Name____________________________ Block_____ Date__________ Elements of Style/Dramatic Terms Test
Comedy
Catastrophe
Catharsis
Anagnorisis
Deus ex machina
Pathos
Props
Soliloquy
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
Chorus
Dramatis personae
Stage direction
Comic Relief
Peripateia
Nemesis
Aside
Fourth wall
Hubris
Hamartia
Monologue
Staging
Tragedy
Tragic flaw
Tragic hero
_______________: including a humorous scene or character in a serious work (usually a tragedy)
_______________: A speech in a play that is meant to be heard by the audience but not by other characters on the stage. If there are no
other characters present, the soliloquy represents the character thinking aloud. Hamlet's "To be or not to be" speech is an example.
_______________: Latin for the characters or persons in a play. Included among the dramatis personae of Miller's Death of a Salesman
are Willy Loman, the salesman, his wife Linda, and his sons Biff and Happy.
_______________: A god who resolves the entanglements of a play by supernatural intervention. The Latin phrase means, literally, "a god
from the machine." The phrase refers to the use of artificial means to resolve the plot of a play.
_______________: A group of characters in Greek tragedy (and in later forms of drama), who comment on the action of a play without
participation in it. Sophocles' Antigone and Oedipus the King both contain an explicit chorus with a choragos. Tennessee Williams's Glass
Menagerie contains a character who functions like a chorus.
_______________: A pivotal or crucial action on the part of the protagonist that changes the situation from seemingly secure to vulnerable.
_______________: Retribution. The inevitable payback or cosmic punishment for acts of hubris.
_______________: A moment of clairvoyant insight or understanding in the mind of the tragic hero as he suddenly comprehends the web
of fate in which he is entangled; tragic recognition or insight.
_______________: The action at the end of a tragedy that initiates the denouement or falling action of a play. One example is the dueling
scene in Act V of Hamlet in which Hamlet dies, along with Laertes, King Claudius, and Queen Gertrude.
_______________: A playwright's descriptive or interpretive comments that provide readers (and actors) with information about the
dialogue, setting, and action of a play. Modern playwrights, including Ibsen, Shaw, Miller, and Williams tend to include substantial stage
directions, while earlier playwrights typically used them more sparsely, implicitly, or not at all.
_______________: The spectacle a play presents in performance, including the position of actors on stage, the scenic background, the
props and costumes, and the lighting and sound effects. Tennessee Williams describes these in his detailed stage directions for The Glass
Menagerie and also in his production notes for the play.
_______________: A type of drama in which the characters experience reversals of fortune, usually for the worse. In tragedy, catastrophe
and suffering await many of the characters, especially the hero. Examples include Shakespeare's Othello and Hamlet; Sophocles'
Antigone and Oedipus the King, and Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman.
_______________: The imaginary wall of the box theater setting, supposedly removed to allow the audience to see the action. The fourth
wall is especially common in modern and contemporary plays such as Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun, Wasserstein's Tender Offer, and
Wilson's Fences.
_______________: Excessive pride. Traditionally, the (reason for the ) downfall of the tragic hero; false pride.
_______________: A fatal error or simple mistake on the part of the protagonist that eventually leads to the final catastrophe. A metaphor
from archery, (this word) literally refers to a shot that misses the bullseye.
_______________: Drama where the characters experience a change for the better and work things out with hope for the future.
_______________: The purging of the feelings of pity and fear that, according to Aristotle, occur in the audience of tragic drama. The
audience experiences catharsis at the end of the play, following the catastrophe.
_______________: Words spoken by an actor directly to the audience, which are not "heard" by the other characters on stage during a
play. In Shakespeare's Othello, Iago voices his inner thoughts a number of times as "asides" for the play's audience.
_______________: A privileged, exalted character of high repute, who, by virtue of a tragic flaw and fate, suffers a fall from glory into
suffering. Sophocles' Oedipus is an example.
_______________: speech by one person where other characters are present
_______________: A quality of a play's action that stimulates the audience to feel pity for a character. Pathos is always an aspect of
tragedy, and may be present in comedy as well.
_______________ : Articles or objects that appear on stage during a play. The Christmas tree in A Doll's House and Laura's collection of
glass animals in The Glass Menagerie are examples.
_______________: A weakness or limitation of character, resulting in the fall of the tragic hero. Othello's jealousy and too trusting nature is
one example.
Name____________________________ Block_____ Date__________ Elements of Style/Characterization Terms Test
Direct Characterization
Static Character
Dynamic Character
Foil
Hero
Antihero
Tragic Hero
Tragic Flaw
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.
32.
33.
34.
35.
36.
37.
Flat Character
Round Character Protagonist
Motivation
Indirect Characterization
Antagonist
________________: a central character who lacks conventional heroic attributes
________________: central dignified or noble character with a defect
________________: defect that brings out the or contributes to the downfall
________________: what drives a character’s actions
________________: the main character (sometimes the hero)
________________: The author tells us directly what the character is like. He is tall.
________________: The author reveals a character’s personality by describing his or her actions, speech, appearance, effect on others,
or inner thoughts. When he walked into the classroom, his head almost hit the top of the door jam.
