Untitled Flashcards Set

Rhetorical question

A question asked for effect rather than an actual answer, often used to persuade or emphasize a point.

Rhythm

The pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in poetry or prose, creating a musical flow.

Round character

A complex and well-developed character with depth, emotions, and change throughout the story.

Satire

A literary technique that criticizes human foolishness, politics, or society through humor, irony, or exaggeration.

Scrim

A thin, semi-transparent curtain used in theater to create visual effects.

Sestet

A six-line stanza or the final six lines of a Petrarchan sonnet, often resolving a problem.

Setting

The time and place where a story occurs, including cultural and historical context.

Sight rhyme

Words that look like they should rhyme but don’t when spoken aloud.

Simile

A comparison using 'like' or 'as' to create imagery.

Situational irony

When the opposite of what is expected happens.

Slant rhyme

A near rhyme where words have similar but not identical sounds.

Soliloquy

A long speech in a play where a character speaks their thoughts aloud, usually alone on stage.

Sonnet

A 14-line poem, often in iambic pentameter, with specific rhyme schemes.

Stanza

A group of lines in a poem, like a paragraph in prose.

Static character

A character who does not change throughout the story.

Stock character

A stereotypical or repeated character type found across literature.

Symbol

An object, person, or event that represents a deeper meaning beyond its literal sense.

Synecdoche

A figure of speech where a part represents the whole or vice versa.

Synonyms

Words with similar meanings but different spellings.

Syntax

The structure and order of words in a sentence.

Theme

The central idea or message of a literary work.

Tone

The author’s attitude toward the subject, shown through word choice and style.

Unreliable narrator

A narrator whose perspective cannot be fully trusted, often due to bias, deception, or limited knowledge.

Verbal irony

When a character says one thing but means another, often sarcastic.

Verisimilitude

The appearance of reality in fiction, making a story feel believable.