Living Glossary

• Antecedent Action: Events relating to a work of literature but which occurred before the action begins.

 Ex. Antecedent strengthening seems to fail.

• Aside: A short speech in a play that is heard only by the audience, not other characters.

Ex. After all the other characters leave he speaks Aside himself.

• Black Humour: Humour derived from topics normally considered decidedly unfunny - usually death.

Ex. He liked to use Black Humour to hide his fear of death.

• Blank Verse: Unrhymed iambic pentameter. 

Ex. He used Blank Verse to write his poem. 

• Catastrophe: The point in a tragedy where disaster strikes and the protagonist dies. 

Ex. It was a Catastrophe when Jack died that day. 

• Catharsis: The purification of the emotions by the way of release and renewal.

Ex. She used Catharsis to get rid of stress. 

• Closet dramas: Plays meant to be read rather than preformed. 

Ex. He meant it as a Closet Drama so no one could preform it.

• Comic Relief: A humorous scene designed to ease the tension in an otherwise serious play. 

Ex. It was getting serious until someone used comic relief. 

• Complication: The part of the plot in a work of literature in which the conflict gets going and begins to develop.  

• Conclusion: In a tragedy, the short scene at the end that foreshadows what will happen now that the protagonist is dead. 
• Crisis: The climax or, more precisely, the situation that brings about the climax, in work of literature.
• Dramatic Purpose: The precise purpose served by each scene in a play - for instance, to develop plot, to reveal theme, or to develop character.
• Eulogy: A speech that praises a person.
• Falling Action: That part of a tragedy in which the fortunes of the protagonist are in decline. 
• Groundlings: Lower-class Elizabethan theatre-goers who stood on the ground around the stage to watch a play. 
• Initial Incident: The event that gets the plot of a work of literature going. 
• Melodrama: An exaggerated, formula-written drama. Usually full of blood and gore, intended only for its emotional impact. 
• Motif: A recurring idea, image, or phrase that acts as a unifying device in a work of literature. 
• Pathos: The quality that arouses in observers a sense of pity and compassion. 
• Rising Action: The series of events leading to the climax of a work of literature. 
• Soliloquy: A speech in a play given by a character alone on stage in order to reveal his or her thoughts and feelings. 
• Tragedy: A dramatic work in which a noble protagonist suffers personal destruction, usually because of a fatal flaw in his or her character. 
• Tragic Flaw: The shortcoming in the character of a tragic hero that leads to his or her destruction.
• Tragic Hero: The protagonist of a tragedy. 
• Serendipitous: Things happen for a reason. 
• Verisimilitude: When a piece of art creates a false sense of reality.
• Metonomy: A close association represents the whole. 
• Milieu: In the middle -Social context.
• Malapropism: Is the use of an incorrect word in place of a word with a similar sound, resulting in non-nonsensical, often humorous utterance. 
• Ubiquitous: Being or seeming to be everywhere at the same time.