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| alliteration | The repitition of consonant sounds, especially at the beginning of words. |
| antagonist | a character in a story or poem who deceives, frustrates, or works again the main character, or protagonist in some way. |
| allusion | a reference in a literary work to a person, place, or thing in history or another work of literature. |
| apostrophe | A statement, question, or request addressed to an inanimate object or concept or to a nonexistent or absent person. |
| aside | Words spoken by an actor directly to the audience, which are not "heard" by the other characters on stage during a play. |
| comic relief | The 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. |
| conceit | A clever and fanciful metaphor, usually expressed through elaborate and extended comparison, that presents a striking parallel between two seemingly dissimilar things — for example, elaborately comparing a beautiful woman to an object like a garden or the sun. |
| conflict | A 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. |
| couplet | a style of poetry defined as a complete thought written in two lines with rhyming ends. The most popular of the couplets is the heroic couplet. The heroic couplet consists of two rhyming lines of iambic pentameter usually having a pause in the middle of each line. |
| drama | In its widest sense, a drama is any work designed to be presented by actors on a stage. |
| foreshadowing | Hints of what is to come in the action of a play or a story. |
| hyperbole | A figure of speech involving exaggeration. |
| iambic pentameter | The word “iambic" describes the type of foot that is used (in English, an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable). The word "pentameter" indicates that a line has five of these "feet." |
| irony | 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. |
| dramatic irony | A character speaks in ignorance of a situation or event known to the audience or to the other characters. |
| verbal irony | Characters say the opposite of what they mean. |
| metaphor | A 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," |
| metonymy | 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." |
| monologue | A speech by a single character without another character's response. |
| oxymoron | A phrase combining two contradictory terms. Oxymorons may be intentional or unintentional. |
| paradox | A statement that appears illogical or contradictory at first, but may actually point to an underlying truth. |
| personification | The endowment of inanimate objects or abstract concepts with animate or living qualities. |
| protagonist | The main character of a literary work |
| pun | A play on words that have similar sounds but different meanings. |
| simile | A 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." |
| soliloquy | 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. |
| sonnet | A distinctive poetic style that uses system or pattern of metrical structure and verse composition usually consisting of fourteen lines, arranged in a set rhyme scheme or pattern. |
| tragedy | 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. |
| internal conflict | conflict that represents a struggle within the character |
| external conflict | a struggle between a character and an outside force (nature, society, or another character) |
| blank verse | verse written in iambic pentameter, but not meant to rhyme. |
| tragic flaw | the protagonist's errors or flaws that lead to his/her downfall or bad fortune. |
| tragic hero | protagonist who evokes pity and or fear from the audience based on perhaps undeserved misfortune. Other forces of fate intervene and cause problems. |
| foil | a character whose personality or attitudes are in sharp contrast to those of another character in the same work |
