
avant-garde:
French: “vanguard.” In literature, a term designating new writing that contains innovations in form or technique.
bard:
A word originally use to refer to an ancient Celtic order of minstrel-poets who composed and sang verses celebrating the achievements of chiefs and warriors; now a synonym for poet. (Beckson 22)
foil:
A foil is a character whose personality and attitude is opposite the personality and attitude of another character. Because these characters contrast, each makes the personality of the other stand out. In Sophocles' Antigone , Ismene is a foil for Antigone. Where Antigone is aware of the world, Ismene denies knowledge and hides from it. Where Antigone stands up to authority, Ismene withers before it. Antigone is active and Ismene is passive. Ismene's presence in the play highlights the qualities Antigone will display in her conflict with Creon making her an excellent foil.
prologue:
The prologue is essentially an introductory portion of the play which lets the audience know the important information it needs in order to see the action begin. In Sophocles' Antigone, the prologue sets up the character of Antigone and what she believes she must do for the honor of her family. Her characteristics are highlighted by the use of the foil Ismene. The opposite of the prologue is the epilogue.
soliloquy:
A soliloquy is a long speech given by an actor alone on the stage which expresses the private inner thoughts of the character. Hamlet gives his famous soliloquy that begins, " To be or not to be, that is the question," at point in the play where he is contemplating whether he should go on with his tasks in life and suffer the "slings and arrows of
outrageous fortune," or should he die. The audience gets to hear all of the contemplations of the characters thoughts as he considers his life.