Literary Terms 2

English 9 Literary Terms

Soliloquy

A character speaks their innermost thoughts, feelings, and plans aloud while alone on stage (or acting as if they are alone), so the audience can hear them.

Monologue

An extended speech by a character, but it is usually directed to other characters on stage or directly addressed to the audience.

Aside

a dramatic device where a character briefly speaks directly to the audience or voices an unspoken thought that, by theatrical convention, is unheard by other characters present on stage

Blank Verse

unrhymed poetry written in a strict, regular meter, most commonly iambic pentameter

Tragic Hero

a main character in a dramatic work or novel who starts in a high or respected position, possesses noble or virtuous qualities, and suffers a ruinous downfall often resulting in death or total defeat due to a personal flaw or error in judgment

Tragic Flaw

an inner character trait, weakness, or error in judgment that drives a protagonist toward their ultimate downfall or destruction in a tragedy

Comic Relief

a funny scene, character, or joke placed inside a serious or tragic story to break the emotional tension

Pun

A figure of speech that plays with words to create humor or duel meanings.

Prose

any written or spoken language that follows natural speech patterns, grammatical sentences, and paragraph structures rather than metrical verse or rhyme.

Dramatic Irony

a literary and theatrical device where the audience or reader knows a critical piece of information that a character in the story does not.

Verbal Irony

A figure of speech where a speaker says one thing but means the exact opposite of their literal words.

Archetype

A universal, recurring symbol, character type, plot pattern, or theme that appears across different cultures, myths, and literatures to represent fundamental human experiences (the good guy, the nerd, the damsel in distress, the hero, the funny guy, etc.)

Testimonial

a written or spoken first-person account, endorsement, or statement that offers evidence, praise, or validation regarding a person, product, event, or experience

Connotation

the emotional, cultural, or secondary meaning that a word or phrase carries alongside its literal definition, which is known as its denotation 

Denotation

a word's literal, objective dictionary definition, stripped of any emotional, cultural, or subjective associations.

Meter

the systematic, rhythmic pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry

Paradox

a literary device that features a statement, concept, or situation that seems contradictory or logically impossible, but reveals a deeper, unexpected truth upon closer inspection

Personification

a literary device and figure of speech that gives human traits, emotions, intentions, or actions to non-human things, such as inanimate objects, animals, or abstract ideas.

Figurative Language

any use of words that goes beyond its literal meaning to make a new image, idea, or emotional effect.

Alliteration

the repetition of the same initial consonant sound (or sometimes vowel sound) in a series of neighboring or closely connected words or stressed syllables.

Idiom

a type of figurative language and a figure of speech where a group of words has a collective meaning that cannot be understood by combining the individual definitions of the words

Myth

a symbolic, traditional narrative of anonymous origin that uses supernatural elements, gods, or heroic figures to explain cosmic origins