Literary Definitions

By: Brian, Rachel, and Eddie

Plot
 The main event of a play, novel, or similar
work, devised and presented by the writer
as an interrelated sequence.
 Example- The plot to the play was very
captivating.
Setting
 The time and place at which an event in a
play, book, film takes place.
 Example-the setting was at a cold lonely
house in Wisconsin.
Point-of-view
 A particular attitude or way of considering a
matter.
 Example-The point of view for the story was
in third person omniscient.
Characterization
 Describing the distinctive nature or features
of something.
 Example-The Grinch’s character is a stingy
beast with a heart three sizes to small.
Theme
 Is the subject of writing or talking; a
person’s thoughts about an exhibition.
 Example-The theme of the book was
honesty.
Alliteration
 The occurrence of the same letter or sound
at the beginning of adjacent or closely
connected words.
Example-An example is the Mother Goose

tongue twister, "Peter Piper picked a peck of

pickled peppers.”
Allusion
 An expression designed to call something to
mind mentioning it explicitly.
 Example-An image you see the is distorted
when you look at it.
Analogy
 A comparison between two things, typically
on the basis of their structure and for the
purpose of the explanation or clarification.
 Example- he analogy between the heart and
a pump.
Antagonist
 A person who actively opposes or is hostile
to someone or something.
 Example-The devil is the antagonist of the
Bible.
Aside
 On one side; out of the way; putting
something aside of a play that necessarily
doesn’t need to be heard.
 Example- Charles spoke aside to the
audience about his afflictions with James in
the play.

Blank verse
 Is a verse without rhyme or specific style in
a verse or poem.
 Example- You stars that reign'd at my
nativity,Whose influence hath allotted
death and hell,Now draw up Faustus like a
foggy mistInto entrails of yon labouring
clouds,That when they vomit forth into the
air,My limbs may issue from their smoky
mouths,Sothat my soul may but ascend to
Heaven.
Climax
 The most intense, exiting, or important point
of poem, book, play, move, or story.
 Example-The climax of Avatar is when they
blew up the TREE.

Comic relief
 Comic relief is a dramatic or literary work
that offset more serious sections.
 Example- William Shakespeare uses comic
relief in Romeo and Juliet.

Conflict
 An incompatibility between two or more
opinions, principles, or interests.
 Example- The conflict of Avatar was that
both the humans and the blue people
wanted the precious metals on this piece
of land so they fought over it.
Couplet
 Two lines verses, usually in the same meter
and joined by rhyme, that forms a unit.
 Example- true wit is nature to advantage
dress'd;What oft was thought, but ne'er so
well express'd.

Diction
 The choice and use of words and phrases in
speech or writing.
 Example-good diction.
Dramatic Irony
 The expression of one’s meaning by using
language that normally signifies the
opposite, typically for humorous effect.
 Example-When a man tries to leave a war,
but he ends up dying.
Dramatic Structure
 Is the basis of the drama in the literary
piece.
 Example- Most all movies, plays and books
have a dramtic structure…exposition,
rising action, climax, falling action,
resolution.
Epithet
 An adjective or descriptive phrase
expressing a quality characteristic of the
person or thing mentioned.
 Example-"wine-dark sea,"
Figurative Language
 a metaphorical language that is used to
describe what you are talking about.
 Example- Cindy liked to eat because she
was a mule.
Foreshadowing
 A warning or indication of a future event
that my occur.
 Example- Joseff had a dream sent from an
Angel that Herod would come to try to kill
Jesus

Foil
 To prevent a plan or process from
succeeding.
 Example- Jesus is the foil to Satan.
Imagery
 Visual descriptive or figurative language.
 Example- he dim imagery of a dream
Irony
 The expression of one’s meaning by using
language that normally signifies the
opposite effect.
 Example-In the departed in the end the
good guy or foil gets shot and dies irony.

Meter
 Prosody in nouns denoting lines of poetry
with a specified number of feet or
measures.
 Example- Is like the beat of the song. The
more foot the more meters.
Metahpor
 A figure of speech in which a word or phrase
is applied to an object or action to which it
is not literally applicable.
 Example- Saying that you were a wall and
bounced a ball back over the net.

Monologue
 A long speech by one actor in a play or
movie, or as part of a theatrical or
broadcast program.
 Example-In a movie were the character does
a speech explaining the scene.

Oxymoron
 A figure of speech in which apparently
contradictory terms appear in conjunction.
 Example- A fine mess

Personification
 The attribution of a personal nature or
human characteristic to something
nonhuman.
 Example-An example is of Garfield a talking
cat.
Protagonist
 The leading character or one of the major
characters in a drama, movie, novel, or
other fictional text.
 Example- An example is the main character,
Will Smith, in Hancock.

Pun
 A joke exploiting the different possible
meanings of a word.
 Example- The man who impulsively got a cat
despite his allergies later realized that it
was a rash decision.
 Website: http://www.punoftheday.com/cgi-
bin/disppuns.pl?
ord=N&cat=0&sub=0&page=1
Rhyme Scheme
 The ordered pattern of rhymes at the end of
a poem or verse.
 Example-
 There once was a big brown cat     
a                  That liked to eat a lot of
mice.         b                  He got all round
and fat                   a                  Because
they tasted so nice.            b

 http://www.rbuhsd.k12.ca.us/~rgrow/Rhyme
%20Schemes.html
Simile
 A figure of speech involving the comparison
of on thing with another thing of a different
kind.

Situational Irony
 A situation, which brings upon irony.
 Example- When a man’s family thinks that
he going to work, but instead he goes to
the beach.
Soliloquy
 An act of speaking one’s thoughts aloud
when by oneself.
 Example- When your sitting at home and
you burst laughing after thinking of
something funny.
Sonnet
 A poem of fourteen lines using any of a
number of formal rhyme schemes.
 Example-
Symbol
 A thing that represents a certain object.
 Example- In certain places a statue can
represent a god.
Tragedy
 An event causing great suffering, distress, or
destruction.
 Example- When when a man dies and leaves
his children alone.

Verbal Irony
 Irony caused by verbal conversation.
 Example- ".... If you ask for me tomorrow,
you shall find me a grave man. ... ”Romeo
and Juliet.