Eduqas GCSE English Literature key terms

The idea that events or a person’s future are predetermined rather than decided entirely by individual choices.

Gothic writing that explores women’s fears, desires and vulnerability to confinement or control, often through a threatened heroine and a dangerous domestic setting.

A rhyme extending over a stressed syllable and a following unstressed syllable, such as “hear thee” and “near thee”.

An interpretation that examines how a text presents women's experiences, gender expectations and unequal power.

Temporary, permitted disruption of ordinary rules during a celebration, often involving disguise, mock authority and role reversal.

Celebration in which ordinary rules and hierarchies are temporarily relaxed or overturned, often through drinking, games and role reversal.

Celebration and communal enjoyment, often involving music, feasting, drinking and a temporary relaxation of ordinary rules.

A long-running conflict between families or groups, sustained by hostility and acts of revenge.

A narrative presented as the story of an invented person’s life, told by that person. In Jane Eyre, Jane’s retrospective account shapes the reader’s understanding of Rochester.

Faithfulness to a partner or to a promise.

A duty owed by a child to a parent, especially obedience, respect and loyalty.

A French expression meaning ‘end of century’, commonly used for the late nineteenth century and its mixture of hopes for renewal and fears of cultural decline.

The collection of Shakespeare’s plays published in 1623, which grouped them as comedies, histories and tragedies.

The telling of a story by a narrator who participates in it and refers to themselves as ‘I’.

A narrative told by a speaker who uses ‘I’ and presents events through their own experience and understanding.

A storytelling voice which uses ‘I’ and presents events through the narrator’s own experiences and understanding.

A movement away from the narrative’s present to recount earlier events. Silas’s Lantern Yard history explains his withdrawn life in Raveloe.

The perspective through which events are perceived. A third-person narrator can focus events through a particular character without making that character the narrator.

A character whose contrasting qualities help reveal another character’s qualities.

A professional entertainer whose jokes and apparent foolishness can expose uncomfortable truths about other people.

A change of religion imposed through pressure or threats rather than freely chosen.

A marriage imposed on someone without their free consent.

An early detail that anticipates a later development in a text.

A penalty incurred when an agreement is broken. Antonio’s proposed forfeit is a pound of his flesh.

Failure to fulfil an agreement, making its stated penalty enforceable.

A false document or signature made to appear genuine.

The overall type and shape of a poem, including its organisation into lines and stanzas and its use of verse patterns.

Narration that incorporates a character’s thoughts or characteristic language without directly quoting the character or introducing the thoughts with a phrase such as ‘she thought’.