Edexcel GCSE English Literature key terms

The way a character changes during a text as events alter their understanding, attitudes or behaviour.

The presentation and development of a character through description, speech, thoughts, actions and relationships.

Generous help for people in need; in Christian teaching, also love and care for others.

Abstinence from sexual activity; in ‘One Flesh’, it names the condition towards which the ageing couple appear to be moving.

An arrangement in which the order of elements is reversed in a following phrase, such as left-to-right followed by right-to-left.

The employment of children, often in demanding or dangerous work that limits their opportunities for education.

A speaker or group of speakers who addresses the audience and comments on a play's action.

The Christian ceremony of baptism, often involving the naming of a child and welcoming them into the Church.

A Christian approach to interpretation that reads people or events associated with the Old Testament as anticipating or contrasting with those of the New Testament.

The order in which events happen in time. Frankenstein’s order of narration differs from its chronology.

An arrangement in which the ending returns to an image, situation or idea from the beginning.

Evidence from surrounding circumstances that suggests a conclusion rather than directly proving it, such as finding a victim’s possession in someone’s pocket.

A social grouping distinguished by its position in society, especially its access to wealth, work and power.

An unfair judgement of someone based on their social class rather than their individual qualities.

An ordained Christian minister whose duties include preaching and caring for a congregation.

An ending that leaves an important situation unresolved, creating suspense about what will happen next.

An unresolved ending that creates suspense about what will happen next.

The point of greatest tension or decisive change in a narrative.

Careful examination of particular words, patterns and dramatic choices to explain their meanings and effects.

Pressure or threats used to make someone do something against their wishes.

Responsibility shared by several people whose actions affect others; one person’s responsibility does not cancel out another’s.

The combining of individual farms into collective or state-controlled farms; under Stalin, this was imposed through pressure and force.

An informal expression used in everyday conversation.

Informal language characteristic of everyday conversation.

The establishment of control over another territory and its people by an outside power.

The process through which outsiders establish settlements or take control of a territory and its inhabitants.

A play whose conflicts usually move towards reconciliation, marriage and renewed social order; it need not be consistently funny.