Edexcel GCSE English Literature key terms

A rapid burst or volley of gunfire; Carson uses the word metaphorically for a barrage of questions.

Pointlessness: effort or suffering that appears to achieve nothing.

The electrical stimulation of animal tissue, associated with experiments in which electricity caused muscles to contract.

The roles, behaviours and expectations associated with being male or female; a literary text may reinforce or question these expectations.

The expectations a society places on people’s behaviour, work and relationships because of their gender.

A difference in attitudes or values between people of different generations, often creating conflict over authority, behaviour or change.

A difference in attitudes between older and younger people, often shaped by different experiences and expectations.

A literary work's type or category, such as comedy, tragedy or romance; a work may combine features of several genres.

The appearance or condition of belonging to polite, socially respectable society.

A man of recognised social standing, associated with education and refined manners; the word can also mean a man whose conduct is honourable and considerate. Dickens explores the difference between these meanings.

A poetic form originating in Arabic poetry, traditionally using rhyming couplets and a repeated ending, often exploring love and separation.

A district in which Jewish people were required to live separately from the wider population, such as the Venetian district established in 1516.

Someone who collects grain left behind in a field after the main harvest.

Polished, considerate conduct that makes others comfortable. In Austen’s novel, it can be distinguished from high birth or fashionable appearance.

Kindness towards others and a wish for their happiness and welfare.

A literary mode associated with terror, disturbing events, threatening settings and uncertainty about the boundaries of ordinary human experience.

A character who can be interpreted as reflecting another character’s identity, desires or fears. Bertha can be read as Jane’s Gothic double through their shared associations with confinement and uncontrolled anger.

A literary genre associated with fear, mystery, isolation, gloomy settings and threats that may appear supernatural.

A woman employed to educate children in a private household; one of the few occupations considered socially acceptable for a woman from a genteel family.

A traditional belief that nature and society form a hierarchy established by God, so disrupting that hierarchy threatens the wider order.

The prospect of receiving substantial wealth or property. Pip’s expectations also include money immediately available for his education and maintenance.

Stalin’s campaign of repression, especially in 1936–1938, involving mass arrests, imprisonment and executions of supposed enemies.

A person who promises to take responsibility for another person’s debt or obligation.

A person who takes responsibility for caring for a child whose parents cannot do so.

Responsibility for wrongdoing, or the feeling of having done wrong. These meanings do not always coincide.

A gold coin worth one pound and one shilling in the novel’s historical setting.

An easily deceived person; as a verb, to gull means to trick someone.