Used for poetic effect, a repetition of the initial sounds of several words in a group. The following line from Robert Frost's poem "Acquainted with the Night" provides us with an example of alliteration,": I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet." The repetition of the s sound creates a sense of quiet, reinforcing the meaning of the line

Antagonist

A person or force which opposes the protagonist in a literary work. There are four types:

1.       Direct Antagonist - Curley Of Mice and Men

2.       Indirect Antagonist - Lenny Of Mice and Men

3.       The Protagonist Himself - Holden Catcher in the Rye

4.       Non-Human Forces - Leukemia as it kills Allie in Catcher in the Rye or The Dust Bowl in The Grapes of Wrath
 

Aristotelian Tragedy

A literary work base don the ideas brought forth in Aristotle's Poetics, including, but not limited to, the following basic concepts:

 

¨      tragic hero - a character who brings about his own and/or others' downfall or death. either by his own error or by fate.

¨      hamartia - the error or weakness that brings about the character's downfall

¨      hubris - overwhelming pride or human arrogance

 

Argumentative Writing

A style of writing that requires the writer take a position on a controversial issue.  An effective argumentative essay will make a claim, provide evidence, and explain how and why the evidence supports the claim.

 

Claim - A statement that declares the position or stance the paper will take.

 

Evidence - Proof that the Claim is accurate.  Evidence can take the form of quotation, analogy, cause and effect, definition of terms, and detailed explanation.

 

Explanation - The piece of the argument that makes the direct connection between the Claim and the Evidence.  The function of the explanation is to make the argument clear.

 

Aside

A convention of drama in which a character makes a short speech which is heard by the audience but supposedly not by other characters in the play. In William Shakespeare's Hamlet, the Chamberlain, Polonius, confronts Hamlet. In a dialogue concerning Polonius' daughter, Ophelia, Polonius speaks this aside:

How say you by that? Still harping on my daughter.
Yet he knew me not at first; 'a said I was a fishmonger.
'A is far gone. And truly in my youth I suffered much extremity for love,
very near this. I'll speak to him again.

Biography

The story of a person's life written by someone other than the subject of the work. Katherine Drinker Bowen's "Yankee from Olympus" which details the life and work of the great jurist Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. is an example. A biographical work is supposed to be rigorously factual; however, since the biographer may by biased, critics, and sometimes the subject of the biography itself, may come forward to challenge the accuracy of the material.

 

Character

A person, or any thing presented as a person, e. g., a spirit, object, animal, or natural force, in a literary work. In a cartoon scene, firemen may be putting out a fire which a coyote has deliberately started, while a hydrant observes the scene fearfully. The firemen, the coyote and the hydrant would all be considered characters in the story. If a billowy figure complete with eyes, nose, and mouth representing the wind thwarts the efforts of the firemen, the wind, too, qualifies as a character. Animals who figure importantly in movies of live drama are considered characters. Mr. Ed, Lassie, and Tarzan's monkey Cheetah are examples.

 

Characterization

The method a writer uses to reveal the personality of a character in a literary work. Methods may include

¨       Direct Analysis

¨       Character's thoughts

¨       Character's actions

¨       Character's dialogue

¨       Other's reactions to a character

¨       Physical description

 

Round Character - a character that is developed through several of the methods.

Flat Character - a character who is underdeveloped or developed in a limited way using only one of the above methods of characterization.

Static Character - a character that does not undergo a significant philosophical, ideological, or personality change in a work

Dynamic Character - a character that does undergo a significant philosophical, ideological, or personality change in a work

Foil Character - a character who contrasts the main character in thought, belief, or philosophy;

Mirror Character -a character who parallels the main character in thought, belief, or philosophy;

 

Climax

Climax is the time when what the resolution will be is revealed.  It may proceed or be concurrent with the resolution. In Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" the climax occurs at the end of Marc Antony's speech to the Roman public. In the climax to the film "Star Wars," the empire's death star is ready to destroy the rebel base. Luke Skywalker and rebel pilots attack the base, and after the deaths of some rebel pilots, Skywalker successfully fires his missile into the death star's vulnerable spot and destroys the death star, saving the rebel forces.

Conclusion

Also called the resolution, the conclusion is the point in a drama to which the entire work has been leading. It is the logical outcome of everything that has come before it. The conclusion stems from the nature of the characters. Therefore, the decision of Dr. Stockmann to remain in the town at the conclusion of An Enemy of the People is consistent with his conviction that he is right and has been right all along.

