| A | B |
|---|
| plot | the events of a story or narrative; what happens in the story |
| exposition | opening of the story – setting, characters and |
| rising action | events leading up to the climax |
| climax | high point of interest or suspense – key scene – emotional involvement is greatest |
| falling action | events leading to the resolution |
| resolution | end of the central conflict – final part of the story |
| denoument | (“unraveling the knot”): any events that occur after the resolution |
| conflict | struggle between opposing forces |
| external conflict | character vs. outside force (examples include man vs. man, man vs. society, man vs nature, man vs. supernatural, man vs. technology/machine) |
| internal conflict | Man vs. Himself |
| characterization | the process of revealing the personality of a |
| indirect characterization | when we have to use our own judgment to decide what a character is like, based on the evidence the writer gives us (speech, appearance, private thoughts, actions, hows others felt about him/her) |
| direct characterization | when we are told directly what the character is like |
| flat character | only one or two traits and these can be described in a few words – no depth/less developed |
| round character | has many different character traits, which sometimes contradict one another |
| irony | contrast or discrepancy between expectation and reality - between what is said and what is really meant, between what is expected to happen and what really does happen, or between what appears to be true and what is really true |
| verbal irony | writer/speaker says one thing but really means something completely different |
| situational irony | when there is a contrast between what would seem appropriate and what really happens or when there is a contradiction between what we expect to happen and what really does take place |
| dramatic irony | when the audience or the reader knows something important that a character in the play or story does not know |
| theme | the general idea or insight into life that a literary work reveals – need not be a moral or a message – it may be what the happenings add up to. It is sometimes stated directly or implied, but there is usually no single correct statement of a work’s theme; some works might have many themes and others might NOT have themes. |
| point of view | vantage point from which a writer tells a story. |
| omniscient point of view | the person telling the story knows everything there is to know about the characters and their problems. This all-knowing narrator can tell us about the past, present, and future of the characters and what they are thinking. |
| first person point of view | one of the characters is actually the narrator telling the story, using the pronoun, “I.” |
| third person limited point of view | the narrator, who plays no part in the story, zooms in on the thoughts and feelings of just one character. |
| setting | the time and place of a story or play |
