OCR GCSE English Literature key terms

The type of a literary work, such as comedy or tragedy, with conventions that shape an audience’s expectations.

Social refinement or the status associated with being a gentleman or lady. Dickens questions whether gentility in appearance proves moral worth.

A man recognised as having a particular social position, education or manners; the word can also imply fairness, kindness and honour. Dickens explores the tension between these meanings.

The traditionally landowning social class below the titled aristocracy. Darcy is an untitled gentleman with aristocratic connections through his mother.

The theory that microorganisms infecting the body can cause disease.

A form of lyric poetry often performed as a song, associated with themes such as love and longing.

An area of a city in which Jewish people were required to live separately from other residents; Venice established its Jewish ghetto in 1516.

To encircle or surround.

Polite, considerate and socially skilful behaviour. Austen tests whether this comes from inherited status or from personal character.

Rule that serves a country's welfare through qualities such as justice, mercy, generosity and self-control, rather than serving the ruler's private desires.

Friendly concern for other people and a wish for their happiness and welfare.

A literary tradition using features such as disturbing settings, secrecy, the uncanny and threats to ordinary life to explore fear.

A woman employed to educate children in a private household. Jane’s employment as a governess makes her financially dependent on Rochester.

A belief in a God-ordered hierarchy linking all creation, from spiritual beings to human society, animals and plants. Disrupting an established position could be understood as disturbing the wider order.

The sense of who someone is that comes from membership of a group, including its shared loyalties, expectations and behaviour.

A person responsible for caring for a child in place of the child’s parents.

Responsibility for wrongdoing, or the distress a person feels because they believe they have done wrong. These meanings do not always coincide.

Tricking someone into believing something. Benedick's friends stage a conversation for him to overhear about Beatrice's supposed love.

A North-of-England spirit in the stories Jane remembers, which appears as a horse, mule or large dog and haunts lonely roads.

An Arabic word meaning ‘beloved woman’, used in Sudan to refer to a grandmother.

A rhyme in which the sounds correspond only partly, as in ‘town’ and ‘own’.

A flaw or error that contributes to a tragic character’s downfall; Macbeth’s unchecked ambition is one important example.

A flourishing of Black literature, music and art centred on Harlem, New York, particularly during the 1920s. Langston Hughes was a leading figure.

A person entitled to receive another person's property or wealth after their death.

The traditions, history and cultural connections inherited from earlier generations.

The central female character in a work, whose experiences receive particular attention; she need not be flawless or conventionally heroic.

Admiration so intense that someone overlooks another person’s faults and treats their approval as especially valuable.