...I'll be hanged if we are going away! We are going to stay where we are, Katherine . . . This is the field of battle ...this is where the fight will be. This is where I shall triumph!

Conflict

In the plot of a drama, conflict occurs whenever the protagonist is frustrated in his efforts to reach his goal.  In Henry Ibsen's drama An Enemy of the People Dr. Thomas Stockmann's life is complicated by his finding that the public baths, a major source of income for the community, are polluted. In trying to close the baths, the doctor comes into conflict with those who profit from them, significantly, his own brother, the mayor of the town.
 

Couplet

A stanza of two lines, sometimes rhyming. If, in fact, the lines do rhyme, the couplet is called a heroic couplet (see heroic couplet).  The following by Andrew Marvell is an example of a rhymed couplet:

      Had we but world enough and time,

      This coyness, lady, were no crime.

 

Denouement (falling action)

Pronounced Day-new-ma, the denouement is that part of a drama which follows the climax and leads to the resolution, the wrapping up of loose ends.  In children's stories it is always: "and they lives happily ever after."
 

 

Dialogue

In drama, a conversation between characters. One interesting type of dialogue, stichomythia, occurs when the dialogue takes the form of a rapid and heated verbal duel between characters, as in the following between Hamlet and his mother, Gertrude. (William Shakespeare's Hamlet - Act 3, scene 4)

QUEEN: Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended.
HAMLET: Mother, you have my father much offended.
QUEEN: Come, Come, you answer with an idle tongue.
HAMLET: Go, Go, You question with a wicked tongue.

Diction

An author's choice of words. Since words have specific meanings, and since one's choice of words can affect feelings, a writer's choice of words can have great impact in a literary work. The writer, therefore, must choose his words carefully. Discussing his novel A Farewell to Arms during an interview, Ernest Hemingway stated that he had to rewrite the ending thirty-nine times. When asked what the most difficult thing about finishing the novel was, Hemingway answered, "Getting the words right."

Figurative Language

Figurative language is any use of language that is not literal in language.  In literature, a way of saying one thing and meaning something else. Take, for example, this line by Robert Burns, My love is a red, red rose. Clearly Mr. Burns does not really mean that he has fallen in love with a red, aromatic, many-pedaled, long, thorny-stemmed plant. He means that his love is as sweet and as delicate as a rose. While, figurative language provides a writer with the opportunity to write imaginatively, it also tests the imagination of the reader, forcing the reader to go below the surface of a literary work into deep, hidden meanings.

Foreshadowing

In drama, a method used to build suspense by providing hints of what is to come. In Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Romeo's expression of fear in Act 1, scene 4 foreshadows the catastrophe to come:

      I fear too early; for my mind misgives

      Some consequence yet hanging in the stars

      Shall bitterly begin his fearful date

      With this night's revels and expire the term

      Of a despised life closed in my breast

      By some vile forfeit of untimely death.

      But He that hath the steerage of my course,

      Direct my sail! On, lusty gentlemen.

 

Free Verse

Unrhymed Poetry with no specific meter. The poetry of Walt Whitman provides us with many examples. Consider the following lines from "Song of Myself."

      I celebrate myself and sing myself,

      And what I assume you shall assume,

      For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.

 

      I loaf and invite my soul,

      I lean and loaf at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.

Genre

A literary type or form. Drama is a genre of literature. Within drama, genre includes tragedy, comedy and other forms.

 

Heroic Couplet

            Rhymed pairs of iambic pentameter

 

Iambic Foot

 

 

Imagery

A word or group of words in a literary work which appeal to one or more of the senses: sight, taste, touch, hearing, and smell. The use of images serves to intensify the impact of the work. The following example of imagery in T. S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,"

      When the evening is spread out against the sky

      Like a patient etherized upon a table.

uses images of pain and sickness to describe the evening, which as an image itself represents society and the psychology of Prufrock, himself.

            The following are types of imagery: visual, aural, tactile, olfactory, gustatory

 

Inference

A judgment based on reasoning rather than on direct or explicit evidence. A conclusion based on facts or circumstances. For example, advised not to travel alone in temperatures exceeding fifty degrees below zero, the man in Jack London's "To Build a Fire" sets out anyway. One may infer arrogance from such an action.
 

Irony

Irony takes many forms. In irony of situation, the result of an action is the reverse of what the character or reader expected. Macbeth murders his king hoping that in becoming king he will achieve great happiness. Actually, Macbeth never knows another moment of peace, and finally is beheaded for his murderous act.

