OCR GCSE English Literature key terms

Coming to terms with a situation rather than attempting to change it; this does not necessarily mean approving of it.

Skills such as music, drawing, dancing and languages that were valued as signs of a genteel woman’s education and refinement.

Skills associated with a genteel woman’s education, such as music, drawing, dancing and modern languages, often displayed socially.

The consequences and changed circumstances that follow a major event.

The ability to make choices and act on them, even when circumstances restrict those choices.

A person who holds that the existence of God is unknown or cannot be known with certainty. T. H. Huxley coined the term.

An assumed name used instead of a person’s original name.

A feeling of separation from a community, culture or experience in which someone cannot recognise a place for themselves.

A story or episode whose characters and events represent wider moral or social ideas, as the encounter with Ignorance and Want represents society’s neglect of vulnerable children.

A connection between families or groups, often strengthened through marriage.

The repetition of consonant sounds at the beginnings of nearby words.

A reference to another story, person or idea that brings additional associations into a text.

A character’s alternative identity or self. Edward Hyde embodies the evil side of Henry Jekyll’s nature.

Fiction imagining how the past might have developed differently if particular events or discoveries had changed.

The presence of more than one possible meaning or interpretation.

A strong desire to achieve success, status or power. In Macbeth, ambition becomes destructive when gaining and keeping power matters more than conscience.

The presence of mixed or conflicting feelings towards someone or something.

A comparison used to explain something unfamiliar through something more familiar, such as the narrator’s comparison between the Heat-Ray and a lighthouse beam.

An explanation of what a detail in a text means and how the writer’s choices create that meaning.

A metrical foot containing two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable.

A metrical pattern with four feet per line, each typically containing two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable.

The repetition of a word or phrase at the beginnings of successive clauses or sentences.

Language that associates a person with animals, suggesting qualities such as instinct, aggression or vulnerability.

The political system developed by the pigs from Old Major’s teachings, promising freedom from human exploitation and equality among animals.

A character who opposes others and creates obstacles or conflict in the plot.

Prejudice or discrimination against Jewish people. Antonio’s insults and physical mistreatment of Shylock display antisemitism.

A contrast between ideas, often expressed through balanced wording.