Edexcel GCSE English Literature key terms

Rapid dialogue in which speakers alternate single verse lines, often creating confrontation or verbal competition.

The emphasis placed on a syllable when it is spoken.

The organisation and development of a text, including the order of ideas, stanza divisions, repetitions and turning points.

An experience of overwhelming greatness or power that produces awe and can also produce fear, especially in encounters with nature.

A smaller connected story within a main narrative, such as the history of the De Lacey family in Frankenstein.

An adult who takes on the care or upbringing of a child in place of a biological parent.

Patient endurance of suffering or mistreatment.

The right to vote in political elections.

A person seeking marriage with someone; Bassanio is a suitor to Portia.

A law restricting expenditure or display, including which clothes and fabrics people of particular ranks or incomes could wear.

An event, being or power understood as existing beyond ordinary natural laws, such as a ghost or communication across an impossible distance.

A person who guarantees another person’s obligation and accepts responsibility if it is not fulfilled.

A state of anxious uncertainty about what will happen or what will be discovered.

An object, image or action that represents an idea beyond its literal meaning.

The use of an object, action or image to represent a wider idea.

Understanding and responding to another person’s feelings. In Frankenstein, sympathy involves sharing joy and sorrow, not merely feeling sorry for someone.

Language that combines different senses, such as describing sunlight as something that can be tasted.

A figure of speech in which a part represents a whole, or a whole represents a part.

The 1943 wartime meeting between Stalin and Western leaders Roosevelt and Churchill. The final gathering of pigs and farmers echoes this apparent cooperation between the Soviet Union and the West.

A stanza of three lines.

Systematic use of extreme fear and violence to control a population.

Verse with four metrical feet in each line. Prospero's Epilogue uses mainly four-beat lines, with variations in rhythm.

An accurate reference to something in a text, such as a quotation, an action, a conversation or a particular event.

A Scottish nobleman who holds land and owes loyalty to the king.

An underlying idea explored by a text, such as loss, memory or the responsibilities of love.

Beliefs or ideas about God and religion. Dolly’s theology centres on divine goodness, human responsibility and trust.

The central argument an essay develops and supports with evidence.