Literary Devices and Drama Terms: Definitions and Examples

Aside

A brief speech in which a character turns from the person being addressed to speak directly to the audience; a dramatic device for letting the audience know what a character is really thinking or feeling as opposed to what the character pretends to think or feel.

Colloquial

Informal, conversational language.

Dialogue

(1) Conversation between characters in a drama or narrative. (2) A literary work written in the form of a conversation.

Dialect

A regional variety of a language distinguished by pronunciation, grammar, or vocabulary.

Diction

Word choice.

Euphemism

Substituting a mild, indirect, or vague term for a harsh, blunt, or offensive one.

Figure of speech

Broadly, any way of saying something other than the ordinary way; more narrowly (and for the purposes of this class) a way of saying one thing and meaning another.

Hyperbole

A figure of speech in which exaggeration is used in the service of truth.

Invective

Denunciatory or abusive language.

Monologue

(1) A dramatic soliloquy. (2) A literary composition in such form.

Proverb

A short, pithy saying that expresses a basic truth or practical precept.

Pun

A play on words, sometimes on different senses of the same word and sometimes on the similar sense or sound of different words.

Sarcasm

Bitter or cutting speech; speech intended by its speaker to give pain to the person addressed.

Soliloquy

A device often used in drama whereby a character relates his or her thoughts and feelings to him/herself and to the audience without addressing any of the other characters.

Slang

A kind of language especially occurring in casual or playful speech, usually made up of short-lived coinages and figures of speech deliberately used in place of standard terms.

Understatement

A figure of speech that consists of saying less than one means, or of saying what one means with less force than the occasion warrants.

Exposition

The part of a play (usually at the beginning) that provides the background information needed to understand the characters and the actions.

Conflict

A clash of actions, desires, ideas, or goals in the plot of a story or drama. Conflict may exist between the main character and some other person or persons; between the main character and some external force—physical nature, society, or 'fate'; or between the main character and some destructive element in his or her own nature. A struggle that takes place in a character's mind is called internal conflict.

Rising action

That development of plot in a story that precedes and leads up to the climax.

Climax

The turning point or high point of a plot.

Falling Action

The falling action immediately follows the climax and shows the aftereffects of the events in the climax.

Denouement

(Also called the resolution) the conclusion of the story. Conflicts are resolved, creating normality for the characters and a sense of catharsis for them and the reader. Sometimes a hint as to the characters' future is given.

Irony

A situation, or a use of language, involving some kind of incongruity or discrepancy. Three kinds of irony are distinguished in this class.

Dramatic irony

An incongruity of discrepancy between what a character says or thinks and what the reader knows to be true (or between what a character perceives and what the author intends the reader to perceive).

Irony of situation

A situation in which there is an incongruity between appearance and reality, or between expectation and fulfillment, or between the actual situation and what would seem appropriate.

Verbal irony

A figure of speech in which what is said is the opposite of what is meant.