Literary Devices and Elements: Allusion, Irony, Characterization, and Plot

Allusion

A brief, implicit and/or indirect reference within a literary text to something outside the text, whether another text (e.g. the Bible, a myth, another literary work, a painting, or a piece of music) or any imaginary or historical person, place, or thing.

Apostrophe

Direct address of an inanimate object, absent or dead person, or idea.

Atmosphere

The intentional creation by an author of tension and emotion in a setting, in order to elicit a certain response from the audience.

Characterization

The tactics used by an author to create and maintain a character.

Direct characterization

When a narrator directly describes the traits of a character.

Indirect Characterization

When an author implicitly provides character traits through methods like character actions, dialogue, inner monologue, and appearance.

Round character

A ____ character has a fully developed and complex personality.

Flat character

A _____ character is generally built around one trait.

Dynamic character

A _____ character undergoes significant change as a result of the outcomes of their conflicts.

Static character

A _____ character remains consistent.

Climax

The 'turning point' in the conflict, where the tension and action have risen to their highest points.

Conflict

A struggle between opposing forces that sets the action in motion.

External conflict

An ________ pits a character against something or someone outside himself or herself—another character or characters or something in nature or society.

Internal conflict

An internal conflict happens within a character.

Connotation

The emotional implications that a particular culture or subculture attaches to a word.

Denotation

The literal meaning of a word, without cultural or emotional implications.

Dialogue

A verbal exchange between two characters.

Diction

Authorial choice of words to influence the tone and/or atmosphere of a piece of writing, to impact the piece's overall meaning or purpose.

Imagery

A form of figurative language in which a speaker draws upon references to a specific sense.

Irony

A situation or statement characterized by a significant difference between what is expected and what actually happens, or between what is understood and what is meant.

Verbal irony

When a word or expression in context means something different from, and usually the opposite of, what it appears to mean.

Situational Irony

When the character's actions have an opposite effect from what was intended, or lead to a reversal of expectation or unexpected.

Dramatic irony

A gap between what an audience knows and what a character believes or expects.

Cosmic Irony or Irony of Fate

Situations in which situational irony is the result of fate, chance, the gods, or some other superhuman force or entity.

Juxtaposition

An intentional authorial literary contrast.

Tension

A general term that indicates strong oppositional feelings in a literary work.

Antithesis

When two words, phrases, or concepts are set against each other in parallel structure.

Foil

A character with behavior and/or values that contrast those of another character in order to highlight the distinctive temperament of that character.

Metaphor

a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable

Monologue

A speech of more than a few sentences, usually in a play but also in other genres, spoken by one person and uninterrupted by the speech of anyone else. An internal monologue takes place entirely in the mind of a single character.

Mood

The feelings evoked in an audience while reading a literary text.

Motif

A _____ is a recurring narrative element often with symbolic significance.

Perspective

The narrator's outlook or view on the events, characters, setting, conflict, etc. of the world in the literary work.

Plot

The arrangement of the action. The five main parts or phases of plot are exposition, rising action, climax or turning point, falling action, and conclusion or resolution. The plot generally follows the five parts of the Freytag Pyramid (Conflict Arc).

Point of View

The locational relationship a narrator has with the world in which the work takes place.

first person

the narrator is located inside the story.

third person limited

the narrator is located outside of the story, attached to one character at a time. The narrator doesn't have a developed personality or opinions of their own.

third person omniscient

The narrator is located outside the story but they have their own thoughts, opinions, and personality regarding the story and often share those thoughts with the audience.

stream of consciousness narration

a style of writing in which a narrator's words and actions are expressed to the audience verbatim.

Setting

The time and place of the action in a work of fiction, notably fiction. Integral: a setting that is necessary for the story to unfold as intended.

Backdrop

a setting that is non-essential in a story that could've taken place in a number of different places/times.

Simile

A figure of speech involving a direct, explicit comparison of one thing to another, usually using the words like or as to draw the connection.

Symbolism

A person, place, thing, or event that figuratively represents or stands for something else. Often the thing or idea represented is more abstract and general, and the symbol is more concrete and particular.

Syntax

How words and phrases are organized into sentences in order to elicit specific meaning.

Theme

A universal, abstract idea that is explored by an author in a literary work.

Tone

The attitude an author takes towards their subject matter in a literary work, often conveyed through connotative diction.

Figurative Language

in addition to the literary conventions list.

Personification

The artistic representation of a concept, quality, or idea in the form of a person.

Hyperbole

exaggerated language, description, or speech that is not meant to be taken literally, but is used for emphasis.

Understatement

a literary device by which a particular quality of a person, object, emotion, or situation is downplayed or presented as being less than what is true to the situation.

Metonymy

a figure of speech that substitutes a quality, idea, or object associated with a certain thing for the thing itself.

Idiom

a type of phrase or expression that has a meaning that can't be deciphered by defining the individual words.

Double Entendre

a word or phrase that is open to two interpretations.

Line

a unit of language into which a poem or play is divided. The use of a line operates on principles which are distinct from and not necessarily coincident with grammatical structures, such as the sentence or single clauses in sentences.

Stanza

a group of lines forming the basic recurring metrical unit in a poem; a verse.

Parallel Structure

phrase construction wherein the same pattern of words to show that two or more words or ideas are of equal importance.

Enjambment

the intentional continuation of a sentence or clause across a line break, most notably in poetry.

Rhyme

the intentional repetition of a particular sound, to create a certain response, most commonly in poetry.

End Rhyme

when the rhyme occurs at line endings.

Internal Rhyme

when the rhyme occurs within a line.

Exact Rhyme

A rhyme where the vowel/consonant combination at the end of the word match exactly, with the first sound altering.

Slant Rhyme

A rhyme where the vowel/consonant combination at the end of the word don't match exactly but sound similar.

Meter

the rhythm of the language in the poem; it is described by the number and pattern of stressed vs. unstressed syllables in the poem lines.

Alliteration

The repetition of the same sounds—usually initial consonants of words or of stressed syllabus—in any sequence of neighboring words, typically used to convey a specific tone or message.

Assonance

A literary device in which vowel sounds are repeated in a sequence of words in order to convey a specific tone or message.

Onomatopoeia

A figure of speech in which the sound of a word imitates its sense.

Drama

a literary form that is intended to be conveyed to its audience via performance.

Comedy

a dramatic subgenre noted for lighthearted themes and plot points, humorous conflicts, and a generally happy resolution for its characters.

Tragedy

a dramatic subgenre noted for serious and thought-provoking themes, intense and often overlapping conflicts, and unfortunate and often catastrophic resolutions for its characters.

Act

traditional segmentation of a play that indicates a change in time, action, or location, and helps organize a play's dramatic structure.

Scene

traditional segmentation of a play that indicates a change in time, action, or location, and helps organize a play's dramatic structure.

Stage Direction

directions or actions indicated by the playwright that describe the physical movements or emotional responses of the characters on stage.

Speech

a monologue that is understood by the audience to be said out loud and directed towards other characters in the dramatic work.

Soliloquy

a monologue that is understood by the audience to be performed out loud but to actually be the internal thoughts of the character.

Aside

a theatrical convention in which a character, unnoticed by the other characters on stage, speaks frankly outloud to express a thought.

Set

the design, decoration, and scenery of the stage during a play, usually meant to represent the location(s) in the drama.

Prop

an object used on stage or screen by actors during a performance or screen production.