AQA GCSE English Literature key terms

A secondary storyline concerning a developing love relationship, running alongside the main plot.

The group that controls a society’s decisions and resources. In Animal Farm, the pigs become a ruling class rather than representatives accountable to the other animals.

The violation or disrespect of something considered sacred.

A mocking or cutting use of language, often saying something different from what the speaker means.

The use of humour, irony or ridicule to expose and criticise faults, especially abuses of political power.

A person or group unfairly blamed for problems, allowing those responsible to avoid criticism.

The three-man ruling alliance of Antony, Octavius and Lepidus, formally established in Rome in 43 BC after Julius Caesar's assassination.

Believing something misleading about oneself, often because it protects one’s pride or fits what one wants to believe.

A person's distinct identity: their sense of being an individual rather than simply an extension of someone else.

The development of a person’s abilities, knowledge or conduct. Dickens distinguishes becoming better educated or wealthier from becoming more considerate and responsible.

A defence of one’s own actions which presents them as reasonable or morally right.

Knowledge of one’s own motives, limitations and faults, rather than simply confidence in one’s abilities.

An excessive confidence in one’s own moral goodness, often accompanied by judgement of others.

A group of words connected by meaning, such as words associated with coldness or death.

Sensitivity to feelings, including the capacity to recognise and respond to another person’s suffering.

Language that evokes sight, sound, touch, taste or smell.

Publication of a story in successive instalments rather than all at once.

Excessively submissive behaviour towards someone powerful, usually to gain approval or favour.

The condition of being subject to a master and required to work for them, without freedom to leave.

The final six lines of a sonnet.

The place and time in which a story takes place. A setting can shape events and suggest ideas about society.

A legal arrangement specifying money or property provided for someone, often made in connection with marriage.

An unequal judgement of similar sexual behaviour, such as excusing a man’s affair while condemning the woman involved.

A dramatic form often involving courtship, disguise, misunderstandings and a movement towards marriage or reconciliation; it need not be funny throughout.

A fourteen-line poem. A Shakespearean sonnet usually has the rhyme scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GG and uses iambic pentameter.

A line of verse divided between two or more speakers. Its rhythm can encourage a quick handover, suggesting connection, interruption or urgency.

A cheap, sensational publication sold for one shilling, designed to grip readers through suspense and shocking events.