an authors use of speech, action, narrative, and description to establish a character’s values, beliefs, and identity.

a set of characters in a classical tragedy who comment on the action of the play and help the audience understand the characters and plot, as well as provide background on the play’s wider moral and social context.

the cultural, historical, and social settings in which characters find themselves

a group of words with a related subject and verb; the phrase may stand alone, or it can establish a subordinate relationship in a complex sentence

the section of a plot of that produces the strongest emotional tension and serves as the main turning point in the story or play

a poetic structure that follows an established convention of lines, meter, rhymes, and stanzas. ex: sonnet

a literary and rhetorical device that uses similarities between people, places, things, and or ideas to help the reader recognize figurative meaning or an abstract concept. ex: metaphor

the ambiguous, inconsistent, or contradictory aspects of a character, theme, or other literary element that suggest layered meanings and multiple interpretations

an extended metaphor that compares or contrasts images, concepts, and associations in surprising, elaborate, and paradoxical ways

the problem, question, opposition, or tension in a play or story that the protagonist faces

the sensory, emotional, and cultural associations of a word that imply meanings beyond its literal definition

the social, historical, or cultural circumstances that shape a literary work’s creation or provide background to the setting of a play or story

the opposition of two literary elements or events or plot, usually presented to highlight the differences between them

an element, aspect, or technique used so frequently that it becomes a defining and identifiable feature of the genre

two successive lines that rhyme in poetry

the artistic and popular interests, customs, of a story’s setting

the dictionary definition or literal meaning of a word

the details and sensory language used to depict the writers subject in the readers mind

a specific piece of information about a character, setting, plot, or narrator that provides insight into that element