| A | B |
|---|
| protagonist | the main character whose will maintains the conflict and usually the one the reader is for |
| antagonist | the main force opposing the protagonist |
| flat character | a one-dimensional character who is ruled by one dominant characteristic (usually we don't know a lot about this character) |
| round character | one who shows many different sides to his/her character (the reader gets a pretty full description about this character) |
| static character | one who does not change during the course of a story |
| dynamic character | a character who changes in some way during the course of the story |
| act | a major division in a drama |
| scene | a short section of a work that presents action that occurs in a single place or at a single time |
| dialogue | the words spoken by the actors |
| stage directions | information for the actors on where to move and how to interpret lines |
| motif | any element that recurs in one or more works of literature or art |
| inciting incident | the event that introduces the conflict |
| conflict | a struggle between two forces in a literary work |
| climax | the high point in the action (or the turning point) |
| catastrophe | the event in a tragedy that marks the ultimate tragic fall of the main character (often it's this character's death) |
| foil | a character whose characteristics contrast with and throw into relief the characteristics of another character |
| aside | a statement made by a character on stage that is intended to be heard by the audience but not by the other character's on stage (unless it's a two-person one) |
| soliloquy | a speech delivered by a lone character on stage that reveals the speaker's thoughts and feelings |
| tragedy | a play that tells the story of the downfall of a person of high status |
| comedy | a lighthearted play that usually moves from order to a humorous misunderstanding or some type of confusion and then back to order again |
| antithesis | a rhetorical technique in which words, phrases, or ideas are strongly contrasted, often by means of a repeated grammatical structure |
| antimetabole | a rhetorical technique which uses the repetition of words in subsequent clauses with their natural grammatical structure reversed |
| assonance | the repetition of vowel sounds followed by different consonant sounds in stressed syllables of a line |
| consonance | the repetition of consonant sounds at the ends of stressed syllables, which are preceded by different vowel sounds |
| alliteration | the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginnings of closely-related words |
| simile | a figure of speech in which two unlike things are compared using "like" or "as" |
| metaphor | an implied comparison between two unlike things |
| personification | a figure of speech in which nonhuman things are given human characteristics |
| hyperbole | an exaggeration |
| near rhyme/slant rhyme | using words that are similar in place of actual rhymes |
| internal rhyme | when 2 words within a line rhyme with each other |
| iambic pentameter | a five-foot line whose feet have an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable |
| allusion | a reference to a person, place, event, or work of art or literature that the author expects the reader to recognize |
| end rhyme | the use of rhyming words at the end of lines of poetry |
| rhythm | the pattern of beats of stresses in a line |
| blank verse | unrhymed iambic pentameter |
| climax | the high point or turning point in the action of a story |
| pun | a play on words |
| synecdoche | a figure of speech where a part is used to represent the whole or the whole is used to represent a part |
| paradox | a statement that seems contradictory, but it actually has valid meaning |
| onomatopoeia | the use of words that reflect sounds |
| tetrameter | a 4-foot line of rhythm |
| foot | a unit of rhythm |
| repetition | when a word, phrase, or clause is repeated |
| dramatic irony | when the reader or audience knows more than the characters do |
| irony of situation | a contrast between what is expected and what really happens |
| crisis | an intense problem for the protagonist that could determine success or failure |
| epithet | an adjective or descriptive phrase expressing a quality characteristic of the person or thing mentioned. |
