Literary terms english 6/8/26

Dynamic character

Changes throughout the story

Static character

Stays the same

Exposition

In the beginning of a work, Romeo and Juliet = act 1

Climax

Turning point in the story, Romeo and Juliet = act 3

Denouement

The final part of a story, play, or movie where all the plotlines are resolved, mysteries are unraveled, and loose ends are tied up

Antagonist

Acts against protagonist

Protagonist

Main character

Imagery

The use of vivid, descriptive language to create mental images and evoke sensory experiences in the reader's mind.

Rhyme

Repeating identical or similar sounds at the end of words

Rhyme scheme

A poet's deliberate pattern of lines that rhyme with other lines in a poem or a stanza. (AABBCC)

Narrator

The fictional voice or persona an author creates to tell a story

Prose

Regular writing

Poetry

Highly structured emotional language

Setting

Time and place where a story takes place

Theme

Central idea or underlying message of a story (explains WHY it matters)

Alliteration

Repetition of initial sounds

Apostrophe

When a character is talking to something that isn't alive, Juliet talking to the night

Foreshadow

Alluding to the end

Personification

Giving an object human characteristics

Meter

Pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables

Iambic pentameter

4

Pun

A play on words, "ask for me tomorrow and you will find a grave man" = Mercutio said it, "grave" can mean in grave condition or in a grave

Couplet

2 lines

Quatrain

4 lines

Blank verse

Unrhymed iambic pentameter

Symbol

Blue roses, glass unicorn in The Glass Menagerie

Metaphor

Directly compares two unrelated things by stating one thing is another

Simile

Using "like" or "as" to compare two unrelated things by stating one thing is another

Nonfiction

Prose writing based on facts, real events, and actual people

Fiction

Any narrative work created from the imagination rather than presented as factual history or truth

Novel

Long work of fiction

Genre

Type of literature

Drama

Another word for play

Irony

An unexpected ending, saying the opposite of what you mean