 

Metaphor

A figure of speech wherein a comparison is made between two unlike quantities without the use of  direct words of comparison such as "like" or "as." Jonathan Edwards, in his sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," has this to say about the moral condition of his parishioners:

There are the black clouds of God's wrath now hanging directly over your heads, full of the dreadful storm and big with thunder;

The comparison here is between God's anger and a storm. Note that there is no use of "like" or "as" as would be the case in a simile
 

Mood

The atmosphere or feeling created by a literary work, partly by a description of the objects or by the style of the descriptions. A work may contain a mood of horror, mystery, holiness, or childlike simplicity, to name a few, depending on the author's treatment of the work.

 

Novel

A fictional prose work of substantial length. The novel narrates the actions of characters who are entirely the invention of the author and who are placed in an imaginary setting. The fact that a so-called historical or biographical novel uses historically real characters in real geographical locations doing historically verifiable things does not alter the fictional quality of the work. Nor does it qualify a work labeled a novel by the author as a historical text.

Onomatopoeia

A literary device wherein the word imitates the sound it names. The words "splash." "knock," and "roar" are examples. The following lines end Dylan Thomas' "Fern Hill:"

      Out of the whinnying green stable

            On to the fields of praise.

The word "whinnying" is onomatopoetic. "Whinny" is the sound usually selected to represent that made by a horse.

Parallel Structure

A repetition of sentences using the same structure. This line from Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address provides an example:

      The world will little not nor long remember what we say here,

      but it can never forget what they did here.

 

Personification

A figure of speech in which the inanimate is given life-like qualities. Consider the following lines from Carl Sandburg's "Chicago:"

      Stormy, husky, brawling,

      City of the big shoulders:

Carl Sandburg description of Chicago includes shoulders. Cities do not have shoulders, people do. Sandburg personifies the city by ascribing to it something human, shoulders. "Justice is blind." is another example.

Plot

The structure of a story. The sequence in which the author arranges events in a story. The structure of a five-act play often includes the rising action, the climax, the falling action, and the resolution. The plot may have a protagonist who is opposed by antagonist, creating what is called, conflict. A plot may include flashback or it may include a subplot which is a mirror image of the main plot. For example, in Shakespeare's, "King Lear," the relationship between the Earl of Gloucester and his sons mirrors the relationship between Lear and his daughters.

Point of View

A piece of literature contains a speaker who is speaking either in the first person, telling things from his or her own perspective, or in the third person, telling things from the perspective of an onlooker. The perspective used is called the Point of View, and is referred to either as first person or third person. If the speaker knows everything including the actions, motives, and thoughts of all the characters, the speaker is referred to as omniscient (all-knowing). If the speaker is unable to know what is in any character's mind but his or her own, this is called limited omniscience.

Protagonist

The central character of a literary work around whose efforts to achieve a goal, the story is built. In accomplishing his or her objective, the protagonist is hindered by some opposing force either human (one of Batman's antagonists is The Joker), animal (Moby Dick is Captain Ahab's antagonist in Herman Melville's "Moby Dick"), or natural (the sea is the antagonist which must be overcome by Captain Bligh in Nordhoff and Hall's "Men Against the Sea," the second book in the trilogy which includes "Mutiny on the Bounty").

Pun

A intentional play on words wherein a word is used to convey two meanings at the same time. The line below, spoken by Mercutio in Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet," is an example of a pun. Mercutio has just been stabbed, knows he is dying and says:

Ask for me tomorrow and you shall find me a grave man.

Mercutio's use of the word "grave' renders it capable of two meanings: a serious person or a corpse in his grave.

Resolution

The part of a story or drama which occurs after the climax and which establishes a new norm, a new state of affairs-the way things are going to be from then on. Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" climaxes with the death of the two lovers. Their deaths resolve the feud between the two families. In the play's resolution, Lords Capulet and Montague swear to end their feud and build golden monuments to each other's dead child.
In the resolution of the film "Star Wars," Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Chewbacca are given medals by Princess Lea for destroying the death star and defeating the empire.

 

Rhyme (or Rime if you're English and very old) -

Masculine - A rhyme occurring in words of one syllable or in an accented final syllable, such as light and sight or arise and surprise.

 

Feminine - A rhyme occurring on an unaccented final syllable, as in dining and shining or motion and ocean.

 

Rising Action

The part of a drama which begins with the exposition and sets the stage for the climax. In a five-act play, the exposition provides information about the characters and the events which occurred before the action of the play began. A conflict often develops between the protagonist and an antagonist. The action reaches a high point and results in a climax, the turning point in the play.

