Literary Terms Flashcards
Setting
The time and place of a literary work that establish its context
Characters
Imaginary people that inhabit a literary work
Plot
The unified structure of incidents in a literary work
Rising Action
A set of conflicts and crises that constitute the part of a play’s or story’s plot leading up to the climax
Climax
The turning point of the action in the plot of a play or story
Falling Action
The action following the climax of the work that moves it towards its denouement or resolution
Conflict
A struggle between opposing forces in a story or play, usually resolved by the end of the work
Resolution
The sorting out or unraveling of a plot at the end of a literary work
Theme
The idea of a literary work abstracted from its details of language, characters, and action, and cast in the form of a generalization
Symbol
An object or action in a literary work that means more than itself, that stands for something beyond itself
