Final Exam Review: Literary Devices/Elements of a Drama (Honors II)

Theme

a text's central idea or message

Mood

the emotional atmosphere of a story

Tone

an author/speaker/narrator's attitude towards the subject/audience

Symbolism

an object/action that stands for larger meaning

Characterization

the process authors use to develop and reveal a character's personality, motives, psychology, and physical traits

Imagery

descriptive language that appeals to the five senses

Simile

a comparison using "like" or "as"

Metaphor

a direct comparison (saying one thing is another) without using "like" or "as"

Personification

giving human traits to nonhuman things

Oxymoron

a device that pairs two contradictory or opposing words together in a single phrase

Hyperbole

deliberate exaggeration for effect

Allusion

a brief and indirect reference to a person, place, event, or literary work

Allegory

a text that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one

Foreshadowing

an advance hint of what is to come later in the story

Motif

any recurring element, such as an object, image, color, phrase, or situation, that holds symbolic significance

Paradox

A statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd but in reality expresses a possible truth.

Alliteration

repetition of initial consonant sounds

Assonance

repetition of vowel sounds

Onomatopoeia

words that imitate sounds

Idiom

a phrase or expression with a figurative meaning that cannot be understood from the literal definitions of its individual words

Pun

a joke exploiting the different possible meanings of a word or the fact that there are words that sound alike but have different meanings

Monologue

a solitary speech in which the actor is speaking uninterruptedly to other characters

Soliloquy

a solitary speech in which the character is speaking to themselves or the audience and sharing their inner thoughts

Aside

a character breaks the fourth wall to interact with the audience; usually there are other characters on the stage who are unaware of this interaction

Stage Directions

instructions for the director, the performers, and the stage crew; often printed in italics

Dialogue

a conversation between two or more characters

Dramatic irony

a situation that is understood by the audience but not grasped by the characters in the text

Verbal irony

a comment that conveys a different meaning than what it may seem to be

Situational irony

a situation in which the outcome is contrary to what is expected