English Literature key terms

A relationship that offers company, understanding and shared feelings.

A comparison that explains both similarities and differences between texts.

An argument explaining a meaningful similarity or difference between texts, supported by evidence from both.

An argument explaining a meaningful similarity or difference between texts, supported by evidence and analysis.

A deliberate separation between different parts of life, such as Wemmick’s professional hardness and private affection.

Sympathy for another person's suffering, accompanied by a wish to relieve it.

Self-satisfaction that prevents someone from recognising danger or questioning their assumptions.

The term used in Never Let Me Go for a donor’s death during the donation process. Its apparently neutral wording conceals the violence of that death.

Involvement in another person’s wrongdoing. Pip fears that stealing the file has indirectly involved him in the attack on Mrs Joe.

The arrangement of elements in an artwork; it can also mean the finished creative work itself.

An imagined premise that a reader is invited to accept so that a work can explore its ideas.

In this historical context, a person of high rank graciously dealing with someone considered socially inferior. Mr Collins treats it as praise, although Austen exposes the superiority it assumes.

A grammatical construction that makes an action or outcome depend on a condition, often introduced by ‘if’.

The process through which repeated teaching and experience shape a person’s expectations and behaviour.

An admission of wrongdoing. Small’s confession also functions as a defence in which he explains his suffering and attempts to reduce his responsibility.

A priest who hears someone confess their sins and offers spiritual guidance.

A trusted person to whom someone reveals private thoughts or secrets.

A trusted person with whom someone shares private feelings or secrets.

A struggle or clash between opposing forces, people, values or feelings. It can occur within one person as well as between groups.

A conclusion based on incomplete evidence rather than established knowledge.

Happiness within marriage.

An expert judge with specialist knowledge, often of art or fine objects. Jones applies this term to Holmes’s knowledge of crime.

An association or suggestion carried by a word beyond its literal meaning.

A person’s inward sense of what is morally right or wrong.

Agreement freely given to a proposed action, such as marriage.

Comfort that eases suffering without necessarily removing its cause.

A secret agreement between people to carry out an unlawful or harmful act. In Julius Caesar, Cassius organises the plot to assassinate Caesar.