Literary Terms
Drama Antigone/Julius Caesar
1. Act: one of the main divisions of a play or opera
2. Alliteration: repetition of initial consonant sounds
3. Allusion: reference to a well-known person, place, event, literary
work, or work of art
4. Antagonist: character or force in conflict with a main character
or protagonist
5. Anticlimax: turning point that is a letdown; point which audience
or reader learns the story will not turn out in a way that
completely resolves the conflict or satisfies the audience.
6. Aside: short speech delivered by a character in a play in order
to express his or her thoughts and feelings; presumed not to be
heard by the other characters.
7. Assonance: repetition of vowel sounds followed by different
consonants in two or more stressed syllables. Hear the mellow
wedding bells
8. Atmosphere: the feeling created in the reader by a literary work
or passage.
9. Blank Verse: unrhymed iambic pentameter. Widely used by
Shakespeare
10.
Characterization: the act of creating and developing a
character
a. Direct: author states character traits
b. Indirect: author gives clues by describing what the
character says and does, what other characters say or
think about the him or her, how he or she reacts to
situations, and how other characters react to him or her.
11.
Comedy: literary work that has a happy ending. Often
portray ordinary characters in conflict with society.
a. Romantic: problems among lovers
b. Comedy of manners: satirically challenges the social
customs of a sophisticated society.
12.
Conflict: struggle between opposing forces; the basis for a
story
a. External: main character against and outside force
b. Internal: character in conflict with him or herself
13.
Couplet: a pair of rhyming lines, usually of the same length
and meter.
14.
Dialogue: conversation between characters that may
reveal their traits and advance the action
15.
Drama: a story written to be performed by actors, script
made up of dialogue and stage directions
16.
Figurative language: writing or speech not meant to be
interpreted literally, often used to crate vivid impressions by
setting up comparisons between dissimilar things.
17.
Imagery: descriptive language used in literature to create
word pictures, uses details of sight, sound, taste, touch, smell, or
movement.
18.
Irony: the general term for literary techniques that portray
differences between appearance and reality, or expected result.
a. Verbal: words used suggest the opposite of what is said
b. Dramatic: contradiction between what a character thinks
and what the reader or audience knows to be true.
c. Situational: event directly contradicts the expectation of
the characters, reader, or audience.
19.
Monologue: in a play, a long speech by one character that,
unlike a soliloquy, is addressed to another character or
characters.
20.
Oral tradition: the retelling or songs, stories, and poems
passed orally, or by spoken word, from generation to generation
21.
Oxymoron: a combination of words that contradict each
other ex: “deafening silence” “honest thief” “bittersweet”
22.
Protagonist: the main character in a literary work that must
overcome the conflict
23.
Setting: time and place of action, can include historical
time period, specific year, season, or time of day. Place can be
geographical place ( a region, country, state, or town) and can
include social, economic, or cultural environment
24.
Simile: figure of speech in which the words like or as are
used to compare two apparently dissimilar items.
25.
Soliloquy: a long speech expressing the thoughts of a
character alone on stage.
26.
Stage directions: notes included in a drama to describe
how the work is to be performed or staged. Printed in italics and
are not spoken aloud. Describe sets, lighting, sound effects,
appearance, personalities and movements of characters.
27.
Theme: central message or insight into life revealed
through a literary work.
28.
A work of literature, especially a play, that tells of a
catastrophe, a disaster or great misfortune, for the main
character.