OCR GCSE English Literature key terms

A husband whose wife is sexually unfaithful. Horns conventionally symbolised a cuckold's humiliation.

A husband's position when his wife is sexually unfaithful. Horns were a conventional comic symbol of this feared humiliation.

The promotion of a leader as exceptionally wise, heroic or indispensable through praise, images and public ceremonies.

The destruction of a community’s traditions, art, language, memories and ways of life.

The language, customs and memories inherited from earlier generations.

A sense of identity connected with cultural experiences and affiliations, including heritage, language, religion and nationality.

In Envy, the nurturing and development of a person’s abilities, like the cultivation of a plant.

A clergyman who assists a parish priest. In The War of the Worlds, the curate becomes the narrator’s companion during the invasion.

An organisation in which the ending returns to situations, settings or details from the beginning, often revealing change.

A distrustful attitude towards people’s motives or promises of improvement.

James VI of Scotland’s 1597 book defending belief in witchcraft and discussing its dangers.

A man who pays particular attention to fashionable clothes and appearance.

A character who reflects another character’s qualities, fears or suppressed desires, often in a more disturbing form.

Money owed to another person or organisation.

A person who owes money to someone else.

Moral or cultural decline, often associated with excessive comfort and self-indulgence.

Deliberately causing someone to believe something untrue, through words, actions or a misleading appearance.

A statement that presents something as a fact, even when the audience has reasons to doubt it.

Behaviour considered socially proper or respectable.

Respectful submission to another person’s judgement or authority, often because of their age or social rank.

A supposed postponement of organ donations for clones who can prove they are genuinely in love. In Never Let Me Go, this is a rumour, not an available escape.

A decline from a developed condition to a less developed one. Victorian fears of human degeneration questioned whether civilisation and progress were secure.

The representation or treatment of people as less than human, for example by comparing them to animals or demons.

Political ideas supporting greater social and economic equality alongside democracy, political freedom and accountable government.

The destruction of confidence, morale or the will to resist.

A character’s refusal to acknowledge an unwelcome reality.

The final explanation or unravelling of a story’s central complications.