Literary Terms for High School English

A character in a story who decieves the protagonist. The antagonist doesn't have to be a person.

A person in the story responsible for thoughts or actions.

The method a writer uses to reveal the characterisitcs or personalilty. This could be what the character/narrator says about the the character, by what others reveal about the character, or what the character's actions reveal.

The height of the plot where the conflict is most adressed. Secrets are revealed, are the character 'wins' or 'loses'.

The end of a story.

Two or more opposing forces.

• - Man vs. man
• - Man vs. nature
• - Man vs. object
• - Man vs. circumstance
• - Man vs. society
• - Man vs. self

When the author directly states a character's traits.

When the reader draws conclusions about a character based on the actions of the character.

A character who changes throughout the course of the story.

A character about whom little information is provided.

A character who is fully described by the author.

A character who changes very little through the story.

When a story teaches a lesson or a moral.

The author's choice of words.

The first section of a plot where all necessary details are provided and characters and settings are introduced.

The part after the climax.

A method used to build suspense by providing hints of what is to come.

The use of language to create a mental picture and appeal to the senses.

When the audience knows something that one or more characters does not.

Sarcasm. When a person says something that means directly the opposite.

When the situation is far or opposite from what the characters expected it to be. Ex: Walking aside to avoid getting sprinkled from a wet dog shaking itself, but falling into a pool.

An unlikely comparison between two things without using "like" or "as".

A feeling created by the author through desprictions, plot, characters, etc.

An unverifiable story based on a religious belief.

When a inadimate objects are given human characteristics.

The part of the story after the climax where a new norm is established.

The second section in the story's plot where the protagonist begins to grapple on the the story's main conflict and important events that determine the how storyline takes place.

• - Short story
• - Novel
• - Essay
• - Poem
• - Play
• - Letter

A device in literature where an object represents an idea.

The topic the story is about.

The underlying message/air of the story. How the author sees the subject matter themselves.

A great exaggeration not ment to be taken literally.

When the entire story is symbolic or metaphorical.

A brief reference to a well-known person, place or event.

Making an obscene or harsh term seem softer or milder.

A play on words for comic reception.

The repitition of initial (usually consonant) sounds.

The repitition of identical consonant sounds before and after different vowels.

The close repetition of similar vowel sounds.

Literature ment to mock and show the weaknesses of human nature.

When literature is imitated for comedy.

A poem that tells a story.

A musical poem with meter and rhythm. They express personal feeling.

Instructive poetry. Intended to teach a moral lesson.

A narrative poem often of folk origin often intended to be sung, usually having a refrain.

Within a play, someone speaks to himself within one's mind.

A regular pattern of rhyme consistent throughout the poem.

A four-line stanza.

Small unit within a poem.

A pair of rhyming lines in poetry.

A poem with no formal structure. There are no restrictions to what a free verse looks like.

A Poem that contains fourteen lines and is written in iambic pentameter.

A, B, A, B, C, D, C, D, E, F, E, F, G, G

A comparison of the similarities of two otherwise dissimilar things.

Literature that explains certain concepts.

When there are ten syllables per line. Penta means five and iambic means two so five X two is ten.

A statement which defies logic or reason. Ex: Everything I say is a lie...including this statement.

The written equivalent of somebody's thought process. Often without structure or a plotline.

A long story of heroic achievement.

A long poem about the adventures of a hero.

An imaginary place which repressive and controlled, usually this place is an extremely unpleasant.

The number of foots times two is the number of syllables in a line.

• - Trimeter = Six syllables
• - Tetrameter = Eight syllables
• - Pentameter = Ten syllables

A Japanese poem which has three line: The first line contains five syllables, the second seven, and the last five again.

• A poem whose contents are portrayed through shaping the letters to make it look like an image. As Wikipedia puts it:
• "Concrete poetry begins by assuming a total responsibility before language: accepting the premise of the historical idiom as the indispensable nucleus of communication, it refuses to absorb words as mere indifferent vehicles, without life, without personality without history — taboo-tombs in which convention insists on burying the idea."