Literary Terms
More Literary Terms
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100
Also known as the resolution, this is the part of the plot where all of the problems or mysteries are unraveled. The term means unraveling the knot.
What is denouement?
100
Opposition between characters or forces in a work of drama or fiction, especially opposition that motivates or shapes the action of the plot.
What is conflict?
100
"He clasps the crag with crooked hands" is an example of this literary device.
What is alliteration?
100
squash, clap, sizzle and wheeze, are examples of this literary device
What is onomatopoeia?
100
In James Joyce’s story “Araby”, the boy hears about a bazaar called Araby and imagines that it will be a splendid, exotic place. Yet when he arrives, he finds that in reality Araby is cheap and commonplace. This is an example of this type of...
What is situational irony?
200
The vantage point from which a writer tells a story.
What is point-of-view?
200
A kind of metaphor in which a nonhuman thing or quality is talked about as if it were human
What is personification?
200
"My soul is an enchanted boat" is an example of which literary device?
What is metaphor?
200
a lyric poem typically of elaborate or irregular metrical form and expressive of exalted or enthusiastic emotion
What is an ode?
200
the most exciting part of the story
What is the climax?
300
When a writer tells us how the character looks, dresses, speaks, and/or behaves toward other characters to reveal aspects of a character then she is using this literary device.
What is indirect characterization?
300
in a play or novel, dialogue, description, etc., that gives the audience or reader the background of the characters and the present situation.
What is exposition?
300
A fourteen-line lyric poem, usually written in iambic pentameter, that has one of several rhyme schemes.
What is a sonnet?
300
A scene in a movie, play, short story, novel, or narrative poem that interrupts the present action of the plot to tell what happened at an earlier time.
What is a flashback?
300
an author's central idea in a work of literature
What is a theme?
400
In a literary work, a moment of sudden insight or revelation that a character experiences.
What is an epiphany?
400
the use of clues to hint at what is going to happen later in the plot, which helps build suspense.
What is foreshadowing?
400
A line of poetry made up if five iambs. An iamb is a metrical foot, or unit of measure, consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable.
What is iambic pentameter?
400
If a writer tells us directly what the character is like (i.e. humble, ambitious, easily manipulated, etc.) he is using this literary device.
What is direct characterization?
400
a poetic form in which a single character, addressing a silent auditor at a critical moment, reveals himself or herself and the dramatic situation
What is a dramatic monologue?
500
The attitude (satiric, awed, sympathetic) a writer takes toward the reader, a subject, or a character.
What is tone?
500
language that appeals to the senses
What is imagery?
500
A person, place or thing, or event that stands both for itself and for something beyond itself
What is a symbol?
500
When Macduff suspects that Duncan has been murdered by his own sons, but the audience knows that Macbeth is the murderer, Shakespeare is using this literary device.
What is dramatic irony?
500
a seemingly self-contradictory statement that when studied more closely reveals an element of truth
What is a paradox?
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