Edexcel GCSE English Literature key terms

Repetition of a word or phrase at the ends of successive clauses, sentences or stanzas.

Words written in memory of a dead person, often placed on a tomb.

Equal worth and entitlement to fair treatment; this need not mean that everyone has identical abilities or performs identical tasks.

Deliberately using ambiguous language or double meanings to conceal an intention or avoid a direct answer.

A settled household and financial position. In Austen’s marriage plots, gaining an establishment means securing a home and means of support.

Respect for someone’s character, abilities and judgement. Austen presents esteem as an important foundation for lasting marital happiness.

The conventions governing polite social behaviour, such as table manners.

A gentler or less direct expression used in place of something painful or disturbing.

A pleasing combination of sounds in language.

A Christian movement emphasising the authority of the Bible, personal conversion and salvation through Christ, often accompanied by a strong commitment to spreading the faith.

An ordinary person used to represent people more generally, allowing an individual experience to carry a wider meaning.

Separation from one’s homeland, often enforced by danger, political circumstances or an inability to return.

An anticipated inheritance or future wealth. Pip also connects his financial expectations with hopes of marrying Estella, although these are not promised together.

A narrative method in which an apparently supernatural event is later given an ordinary, natural explanation.

Using another’s labour or resources for one’s own advantage while denying them a fair share of the benefits.

Background information that helps an audience understand the characters and present action.

A metaphor developed or returned to across several lines or sections of a text.

A struggle between a person and other people or outside forces.

A person who directly observes an event. Lanyon witnesses Hyde's transformation into Jekyll.

A short narrative shaped to communicate a moral lesson; its patterns can influence a longer work.

Belief and trust in something beyond what can be proved; religious faith commonly includes trust in God. In Silas Marner, religious faith is closely connected with trust in other people.

A historical, judgemental label applied to a woman considered sexually impure, especially for having sex outside marriage. It expresses society’s beliefs, not an objective measure of her worth.

A dramatic arrangement in which events appear resolved before a later development overturns that resolution.

The belief that suffering or events cannot be changed by human effort, encouraging acceptance rather than action.

The idea that events are predetermined by a power beyond human control.

Gothic writing that explores women’s experiences of persecution, confinement and threatening power, often within the home or marriage.

A rhyme in which a stressed syllable is followed by an unstressed syllable, as in “war is” and “bar is”.

A way of interpreting literature that examines gender, women’s experiences and unequal power between men and women.