OCR GCSE English Literature key terms

An interruption within a sentence, often marked by brackets or dashes, which adds an aside or qualification.

The division of British India into the independent states of India and Pakistan in August 1947, accompanied by mass migration and violence.

Strong emotion or desire, including anger, love and intense devotion. In Jane Eyre, passion can support self-assertion but can also threaten judgment.

Treating someone as a dependent who needs protection or guidance, while retaining power over their choices.

The presentation of weather or nature as reflecting human feelings or a scene’s emotional atmosphere.

Language or detail that arouses pity or sorrow.

An arrangement of society in which men hold most authority, including power within families.

Love of, or loyalty to, one’s country.

Support or advancement provided by a powerful person to someone who depends on their favour.

Influence from people of a similar age or social position that encourages someone to behave in a particular way, often to gain acceptance or avoid rejection.

An act undertaken to express repentance or make amends for wrongdoing.

Sincere sorrow for wrongdoing. Jekyll’s prayers and remorse suggest penitence, although his later behaviour raises questions about whether it produces lasting change.

Continuing with something despite difficulty or disappointment; in Antrobus's poem, it describes the son's enduring love as well as naming the pub.

A voice or character adopted by a writer to speak in a literary work; it should not automatically be treated as identical to the writer.

An idealised public image of a leader, promoted through praise, ceremonies, portraits and claims of exceptional wisdom or goodness.

Giving an abstract idea, object or non-human thing human qualities.

A love-poetry convention, associated with the poet Petrarch, in which a suffering lover idealises an unattainable woman.

A conventional poetic lover who idealises an unattainable beloved and expresses unreturned desire through elaborate praise, contradictions and accounts of suffering.

The provision of money, time or practical support to improve other people's lives.

A group of related words that functions as a unit within a sentence.

The supposed practice of judging someone’s character from their facial features.

Affection and emotional support between people without a romantic or sexual relationship.

A sequence of connected events in a literary work, shaped by characters' actions and their consequences.

A story whose characters and events also represent political figures, groups or developments.

The repetition of conjunctions, such as the repeated ‘and’ in ‘Thought and feeling and soul and sense’.

A woman’s marriage fortune: the money she brings to a marriage.

A person whom a clone thinks might be the human they were copied from in Never Let Me Go.