Final Exam Study Guide For Literary Terms

Question 1

Character

Answer 1

A person in a story, poem or play.

Question 2

Protagonist

Answer 2

The main character

Question 3

antagonist

Answer 3

The Main Character

Question 4

Characterization

Answer 4

The process by which the writer reveals the personality of a character

Question 5

direct characterization

Answer 5

When writer uses this method, we do not have to figure out what the characters personality is like the writer tells us

Question 6

indirect characterization

Answer 6

When a writer uses this method we have to use our own judgment to infer what a character is like

Question 7

theme

Answer 7

the central idea of a work of literature.

Question 8

Plot

Answer 8

The series of related events in a story or play, sometimes called the story line./ The sequence of events or actions in a short story, novel,play, or narrative poem.

Question 9

Conflict

Answer 9

the struggle between opposing forces or characters in a story

Question 10

external conflict

Answer 10

this type of conflict can exist between two people, between a person and nature of a machine, or between a person and the whole society.

Question 11

internal conflict

Answer 11

This type of conflict can involve opposing forces within a person’s mind

Question 12

foreshadowing

Answer 12

The use of hints and clues to suggest what will happen later in plot

Question 13

irony

Answer 13

in general, a discrepancy between appearances and reality.

Question 14

verbal irony

Answer 14

this type of irony occurs when someone says one thing but really means something else

Question 15

situational irony

Answer 15

this type of irony takes place when where is a discrepancy between what is expected to happen or what would be appropriate to happen and what really does happen.

Question 16

dramatic irony

Answer 16

This type of irony is so called because it is often used on stage. in this kind of irony a character in the play or story thinks one thing is true, but the audience or reader knows better

Question 17

Basic situation or exposition

Answer 17

this element of the plot tells us who the characters are and introduces their conflict.

Question 18

complication

Answer 18

the second part of a plot where the main character takes some action to resolve the conflict and meets with more people

Question 19

rising action

Answer 19

This element of the plot refers to all the actions that take place before the turning point.

Question 20

Climax

Answer 20

This element of the plot is exciting or suspenseful moment when the outcome of the conflict is imminent.

Question 21

Falling action

Answer 21

This element of the plot refers to all the actions that take place after the truing point or crisis

Question 22

resolution/Denouement

Answer 22

This element of the plot refers to the story’s end when the story’s problems are all resolved

Question 23

soliloquy

Answer 23

A long speech made by a character in a play while no other characters are on stage

Question 24

metaphor

Answer 24

A figure of speech that makes a comparison between two unlike things without the use of such specific words or comparison as like as, then, or resemble.

Question 25

simile

Answer 25

A Figure of speech that make an explicit comparison between two unlike things using a work such as like as than or resembles.

Question 26

Tone

Answer 26

the attitude a writer takes toward the subject of a work, the character in it or the audience. Author’s or narrator attitude reflected in the style of the text.

Question 27

mood

Answer 27

A feeling that the reader has when reading something

Question 28

assonance

Answer 28

The repetition of similar vowel sounds followed by different consonant sounds, especially in words close together.

Question 29

alliteration

Answer 29

The repetition of the same or similar consonant sounds in words that are close together

Question 30

Imagery

Answer 30

The use of language to evoke a picture or a concrete sensation of a person a thing a place or an experience.

Question 31

archetype

Answer 31

A pattern that appears in literature across cultures and is repeated through the ages an archetype can be a character a plot an image or a setting

Question 32

aside

Answer 32

private words that a character in a play speaks to the audience or to another character and that are not supposed to be overheard by others on stage

Question 33

Setting

Answer 33

The time and place in which the events in a short story , novel play or narrative poem occur.

Question 34

Blank verse

Answer 34

poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter.

Question 35

Chivalry

Answer 35

The system of ideals and social codes governing the behavior of knights and gentlewomen in feudal times.

Question 36

Couplet

Answer 36

Two Consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme

Question 37

Courtly love

Answer 37

A conventional medieval code of behavior that informed a knight of the proper way to treat his lady

Question 38

epic

Answer 38

A long narrative poem that relates the great deeds of a larger-than-life hero who embodies the values of a particular society

Question 39

Epic hero

Answer 39

a hero who undertakes a quest to achieve something of tremendous value to themselves or their society

Question 40

Feudalism

Answer 40

The economic, political, and social system of medieval eurpoe

Question 41

frame story

Answer 41

an introductory narrative within which one or more of the characters proceed to tell individual stories

Question 42

kenning

Answer 42

in a Anglo-Saxon poetry a metaphorical phrase or compound word used to name a person place thing or event indirectly

Question 43

apostrophe

Answer 43

Directly speaking to a person or object that cannot respond

Question 44

synecdoche

Answer 44

when part of something represents the whole

Question 45

oxymoron

Answer 45

A two-word phrase that appears to be opposite but is not. A figure of speech that combines opposite or contradictory ideas or terms

Question 46

paradox

Answer 46

A statement that appears to be opposite in meaning but its true. A statement that seems to contradict itself but may nevertheless suggest an important truth

Question 47

personification

Answer 47

Giving an object human characteristics

Question 48

tragic flaws

Answer 48

A defect in character or an error in judgement that leads to the tragic hero or heroine’s downfall

Question 49

tragedy

Answer 49

A dramatic work that present the downfall of a dignify character or character who are involved in historically or socially significant events

Question 50

tragic hero/heroine

Answer 50

Is of high social rank/ king/queen/ prince/princess or general, has an error in judgment or a character defect that ultimately leads to his or her downfall.