Setting

The time and place in which a story unfolds. The setting in Act 1, scene 1 of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, for example, is a public square in Verona, Italy. A drama may contain a single setting, Or the setting may change from scene to scene.

Short Story

A short fictional narrative. It is difficult to set forth the point at which a short story becomes a short novel (novelette), or the page number at which a novelette becomes a novel. Here are some examples which may help in determining which is which: Ernest Hemingway's "Big Two-Hearted River" is a short story; John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men is a novelette; and Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter is a novel.
 

Simile

A figure of speech which compares two unlike things using a direct word of comparison. "Like" or "as" are the most common words used when forming a simile, but others may be used.  Simile is used in this line from Ezra Pound's "Fan-Piece, for Her Imperial Lord":   clear as frost on the grass-blade.  In this line, a fan of white silk is being compared to frost on a blade of grass. Note the use of the word "as."
 

Soliloquy

In drama, a moment when a character is alone and speaks his or her thoughts aloud. In the line "To be, or not to be, that is the question:" which begins the famous soliloquy from Act 3, scene 1 of Shakespeare's Hamlet, Hamlet questions whether or not life is worth living, and speaks of the reasons why he does not end his life.
 

Sonnet

A lyric poem of fourteen lines whose ryhme scheme is fixed. The rhyme scheme in the Italian form as typified in the sonnets of Petrarch is ABBA ABBA CDE CDE. The Petrarchian or Italian sonnet has two divisions: the first is of eight lines (the octave), and the second is of six lines (the sestet). The rhyme scheme of the English, or Shakespearean sonnet is ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. The change of rhyme in the English sonnet is coincidental with a change of theme in the poem. The meter is iambic pentameter.  Edmund Spenser is another sonneteer from England.  A Spenserian sonnet differs from a Shakespearean sonnet in its rhyme scheme.  Traditionally a Spenserian sonnet will follow an ABBA CDDC EFG EFG rhyming pattern.

Stanza

A major subdivision in a poem. The following are traditional names for such divisions. 

·     2 lines - couplet

·     3 lines - tercet or triplet

·     4 lines - quatrain

·     5 lines - quintet

·     6 lines - sestet

·     7 lines - septet

·     8 lines - octet or octave

 

Stereotype

An author's method of treating a character so that the character is immediately identified with a group. A character may be associated with a group through accent, food choices, style of dress, or any readily identifiable group characteristic. Examples are the rugged cowboy, the bearded psychiatrist, and the scary villain. A criticism leveled at TV drama is that those who produce such dramas use outdated or negative qualities of groups to stereotype individuals. Ignoring the group's positive qualities, they perpetuate and strengthen the group's negative image in the minds of viewers. Some examples are: the Jewish accountant, the corrupt politician, the Black gambler in a zoot suit, and the voice on the phone in a Middle Eastern accent associated with a bomb threat. A well-known tobacco company uses the stereotype of the rugged cowboy in its cigarette ads.
 

Style

Many elements enter into the style of a work: the author's use of figurative language, diction, sound effects and other literary devices. Jonathon Swift's style is punctuated with biting satirical jabs at England.  Ernest Hemingway's style derives, in part, from his short, powerful sentences. The style of the Declaration of Independence can be described as elegant.
 

Theme

The underlying means or intent of the work - explicating what it is about real life that the author wants us to learn.  The theme provides an answer to the question What is the work about? There are too many possible themes to recite them all in this document. Each literary work carries its own theme(s). The theme of Robert Frost's "Acquainted with the Night" is loneliness. Shakespeare's "King Lear" contains many themes, among which are blindness and madness. Unlike plot, which deals with the action of a work, theme concerns itself with a work's message or contains the general idea of a work.

Tone

Tone expresses the author's / narrator's /speaker's attitude toward his or her subject. Since there are as many tones in literature as there are tones of voice in real relationships, the tone of a literary work may be one of anger or approval, pride or piety-the entire gamut of attitudes toward life's phenomena. Here is one literary example: The tone of John Steinbeck's short novel Cannery Row is nonjudgmental. Mr. Steinbeck never expresses disapproval of the antics of Mack and his band of bums. Rather, he treats them with unflagging kindness.
 

Tragedy

Tragedy is "an imitation of an action that is serious, complete and of a certain magnitude; in language embellished with each kind of artistic ornament... in the form of drama, not of narrative, through pity and fear effecting the proper purgation of these emotions (catharsis)." Tragedy must tell of a person who is "highly renowned and prosperous" and who falls as a result of some "error, or frailty," because of external or internal forces, or both.