The implied attitude of a writer toward the subject and characters of a work.

A type of drama in which the characters experience reversals of fortune, usually for the better, things work out happily in the end.

The physical movement of a character during a play. It is used to reveal character, and may include facial expressions as well as movements of other parts of an actor's body.

A character who contrasts and parallels another character in a play or story.

A symbolic narrative in which the surface details imply a secondary meaning. It often takes the form of a story in which the characters represent moral qualities.

A weakness or limitation of character, resulting in the fall of the tragic hero.

A humorous, mocking imitation of a literary work, sometimes sarcastic, but often playful and even respectful in its imitation.

The imaginary wall of the box theater setting, supposedly removed to allow the audience to see the action. It 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.

Words spoken by an actor directly to the audience, which are not "heard" by the other characters on stage during a play.

The first stage of a fictional or dramatic plot, in which necessary background information is provided.

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. Their leader is the choragos.

A type of drama in which the characters experience reversals of fortune, usually for the worse.

A quality of a play's action that stimulates the audience to feel pity for a character. IT is always an aspect of tragedy, and may be present in comedy as well.

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.

The idea that a play should be limited to a specific time, place, and story line. The events of the plot should occur within a twenty-four hour period, should occur within a give geographic locale, and should tell a single story.

The point at which a character understands his or her situation as it really is.

A brief story with an explicit moral provided by the author. Fables typically include animals as characters. Their most famous practitioner in the west is the ancient Greek writer Aesop.

A nineteen-line lyric poem that relies heavily on repetition. The first and third lines alternate throughout the poem, which is structured in six stanzas --five tercets and a concluding quatrain.

A character or force against which another character struggles.

When a character's traits are revealed through actions, deeds, and dialogue.

A figure of speech in which a writer or speaker says less than what he or she means; the opposite of exaggeration.

An unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one, as in to-DAY.

The repetition of similar vowel sounds in a sentence or a line of poetry or prose, as in "I rose and told him of my woe."

The measured pattern of rhythmic accents in poems.

A privileged, exalted character of high repute, who, by virtue of a tragic flaw and fate, suffers a fall from glory into suffering.

A figure of speech involving exaggeration.

The purging of the feelings of pity and fear that, according to Aristotle, occur in the audience of tragic drama. The audience experiences this at the end of the play, following the catastrophe.

A figure of speech in which a closely related term is substituted for an object or idea.

A three-line stanza, as the stanzas in Frost's "Acquainted With the Night" and Shelley's "Ode to the West Wind." The three-line stanzas or sections that together constitute the sestet of a Petrarchan or Italian sonnet.

The imaginary wall of the box theater setting, supposedly removed to allow the audience to see the action. It 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.

The turning point of the action in the plot of a play or story. The climax represents the point of greatest tension in the work.

A speech by a single character without another character's response.

The grammatical order of words in a sentence or line of verse or dialogue. The organization of words and phrases and clauses in sentences of prose, verse, and dialogue.

Hints of what is to come in the action of a play or a story.

The use of a comic scene to interrupt a succession of intensely tragic dramatic moments. The comedy of scenes offering comic relief typically parallels the tragic action that the scenes interrupt. This is usually lacking in Greek tragedy, but occurs regularly in Shakespeare's tragedies.

A main character of a literary work trying to overcome the conflict.

The use of words to imitate the sounds they describe. Words such as buzz and crack.

A figure of speech in which a part is substituted for the whole.

A metrical unit composed of stressed and unstressed syllables. For example, an iamb or iambic foot is represented by ˘', that is, an unaccented syllable followed by an accented one.

An intensification of the conflict in a story or play. It builds up, accumulates, and develops the primary or central conflict in a literary work.

The point at which the action of the plot turns in an unexpected direction for the protagonist.

What a story or play is about; to be distinguished from plot and theme.

An interruption of a work's chronology to describe or present an incident that occurred prior to the main time frame of a work's action.

A god who resolves the entanglements of a play by supernatural intervention. The Latin phrase means, literally, "a god from the machine."

A literary work that criticizes human misconduct and ridicules vices, stupidities, and follies.

The selection of words in a literary work. Also known as word choice.

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, it represents the character thinking aloud.

A type of poem in which a speaker addresses a silent listener.

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.

In the plot of a story or play, the action following the climax of the work that moves it towards its denouement or resolution.

A subsidiary or subordinate or parallel plot in a play or story that coexists with the main plot.