Edexcel GCSE English Literature key terms

Grand language associated with heroic deeds applied to an unheroic person or situation, often for comic effect.

A verb expressing possibility, ability, necessity or willingness, such as “could” or “would”.

A person who lends money, usually charging interest: an additional payment for borrowing it.

A sustained passage spoken or thought by one person. Cope’s linked monologues reveal each date’s private perspective.

A failure to face the personal cost of doing what is right, even when a person recognises their responsibility.

A change in a character’s understanding or conduct arising from recognising and correcting earlier faults.

A story that teaches a lesson about how people should behave.

Principles used to judge whether behaviour is right or wrong.

A drama that teaches a moral lesson, often through characters who represent contrasting values.

The rebuilding of a person’s moral character through learning to act with greater honesty, compassion and responsibility.

A belief in cooperation, community and social justice, which Priestley expresses through the Inspector’s challenge to selfishness and inequality.

Serious moral wickedness or corruption. Lanyon uses this phrase to condemn what Jekyll reveals.

A recurring image, idea or feature that helps develop a text's meaning.

The varied-coloured or patchwork clothing associated with a professional fool.

The expression of grief following someone’s death, sometimes through particular clothing, rituals or withdrawal from social life.

A character through whom a writer expresses an argument or viewpoint.

A group of English poets associated with the 1950s, including Elizabeth Jennings, whose writing often used clear language and traditional poetic forms.

The quality of being subject to change; in Frankenstein, changes in feelings challenge the hope of finding permanent peace.

A relationship in which affection, trust and support are exchanged by both people.

The position from which events are presented, affecting what readers know and how they understand what happens.

A poem that tells a story through events, characters and a narrative voice.

A conclusion that resolves the main conflicts and shows the outcomes of the story.

The perspective through which events are presented. A third-person narrative can still closely follow one character’s observations and thoughts.

The perspective and manner through which a story is told; it is distinct from the author’s own voice and from characters’ speech.

A character who tells a story. In Frankenstein, Walton records his own experiences and passes on Victor’s account.

An older name for the investigation of nature and its laws, covering subjects now studied as sciences.

An opposition between inherited qualities and the influence of upbringing, education or treatment.