Edexcel GCSE English Literature key terms

A gap in a narrative during which time passes without every intervening event being narrated.

The attitude or feeling conveyed through a writer’s choices of words, sounds and structure.

A sentence that establishes the main argument of a paragraph.

A system of government that seeks extensive control over public and private life and suppresses opposition.

A play in which serious conflict leads towards suffering and catastrophe, often including the deaths of central characters.

A central character whose downfall produces pity and fear; admirable qualities may coexist with errors or weaknesses that contribute to the tragedy.

A play combining serious danger or suffering with comic elements and a resolution that avoids a tragic catastrophe.

Going beyond ordinary physical experience or material explanation. Jekyll applies the word to medicine concerned with the relationship between the body and spirit.

Punishment that sent convicted people overseas to a penal colony.

A payment made by one ruler or state to another as a sign of submission.

A group of three parallel words, phrases or clauses.

A rhythm organised into pairs of syllables in which a stressed syllable is followed by an unstressed syllable.

A verse rhythm with four feet, each normally consisting of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable. The final unstressed syllable may be omitted, as in many of the Witches' lines.

A metrical foot consisting of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable.

The political and national conflict in Northern Ireland from the late 1960s to 1998, usually understood to have ended with the Good Friday Agreement.

A moment that significantly changes the direction of a narrative or a character’s understanding.

Serious moral corruption or wickedness.

An infectious disease which spreads through Lowood’s pupils in Chapter 9 and exposes the school’s harmful conditions.

Cruel or oppressive government in which a ruler abuses power.

A ruler who exercises power cruelly or oppressively.

An expression that deliberately makes an experience seem less dramatic or important than it might be.

A rapier is a narrow sword. In Toby’s description of Andrew in Act 3 Scene 4, “unhatched rapier” suggests a sword that has not been used in combat.

A structural principle concentrating dramatic action in one location or closely connected setting.

A structural principle keeping a play's main events within a short period, traditionally a single day.

A narrator whose account readers have reasons to question, because their knowledge, interests, prejudices or self-presentation may distort it.

Love that is not returned by the person who is loved.

A character who does not appear on stage but whose experiences or actions influence the drama.

The care, teaching and experiences that shape a child as they grow.