The arrangement of events in a narrative. Almost always, a conflict is central to a plot, and traditionally a plot develops in accordance with the following model: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, denouement.

A story.

The tension, opposition, or struggle that drives a plot.

A literary device that uses tension to make the plot more exciting.

Usually used to refer to a dramatic work that, in contrast to tragedy, has a light, amusing plot, features a happy ending, and centers around ordinary people.

A scene in a narrative that is set in an earlier time than the main action.

Latin for “in the middle of things,” a technique in which a narrative begins in the middle of the action.

The main character in a work; often a hero or heroine, but not always.

Character in a story or play who opposes the protagonist.

A novel that explores the maturation of the protagonist, with the narrative usually moving the main character from childhood into adulthood.

A character’s transformative moment of realization.

One who exhibits a range of emotions and changes over the course of the story.

Character who embodies only one or two traits and provides a background for the protagonist’s actions.

Characters who may represent stereotypes, such as the absent-minded professor or the town drunk, occasionally providing comic relief.

Occurs when a narrator explicitly describes the background, motivation, temperament, or appearance of a character.

Occurs when an author shows rather than tells us what a character is like through what he or she says, does, or thinks, or what others say about the character.

A narrator who is naive, mentally ill, biased, corrupt, or downright immoral.

Point of view where readers have access to what all the characters are thinking and feeling.

Point of view that tells us what just one major or minor character is thinking and feeling.

Narrator who recounts only what characters say and do, offering no insight into their thinking or analysis of events; all interpretation is left to the reader.

Introducing a story using another story

Objects, places, events, or even characters that carry meanings or associations beyond the literal.

A literary work that portrays abstract ideas in concrete ways.

Cultural symbols that have become universally understood and recognized. Common examples include a garden, a dark forest, a desert, a mentor, a journey, or a quest.

A recurring pattern of images or events.

Part of the structure of a play.

The conversation between two or more characters; an essential way to reveal character.

A character, alone on the stage, revealing his or her thoughts or emotions, as if the character is thinking out loud.

The conflict of the play is clear to the audience but not to other characters.

Any item used by an actor or as part of scenery

The components that together create a literary work, such as imagery, syntax, figurative language, and tone, as well as storytelling elements, such as plot, character, setting, and point of view.

When authors choose their words carefully to convey precise meanings.

The literal definition of a word, often referred to as the “dictionary definition.”

Meanings or associations readers have with a word or an item beyond its dictionary definition.

An expression or language construction appropriate only for casual, informal speaking or writing.

Diction that refers to a broad concept

Diction that refers to a specific, particular thing.

Comparisons by using the words like, as, or than.

Comparisons that directly state that one thing is another.

When a metaphor is extended over several lines in a work.

Deliberate exaggeration used for emphasis or to produce a comic or an ironic effect; an overstatement to make a point.

Occurs when a speaker says one thing but really means something else, or when there is a noticeable incongruity between what is expected and what is said.

Creates a vivid mental picture or a physical sensation by appealing to one or more of the five senses: that is, how something looks, feels, sounds, smells, or tastes.

The arrangement of words into phrases, clauses, and sentences.

Reflects the author’s attitude toward the subject of the work.

The feeling the reader experiences as a result of the tone.

The general pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables.

The formal, regular organization of stressed and unstressed syllables, measured in feet.

A poetic form composed of fourteen lines in iambic pentameter that adheres to a particular rhyme scheme.

A contemplative poem on death and mortality, often written for someone who has died.

A short poem expressing the personal thoughts or feelings of a first-person speaker.

A form of poetry used to meditate on or address a single object or condition.

quatrain

Tercet

Couplet

The repetition of the same initial consonant sounds in a sequence of words or syllables.

The musical quality of poetry.

The repetition of vowel sounds in a sequence of words.

Use of words that refer to sound and whose pronunciations mimic those sounds.

Related to the rise and fall of the voice.

The repetition of the same (or similar) vowel or consonant sounds or constructions.

A form of poetry that does not have a regular meter or rhyme scheme.

Rhyme at the end of a line.

Rhyme within a line of poetry

When an author uses poetic license to rhyme words that do not sound quite the same.