| A | B |
|---|
| drama | a prose or verse composition that is intended to be acted out |
| integrity | quality of being ethically or morally upright |
| mediate | to settle differences between two individuals or groups |
| restrain | to hold back or control |
| trigger | to set off a chain of events |
| comedy | a dramatic work with a happy ending |
| tragedy | a work in which the main character, or tragic hero, came to an unhappy end |
| histories | plays which present stories about England's monarchs |
| catharsis | a cleansing of emotions in the audience |
| hubris | excessive pride that leads the tragic hero to challenge the gods |
| characteristics of tragedy | the tragic hero, the plot, the theme |
| tragic flaw | a fatal error in judgment or weakness of character that leads directly to a downfall |
| conflict | a struggle between opposing forces that is the basis of a story's plot |
| antagonist | a character in opposition to the hero of a narrative or drama |
| catastrophe | a tragic resolution within the plot of a story or play |
| theme | an underlying message that a writer wants the reader to understand |
| comic relief | a light, mildly humorous scene preceding or following a serious one |
| blank verse | unrhymed iambic pentameter |
| verse drama | a play in which the dialogue consists almost entirely of poetry with a fixed pattern of rhythm |
| dialogue | a conversation between two or more characters in either fiction or nonfiction |
| stage directions | written in italics and in parentheses to specify the setting and how the characters should behave and speak |
| acts and scenes | a play is divided into these items |
| setting | the time and place of a story or drama |
| meter | the repetition of a regular rhythmic unit in a line of poetry |
| iambic pentameter | a meter in which the normal line contains five stressed syllables, each preceded by an unstressed syllable |
| soliloquy | a speech that a character makes while alone on stage to reveal his or her thoughts to the audience |
| aside | a remark that a character makes in a undertone to the audience or another character but that others on stage are not supposed to hear |
| foreshadowing | a writer's use of hints or clues to suggest what events will occur later in a work |
| external conflict | pits a character against nature, society, or another character |
| internal conflict | a conflict between opposing forces within a character |
| apostrophe | A direct address to an inanimate object or idea or to an absent person |
| foil | a character who contrasts with another character (usually the protagonist) in order to highlight various features of the main character's personality |
| OEDIPAL COMPLEX | Sigmund Freud’s concept that all sons want to sleep with their mothers and kill their fathers. |
| characterization | the process by which a character is made; what they do, say, think, look like, or has said about them |
| allusion | an indirect reference to a person, place, event, or literary work with which the author believes the reader will be familiar |
| protagonist | main character who is involved in the central conflict |
| plot | the sequence of actions and events in a literary work |
| verbal irony | occurs when a character says one thing but means another |
| satire | a literary technique in which ideas, customs, behaviors, etc. are ridiculed for the purpose of improving society |
| imagery | words and phrases that create vivid sensory experiences for the reader |
| idiom | a common figure of speech whose meaning is different from the literal meaning of its words |
| metaphor | a figure of speech that compares two things that have something in common |
| extended metaphor | two things are compared at length and in various ways |
| personification | human qualities are attributed to an object, animal, or idea |
| paradox | a statement that seems to contradict, or oppose itself; reveals some element of truth |
| simile | compares two things that have something in common using words such as "like or as" |
| alliteration | repetition of consonant sounds at the beginnings of words |
| pun | a form of word play that suggests two or more meanings |
| tragic hero | possesses a defect, or tragic flaw, that brings about or contributes to his or her downfall |
| dramatic irony | happens when the audience knows something that the character does not |
| irony | a contrast between expectation and reality |
