Oxford Revise: AQA GCSE English Literature: Macbeth Glossary

aside
An aside is a comment said directly to the audience, that other characters don’t hear.

backstory
The backstory is events that have occurred before the main story takes place.

character arc
The character arc refers to the ‘journey’ of a character – how they begin, develop, and end in the story.

characterise
To characterise refers to how an author creates and portrays a fictional character, by what the character does and says, and by direct description.

climax
The climax of a narrative is the point of greatest excitement.

conflict
Conflict is a dramatic device which prevents a character from achieving their goal by introducing disagreement, such as a problem or struggle.

connotation
Connotations are the ideas or feelings that a word might produce in a reader.

contrast
Contrast in a text is when two things are presented in such a way as to highlight their differences.

dialogue
The word ‘dialogue’ refers to the words spoken by two or more characters in a story. It can also include other phrases around these words, such as ‘she said’.

dramatic irony
Dramatic irony is when the words or action of the play are understood by the audience but not by one or more of the characters on stage.

establish
To establish a character or an idea is to introduce it.

exclamation
An exclamation is a sudden cry or remark expressing surprise or strong feeling. It is followed by an exclamation mark. Example: ‘That’s incredible!’

figurative language
Figurative language is the use of words to convey meaning in a non-literal way, for example, in metaphors and similes.

genre
The genre of a text is its broad category, such as horror story, romance, or travelogue.

imagery
Imagery is the collective term referring to metaphors and similes.

imperative
An imperative is a sentence ordering or instructing someone to do something, as in ‘See for yourself.’

judgement
A judgement is a considered opinion, often assessing the value of something, such as a text.

key event
Key events are the large blocks of story where important things happen.

method
A method is a way of doing something.

narrative echo
A narrative echo is where an event in one part of a play links to or repeats another event elsewhere.

personification
Personification is a technique by which a writer describes non-human things as if they were human, as in ‘Time marches on.’

resolution
The resolution of a play is the end section where a problem is resolved.

revelation
A revelation is a point in a story where something important is revealed.

setting
The setting is the location where a story takes place.

simile
Similes are figures of speech that describe things more vividly by comparing them to other things using ‘like’ or ‘as’.

soliloquy
A soliloquy is where one character speaks alone and voices aloud their innermost thoughts for the audience to hear.

structure
To structure a text is to put it together so its parts relate to each other and make a whole.

symbol
A symbol is an object that represents an idea.

tension
Tension in a text can refer to the sense of conflict between characters or the feeling of anxiety generated in readers about the text’s outcome. In most fictional texts the tension is ultimately resolved, though not necessarily by a happy ending.

tragedy
Tragedy is a genre of play that focuses on a main character who suffers and fails because of their own flaws, often also combined with factors beyond their control.

turning point
The turning point in a story is an event that changes the direction of the story.