________________: no change in his thinking or behavior throughout the story.
________________: well-developed, has many traits, both good and bad, not easily defined because we know many details about the
character, realistic and life-like, most major characters are round
________________: the one in conflict with the protagonist or hero
________________: Characters that contrast and emphasize the traits of the hero
________________: the main character who is typically identified with good qualities, and with whom the reader is expected to
sympathize
________________: shows significant change in thinking or behavior throughout the story and usually as a result of the action of the story.
________________: not well-developed, does not have many traits, easily defined
Name____________________________ Block_____Date__________ Elements of Style/Plot Terms Test
Plot Structure
Internal Conflict
38.
39.
40.
41.
42.
43.
44.
45.
46.
47.
48.
49.
Exposition
Rising Action
Climax
Foreshadowing
Flashback
Falling Action
Suspense
Resolution
Conflict/Complication
External Conflict
________________: man versus man, man versus nature, man versus society , man versus beast, man versus God or fate
________________: man versus self
________________: Action moves from a problem to a solution.
________________: establishes character and setting prior to or as part of the conflict
________________: events leading up to the climax
________________: problem or source of tension in the story
________________: the use of clues to hint at what is going to happen later in the plot.
________________: a scene that interrupts the present action of the plot to go back and tell what happened earlier.
________________: causes uncertainty and tension about what will happen in the story
________________: turning point
________________: specific events after the climax that lead to the resolution
________________: The outcome of the story
Name_______________________________________Per___________Date__________ Basic Literary Terms Test
Remembering: Write the correct literary term for each definition
allegory
alliteration
allusion
assonance
characterization
concrete language
connotation
diction dramatic irony
hyperbole image
imagery
irony
metaphor
extended metaphor
mixed metaphor
mood
motif
oxymoron theme tone
personification
paradox
point of view
protagonist
pun
repetition
round character
setting
simile
situational irony
style
symbol
syntax
verbal irony
1. _______________: Language that describes specific, observable things, people or places, rather than ideas or qualities.
2. _______________: A figurative comparison of two things, often dissimilar, using the connecting words: "like," "as," or "then."
3. _______________: A word or group of words, either figurative or literal, used to describe a sensory experience or an object perceived by the senses.
4. _______________: A comparison of two things, often unrelated. A figurative verbal equation results where both "parts" illuminate one another.
5. _______________: Word choice, particularly as an element of style. Different types and arrangements of words have significant effects on meaning.
6. _______________: The repetition at close intervals of initial identical consonant sounds. Or, vowel sounds in successive words or syllables that repeat.
7. _______________: The method an author uses to develop characters in a work.
8. _______________: A writer's attitude toward his or her subject matter revealed through diction, figurative language, and organization.
9. _______________: Conscious exaggeration used to heighten effect. Example: "And fired the shot heard round the world."
10. ______________: Rather than the dictionary definition, the associations associated by a word. Implied meaning rather than literal meaning.
11. ______________: Repetition of a vowel sound within two or more words in close proximity. Ex: "Fate" and "lake"
12. ______________: When the reader or audience is aware of an inconsistency between a fictional or nonfiction character's perception of a situation and
the truth or reality of that situation. The reader or audience knows something but the characters do not.
13. ______________: A play on words that are identical or similar in sound but have sharply diverse meanings.
14. ______________: When two metaphors are jumbled together, often illogically.
16. ______________: Applies to works which contain elaborate expressions of the ironic spirit. To say one thing but mean the opposite.
17. ______________: A comparison developed at length and involves several points of comparison.
18. ______________: The choices in diction, tone, and syntax that a writer makes. In combination they create a work's manner of expression.
19. ______________: Locale and period in which the action takes place.
20. ______________: A frequently recurrent character, incident, or concept in literature.
21. ______________: A central idea of a work of fiction or nonfiction, revealed and developed in the course of a story or explored through argument.
22. ______________: An indirect reference to something (usually a literary text) with which the reader is expected to be familiar—usually literary, historical,
Biblical, or mythological references.
23. ______________: A narrative or description having a second meaning beneath the surface one. A story, fictional or nonfiction, in which characters,
things, and events represent qualities or concepts. The interaction of these characters, things, events is meant to reveal an abstraction or a truth. These
characters, etc. may be symbolic of the ideas referred to.
24. ______________: Word or phrase used two or more times in close proximity.
25. ______________: An atmosphere created by a writer's word choice (diction) and the details selected.
26. ______________: In grammar, the arrangement of words as elements in a sentence to show their relationship. The sentences you choose.
27. ______________: A rhetorical antithesis. Juxtaposing (putting side by side) two contradictory terms, like "wise fool" or "deafening silence."
28. ______________: Figurative Language in which inanimate objects, animals, ideas, or abstractions are endowed with human traits or human form.
29. ______________: The perspective from which a fictional or nonfictional story is told.
30. ______________: Type of irony: a discrepancy appears between the reader’s expectations of what will happen, and what actually happens.
31. ______________: Chief character in a dramatic or narrative work, usually trying to accomplish some objective or working toward some goal.
32. ______________: A character drawn with sufficient complexity to be able to surprise the reader without losing credibility.
33. ______________: The use of images, especially in a pattern of related images, often figurative, to create a strong unified sensory impression.
34. ______________: Dramatic, situational and verbal are all types of these
35. ______________: A thing, event, or person that represents or stands for some idea or event.
36. ______________: A seemingly contradictory statement that makes sense (“I feel most alone when I’m in the middle of a crowd”)