Allusion | A reference to a well-known person, place, event, literary work, or work of art. Writers often make them to famous works such as the Bible or William Shakespeare plays. Or, they are made to mythology, politics, or current events. |
Aside | A short speech delivered by an actor in a play, expressing the character’s thoughts. Traditionally, it’s directed to the audience and is presumed to be inaudible to the other actors. |
Couplet | A pair of rhyming lines, usually of the same length and meter. Generally, it expresses a single idea. |
Denouement | Any events that occur after the resolution. |
Diction | A word choice. Consider the vocabulary used, the appropriateness of the words, and the vividness of the langauge. The literal meaning and the connotation, or associations, of words contribute to the overall effect, which can be formal or informal. |
Dramatic Irony | A contradiction between what a character thinks and what the reader or audience knows to be true. |
Figurative Language | Writing or speech not meant to be interpretted literally, and it’s often used to create vivid impressions by setting yp comparisions between dissimilar things. |
Foreshadowing | The use in a literary work of clues that suggests events that have yet to occur. Use of this technique helps to create suspense, keeping readers wondering and speculating about what will happen next. |
Imagery | The descriptive or figurative language used in literature to create word pictures for the reader. These pictures, or images, are created by details of sight, sound, taste, touch, smell, or movement. |
Metaphor | A figure of speech in which one thing is spoken of as though it were something else. Unlike a simile, it implies a comparision between them. |
Monologue | A speech by one character in a play, story, or poem. May be addressed to another character or to the audience, or may be a soliloquy. |
Mood | Atmosphere is the feeling created in a reader by the literary work or passage. Is often suggested by descriptive details. |
Personification | A type of figurative language in which a non-human subject is given himan characteristics. |
Soliloquy | A long speech expressing the thoughts of a character alone on stage. |
Sonnet | A 14 line lyric poem, usually written in rhymed iambic pentameter |
Stanzas | A formal division of lines in a poem, considered as a unit. Often separated by spaces. Named according to the number of lines found in them. |
Symbol | Anything that stands for or represents something else. |
Theme | A central message or insight into life reveled through a literary work. It is not a condensed summary of the plot. Instead, it is a generalization about people or about life that is communicated through the literary work. |
Tone | The writer’s attitude towar his or her audience and subject, can be often described in a single adjective. |
Tragedy | Work of literature, especially a play, that results in a catastrophy for the main character. |
Juxtaposition | A contrast of opposites, for example: love vs, hate, good vs. evil, right vs. wrong, strength vs. weakness. |
Oxymoron | A figure of speech that combines two opposing or contredictory ideas, such as “freezing fire” suggests a paradox in just a few words |
Puns | Play on the multiple meaning of a word or on the two words that souns alike but have different meanings. Used for humorous effect. |
Romeo and Juliet Literary Terms
July 15, 2019