Keywords For Exams (A-level Termonology)

Question 1

What is hubris

Answer 1

Overwhelming pride and arrogance

Question 2

What is Memento mori ?

Answer 2

Reminder of death

Question 3

What is pathos ?

Answer 3

Pity

Question 4

What is the harmatia of a character ?

Answer 4

Error of judgement which tends to lead to down fall of a character (fatal flaw)

Question 5

What is Catharsis ?

Answer 5

Purging or cleansing of emotions

Question 6

What is malcontent ?

Answer 6

Blaming others for their actions

Question 7

What is technique is stichomythia ?

Answer 7

It is where quick exchange occurs between characters

Question 8

What does is meant by media res ?

Answer 8

It is where the beginning of a piece of literature starts in the middle of a story
E.g act 1 scene 1 hamlet

Question 9

What is meant by the Oedipus complex ?

Answer 9

The attachment of a child to the parent of the opposite sex. This tends to mean that there is an aggressive feeling toward The parent of the same sex.

Question 10

What is a Sycophant ?

Answer 10

a person who acts obsequiously towards someone important in order to gain advantage.
(Where someone sucks up to someone for rewards and prizes)

Question 11

What is a nepotism ?

Answer 11

the practice among those with power or influence of favouring relatives, friends, or associates, especially by giving them jobs

Question 12

What an exposition ?

Answer 12

The beginning of a play

Question 13

What is an ancillary character ?

Answer 13

Secondary character (used to help thicken the plot)
E.g Francisco and Marcellus

Question 14

What is a soliloquy ?

Answer 14

A speech delivered by a character alone on stage, revealing their inner thoughts, feelings, and dilemmas to the audience.

Question 15

What is dramatic irony ?

Answer 15

When the audience knows more about a situation or a character’s intentions than the characters on stage do.

Question 16

What is antithesis ?

Answer 16

The juxtaposition of constructing ideas in balanced phrases or clauses

Question 17

What is anaphora ?

Answer 17

The deliberate repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses.

Question 18

What is a paradox ?

Answer 18

A statement that seems self-contradictory but reveals a deeper truth.

Question 19

What is a synecdoche ?

Answer 19

A figure of speech where a part represents the whole, or vice versa.

Question 20

What is anagnorisis ?

Answer 20

A moment of critical discovery, usually when a character realises a crucial truth.

E.g Claudius’s reaction during The Mousetrap play-within-a-play acts as Hamlet’s moment of anagnorisis about his guilt.

Question 21

What is a peripeteia ?

Answer 21

A sudden reversal of fortune or change in circumstances for a character, typically in tragedy.

E.g:
When Hamlet kills Polonius by mistake (Act 3, Scene 4), setting off a chain of unintended consequences.

Question 22

What is a hendiadys ?

Answer 22

The expression of a single idea by two nouns connected by and
E.g
In Hamlet, “Angels and ministers of grace” (Act 1, Scene 4) — amplifying the single concept of divine protectors.

Question 23

What is metatheatre ?

Answer 23

A play that reflects on itself as a play; self-conscious theatre.

Example:
The Mousetrap in Hamlet — a play staged within the play to ‘catch the conscience of the king.’

Question 24

What is dues ex machina ?

Answer 24

A sudden, unexpected resolution to a seemingly unsolvable problem, often by an improbable character or event.

Example:
Less common in Hamlet, but the arrival of Fortinbras at the end provides a sudden political resolution.

Question 25

What is paralipsis ?

Answer 25

A rhetorical device where a speaker or writer brings up a subject by claiming to avoid it — essentially drawing attention to something by pretending not to mention it.

Question 26

What is implicature

Answer 26

Implicature is when a speaker implies something without directly stating it. The listener is expected to infer the meaning.

Question 27

What does analepsis mean ?

Answer 27

Flashback E.g flash back to death of Claudius

Question 28

What is catharsis

Answer 28

Catharsis mean an emotional release- when someone experiences a strong outpoor of emotions and can be either negative or positive.

Question 29

Define fratricide

Answer 29

The act of killing ones own brother

Question 30

Define regicide

Answer 30

Is the act of killing a king or monarch

Question 31

What does choler mean ?

Answer 31

Anger

Question 32

What's the term for a form of madness typically attributed to women whereby a person believes someone else is in love with them?

Answer 32

Erotomania

Question 33

Define blank verse

Answer 33

This is where something doesn’t rhyme, but it does have a consistent meter, usually iambic pentameter

Question 34

Define prose

Answer 34

Prose is the ordinary, natural way we speak and write — without any structured meter or rhyme.

Question 35

Which characters usually speak in prose ?

Answer 35

The mad

Question 36

What is interjection ?

Answer 36

An interjection is a word or short phrase that expresses sudden emotion, reaction, or feeling.

Question 37

Where are interjections usually located within a sentence ?

Answer 37

At the start, but not always

Question 38

What is a concrete noun ?

Answer 38

thing you can physically experience with your senses — meaning you can see it, touch it, hear it, smell it, or taste it.

Question 39

What does monosyllabic mean ?

Answer 39

If a word has only one syllable e.g cat, jump.

Question 40

What is a lexical set ?

Answer 40

A lexical set is a group of word that are related by meaning or theme