English Final Study Guide

The repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of a word.

A reference to an historical or a literary person, place, or event with which the reader is assumed to be familiar.

The repetition of a word or word group at the beginning of successive sentences, clauses, paragraphs, or poetic lines.

A short written or oral account of an interesting event or an episode. A(n) _________ can serve many purposes: reveal character, illustrate a theme support an opinion, clarify an idea, grab the reader's attention, or simply entertain.

A person or a force in society or nature that opposes the protagonist, or central character, in a story or drama.

Figure of speech in which sharply contrasting words, phrases, clauses, or sentences are juxtaposed. ____________ is used to emphasize a point.

Figure of speech in which a thing, an abstract quality, or an absent or imaginary person is addressed as if present and able to understand.

The repetition of a vowel sound within words.

In a play, a comment that a character makes to the audience or another character onstage, a comment that the others onstage do not hear.

Unrhymed poetry in iambic pentameter.

A pause placed in the middle of a line for effect.

An individual in a literary work.

A character who shows varied and sometimes contradictory traits.

A character who reveals only one personality trait.

This character undergoes a change during the story.

This character remains the same throughout the story.

The techniques employed by writers to develop characters.

When the author clearly tells the reader what we need to know about a character.

When the reader must use hints to understand a character by: 1) Narrator's description of a character's physical appearance or personal traits, 2) Character's thoughts, 3) Character's actions, 4) Character's speech, 5) Other characters' thoughts, comments, and actions

A character in a drama or fiction, such as a trusted friend or servant, who serves as a device for revealing the inner thoughts or intentions of a main character.

A struggle between two opposing forces or characters.

A struggle that takes place within the mind of the character

takes place between the character and an outside force (Person vs. Person, Person vs. Society, Person vs. Nature, Person vs. Machine, Person vs. Self)

The repetition of consonant sounds within and at the end of words.

A writer's choice of words.

The continuation of the sense and grammatical construction of a line of poetry onto the next line or of a couplet or stanza into the succeeding couplet or stanza.

of high rank, strong, courageous, clever, cunning; the hero's qualities represent those valuable to his society; the hero struggles to overcome human character flaws; he faces supernatural forces; the story takes places over large, vast areas and locations; the story is told in a formal and grand style; the epic hero WINS!

A long, elaborate comparison that continues for several lines.

A brief phrase used to characterize a person, place, or thing.

Language that uses figures of speech, or expressions that are not literally true but express some truth beyond the literal level.

An interruption in the chronological order of a narrative to describe an event that happened earlier.

A character who provides a striking contrast to another character.

An author's use of hints or clues to prepare readers for events that will happen later in a story.

Poetry that has no fixed pattern of meter, rhyme, length, or stanza arrangement.

Two consecutive lines of rhyming iambic pentameter.

Excessive pride or self-confidence

Figure of speech in which the truth is exaggerated for emphasis or humorous effect.

Words or phrases that create pictures, or images, in the reader's mind.

Latin phrase meaning "in the middle of things." A work of literature is said to start like this when the story begins in the middle of the action.

The contrast between appearance and actuality, or between expectation and reality.

When something happens that is entirely different than what is expected.

a writer/character says one thing, but means something entirely different.

The reader or audience understands meanings that one or more characters do not.

An implied comparison.

The repetition of a regular rhythmic unit in a line of poetry.

unstressed, stressed

stressed, unstressed

unstressed, unstressed, stressed

stressed, unstressed, unstressed

stressed, stressed

unstressed, unstressed

two rhythmic feet

three rhythmic feet

four rhythmic feet

five rhythmic feet

A long speech or expression of thoughts by a character in a literary work.

The emotional quality of a literary work.

A recurring feature (such as a name, an image, or a phrase) in a work of literature.

Refers to the use of echoic words whose pronunciations suggest their specific meanings.

A figure of speech that combines opposite or contradictory ideas or terms.

The use of phrases, clauses, or sentences that are similar or complementary in structure or in meaning.

A mask or voice that the author uses in a poem. Note that the author and the voice in the poem are not the same.

Figure of speech in which human qualities are attributed to an object, an animal, or an idea.

The sequence of events or actions in a narrative work.

Information essential to understanding the situation is introduced.

The event or decision that begins a story's problem.

The action rises to the moment of crises.

The point of greatest intensity, interest, or suspense

After the climax, there is a reversal of fortune for the protagonist.

The moment when the conflict ends and the outcome is clear.

The vantage point from which a narrative is told.

The story is told by one of the characters in his/her own words.

The narrator is not in the story. This "all-knowing" observer can describe and comment on all the characters in the story.

The narrator is not a character in the story. However, rather than tell the story from each character's vantage point, this "limited" narrator tells the story from the viewpoint of only one character.

The central character in a literary work, around whom the main conflict revolves.

A humorous play on words.

Words ______ when sound of accented vowels and all succeeding sounds are identical.

Only final accented syllables rhyme. (pursue/renew)

Rhyme occurs in two or three consecutive syllables, the first of which is stressed. (remember/December; waken/shaken)

Rhyme comes at end of line.

Rhyme occurs within a line. ("The splendor falls on castle walls")

The sounds are closely related but not identical. (fear/care)

The time and place in which events in a literary work occur.

A comparison between two unlike things using "like" or "as."

A dramatic device in which a character alone on stage reveals his or her private thoughts aloud to the audience.

A verse form consisting of 14 lines in iambic pentameter with rhyme arranged according to a fixed scheme, usually divided either into an octave (eight lines) and a sestet (six lines) or into three quatrains and a couplet.

Any person, animal, place, object, or event that exists on a literal level within a work but also represents something on figurative level.

The main idea or message of a story, poem, novel, or play often expressed as a general statement about life.

The attitude that a writer takes toward his or her subject.

The technique of creating emphasis by saying less than is actually or literally true.