A Christmas Carol key terms

Question 1

define alliteration

Answer 1

repetition of the same sound or letters

Question 2

define allusion

Answer 2

indirect reference to a concept or theme without explicit mention

Question 3

define anaphora

Answer 3

a word that refers to a previously used word

Question 4

define antithesis

Answer 4

rhetorical device where contrasting concepts are placed together in a text, typically a sentence to highlight how opposite they are

Question 5

define asyndetic listing

Answer 5

a list broken up by commas rather than conjunctions like ‘and’

Question 6

define auditory imagery

Answer 6

language which appeals to the reader’s hearing

Question 7

define biblical

Answer 7

relating to the bible, religious connotations

Question 8

define catalyst

Answer 8

a dramatic tool which is used to speed up the plot

Question 9

define colloquialism

Answer 9

an informal phrase common at its time of utterance

Question 10

define connotation

Answer 10

using text to create implied meaning without explicitly referring to said meaning

Question 11

define didactic

Answer 11

a moral message, meaning to give instructions

Question 12

define dramatic irony

Answer 12

audience knows information which the character does not know

Question 13

define epitome

Answer 13

a perfect example or embodiment of a concept

Question 14

define foreboding

Answer 14

apprehension that a bad event will occur

Question 15

define foreshadowing

Answer 15

an indication that an event will occur later in the narrative

Question 16

define hyperbole

Answer 16

use of exaggerated statements

Question 17

define interjection

Answer 17

sudden remark, used often as an interruption or aside in the text

Question 18

define irony

Answer 18

embedding a meaning by using language typically implying the opposite of wat the writer intends to express, often for a humorous effect

Question 19

define juxtaposition

Answer 19

comparing two concepts, characters or clauses, in close proximity in a passage for the effect of contrast

Question 20

define moral imperative

Answer 20

an instruction on what is right and wrong, in A Christmas Carol, the Ghosts provide this

Question 21

define olfactory imagery

Answer 21

appeals to the reader’s sense of smell

Question 22

define oxymoron

Answer 22

two opposing terms are placed next to each other

Question 23

define pathetic fallacy

Answer 23

attributing human qualities to nonhuman things

Question 24

define poetic justice

Answer 24

this is normally accompanied with some sort of irony or when characters get what they deserve

Question 25

define polysyndetic listing

Answer 25

listing using conjuctions such as 'and'

Question 26

define prolepsis

Answer 26

flash forward

Question 27

define satire

Answer 27

criticising people through the use of irony

Question 28

define semantic field

Answer 28

a writer uses words which are linked by a theme or topic throughout a text or passage

Question 29

define sibilance

Answer 29

the repetition of the 's' sound in a word, sentence or section of text

Question 30

define stave (music)

Answer 30

in musical notation, a stave is a set of five horizontal lines where music is written and each often represents a different musical pitch

Question 31

define syntactic

Answer 31

relating to the arrangement of words within a sentence within a text

Question 32

define symbolism

Answer 32

using one object or character to represent a wider concept running throughout the novel

Question 33

define superlative

Answer 33

an adjective describing the highest degree of what it is

Question 34

define temporal deixis

Answer 34

language which references or manipulates time

Question 35

define tricolon

Answer 35

three parallel phrases/words are placed in succession within a text, without interruption

Question 36

define altruistic attitude

Answer 36

behaviour which is based on devotion to others

Question 37

define authorial voice

Answer 37

an authoritative voice, which the Ghosts have in A Christmas Carol

Question 38

define dichotomy

Answer 38

contrast of two beings that are opposed or distinctly different

Question 39

define idealisation

Answer 39

imagining something better than it is in reality, it can be argued that the character of Bob Cratchit is idealised

Question 40

define intrusive narrator

Answer 40

a narrator who sometimes interrupts the story to give commentary

Question 41

define metamorphosis

Answer 41

a transformation or change

Question 42

define narrative arc

Answer 42

the storyline of the novel

Question 43

define novella

Answer 43

a short novel 20,000 - 40,000 words

Question 44

define omniscient narrator

Answer 44

a narrator who is all-knowing

Question 45

define archetype

Answer 45

typical idea/example of a concept

Question 46

define blue laws

Answer 46

laws prohibiting leisure on Sundays

Question 47

define bob

Answer 47

during the Victorian era, the word 'bob' was often used as a slang word for 'shilling'

Question 48

define catharsis

Answer 48

relief derived from releasing repressed emotions

Question 49

define capitalism

Answer 49

an economic system based on private ownership

Question 50

define counting house

Answer 50

similar to an accountant's office

Question 51

define covetous

Answer 51

synonyms with jealousy

Question 52

define debtors prison

Answer 52

a prison someone goes to when they owe money, Dickens' father spent some time here

Question 53

define deviant

Answer 53

someone who breaks social norms and values

Question 54

define humbug

Answer 54

an expression of distaste

Question 55

define industrial revolution

Answer 55

this was when the means of production of Britain switched from agriculture to industry

Question 56

define Malthusian economics

Answer 56

Thomas Malthus was an economist in Victorian times and believed that London was overpopulated and so poverty would be inevitable as food supplies and housing would not be enough to sustain the growing city population

Question 57

define misanthropic

Answer 57

a person who dislikes other people

Question 58

define moral

Answer 58

awareness of the principles of right and wrong conduct

Question 59

define ostracised

Answer 59

cut off from society

Question 60

define parliamentary journalist

Answer 60

someone who reports on governmental issues, Dickens was a parliamentary judge which may be why he was so socially aware

Question 61

define philanthropy

Answer 61

an act of helping those less well off than yourself, especially involving donations of money

Question 62

define phrenology

Answer 62

a Victorian science which studies bumps on the skull to predict mental traits, which has now been disproved and is regarded as pseudoscience (fake science)

Question 63

define purgatory

Answer 63

the Medieval Christian belief which is a prison, a sort of limbo between hell and life, in which you are given another chance and supposed to be made ready for Heaven, Marley's ghost lives in incessant torture

Question 64

define ragged schools

Answer 64

schools which provided basic education and provided for children who lived in poverty, Dickens was a contributor of these

Question 65

define sabbatarianism

Answer 65

a religious belief that it is a sin to work on Sunday as it is the Lord's day

Question 66

define socialism

Answer 66

an economic system based on shared ownership

Question 67

define transmorphism

Answer 67

a transformation from on thing to another

Question 68

define union workhouses

Answer 68

these were apart of the Gilbert Act which allowed parishes to join together to become responsible for workhouses

Question 69

define the 1834 Poor Law

Answer 69

a system of welfare which introduced workhouses

Question 70

define the 1833 Factory Act on Child Labour

Answer 70

Children have to be 9 years old to work and had to have basic education