Lit Terms: Drama

Question 0

Aside

Answer 0

A dramatic device in which a character speaks to the audience.By convention the audience is to realize that the character’s speech is unheard by the other characters on stage.

Question 1

Antagonist

Answer 1

A person who actively opposes or is hostile to someone or something; an adversary

Question 2

Catharsis

Answer 2

is the purification and purgation of emotions (especially pity and fear) through art or any extreme change in emotion that results in renewal and restoration

Question 3

Climax

Answer 3

A decisive moment that is of maximum intensity or is a major turning point in a plot

Question 4

Comedy

Answer 4

A dramatic work in which the central motif is the triumph over adverse circumstance, resulting in a successful or happy conclusion.

Question 5

Comic Relief

Answer 5

A humorous or farcical interlude in a serious literary work or drama, especially a tragedy, intended to relieve the dramatic tension or heighten the emotional impact by means of contrast

Question 6

Denouement

Answer 6

The events following the climax of a drama or novel in which such a resolution or clarification takes place.

French word for “unknotting”

Question 7

Deus ex machina

Answer 7

An unexpected, artificial, or improbable character, device, or event introduced suddenly in a work of fiction or drama to resolve a situation or untangle a plot.

Question 8

Epilogue

Answer 8

A chapter at the end of a work of literature which concludes the work

Question 9

Farce

Answer 9

A comedy that aims at entertaining the audience through situations that are highly exaggerated, extravagant, and thus improbable

Question 10

Foil

Answer 10

A character who contrasts with another character (usually the protagonist) in order to highlight particular qualities of the other character

Question 11

Hamartia

Answer 11

A personal error in a protagonist’s personality that brings about his tragic downfall in a tragedy. This defect in a hero’s personality is also known as a “tragic flaw”

Question 12

Hubris

Answer 12

Extreme pride and arrogance shown by a character that ultimately brings about his downfall

Question 13

In medias res

Answer 13

When a story starts in the middle but recounts events leading up to that point in time

Question 14

Monologue

Answer 14

Any speech of some duration addressed by a character to a second person

Question 15

Prologue

Answer 15

An introductory speech, often in verse, calling attention to the theme of a play

Question 16

Protagonist

Answer 16

The central character or leading figure in poetry, narrative, novel or any other story

Question 17

Soliloquy

Answer 17

A dramatic or literary form of discourse in which a character talks to himself or herself or reveals his or her thoughts without addressing a listener

Question 18

Tragedy

Answer 18

A dramatic composition, often in verse, dealing with a serious or somber theme, typically that of a great person destined through a flaw of character or conflict with some overpowering force, as fate or society, to downfall or destruction

Question 19

Tragic Flaw

Answer 19

The character defect that causes the downfall of the protagonist of a tragedy