A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - I - J - K - L - M - N - O - P - Q - R - S - T - U - V - W - XYZ
Antagonist:
(Raphael Duncan)
A character whose actions work in direct
opposition to the protagonist
Examples:B1. The young waiter in Ernest Hemingway's A Clean, Well-Lighted Place can be seen as the antagonist to the old man's protagonist, in that his attitudes are directly opposed to those of the old man.
2. In Shakespeare's Hamlet, Polonius acts as an antagonist. Seeing Hamlet as the play's protagonist, Polonius' actions stand in direct opposition to the well-being of the Prince of Denmark. However, one could also argue that Hamlet is both the protagonist and the antagonist, his downfall a consequence of his own, misguided actions.
3. Though being another piece that could be argued as having roles that are not definitively drawn, the character of Miss Havisham in Dickens' Great Expectations could be interpreted as being the story's antagonist. If one views Pip as the novel's protagonist, then it must be agreed that it is the actions of Miss Havisham that create the obstacles for him to overcome.
Caricature: (by
Amanda Buechler)
A scarcely developed character
in a fictional story that is characterized with by one single trait.
Example 1: In the story "I Stand Here Ironing," the narrator's character can be summed up as feeling guilty.Character, Dynamic: (Liz Koenig)
Example 3: The narrator in "A Rose for Emily" can be described as a gossip.
Example 2: The father in Kafka's "The Metamorphosis" is characterized in the first half of the story by the single trait of laziness.
Example:
In A Cask of Amontillado Montresor, the character who kills Fortunato, changes throughout the story. Montresor does not like Fortunato so he lures him into the catacombs to kill him. Even though he hates Fortunato, he begins to change while he is building the wall around him. Once Fortunato is dead, Montresor is sick but shows no emotions for what he has done. Throughout the story, though, there is a mental battle going on within him and in the way he acts in response to Fortunato's pleadings to let him free.
Character, Flat: (William
DeLine)
Any character in a story that is not very developed
and not involved in much action.
Gryphon, a short story by Charles Baxter, tells of a substitute teacher who touches the life of a student. The regular teacher, Mr. Hibler, is a flat character. He is stereotypical of an inner-city history teacher who is uncaring and mean. He appears at the beginning of the story with this disposition and appears later in the story without change. Mr. Hibler is not involved in a lot of action and not much is known of him, yet he serves a vital role as contrasting the substitute teacher.The Brute is a short story in which a lonely widow and a man (who has come to get money the widow's husband owes him) unexpectedly fall in love. The flat character is Luka, a servant and friend to the lady. He appears at the beginning, middle, and end of the story as the mediator. He has no part in the actual action and there is no background about him, but he provid
Character, Round: (Malene
Little)
Definition: a well-developed character who is believable
to the reader and who is greatly involved with and affected by the action
in the story.
Examples:
Example One: In "The Cask of Amontillado," Montresor is a round
character because he has aesthetic tastes, but a strong sense of vengence.Example Two: In "Doe Season," Andy is a round character because she
has a strong desire to be with her father, a distates for Mac, and anguish over
the doe.Example Three: In "The Rocking-Horse Winner," Paul is a round
character because he desires happiness for his parents and does what he can
to ensure their welfare.
Character, Static: (Brandi
Friederich)
| Static characters are characters in a story who do not change or develop throughout the story. Their personality and attitude remain the same despite the story's conflict. |  |
Character, Stock:
(Erica Foss)
A stock character is often a flat character.
A flat character is minimally developed or is portrayed in a stereotypical
manner. A stock character is easily recognized and is typically consistent.
Therefore, stock characters are generally stereotypical characters.
Examples:
1. The
mother in, I Stand Here Ironing, by Tillie Olsen. The mother
represents a stereotypic
plight of all mothers; worrying about her children and if she had done
the best she could
for them.
2. In the story
of Miss Brill, by Katherine Mansfield, the reader is presented with
a character
who evoloves very little throughout the course of the story. Miss
Brill is stagnent in her
own life but makes shallow attempts to make her life appear to be more
than it really is.
3. A Rose for Emily,
by William Faulkner, presents to the reader the character of Emily.
Her character is never fully developed and the reader only gets a third
person perspective
of Emily. Therefore, the community has stereotypic expectations of
Emily and expects her
to behave in a manner that would appropriately represent her social status.
Conflict: (Lynn Isackson)
Opposition between to contrasting characters
in a literary work.
Example 1. A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner |
| Crisis: (Richelle Braum) | The crisis in a story occurs at a high point in a story. It is consisdered a critical point in the story. |
| Example #1 I Stand here Ironing by : Tillie Olsen | The crisis comes when baby Susan is born, and a sick Emily must be placed in a home so as not to infect the new baby. This is a major turning point in this story. |
| Example #2 Miss Brill by: Katherine Mansfield | The crisis in this story is when Miss Brill overhears the teenagers point out that she is actually alot like those for whom she has so much distaste. |
| Example #3 A Rose for Emily by: William Faulkner | When the towns people find Mr. Barrons body has been dead all along in Emily's home you feel that you have reached the crisis point in this story. However, when a long grey hair is found on the pillow next to his body it is even more disturbing. |
Epiphany: (Tonya
Hohenthaner)
A sudden, intuitive realization through and ordinary
circumstance.
Examples:FAraby, James Joyce
- "Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger." (pg. 231)
A&P, John Updike
- "my stomach kind of fell as I felt how hard the world was going to be to me hereafter." (pg. 102)
Doe Season, David Michael Kaplan
- "And now they were all calling to her-Charlie Spoon and Mac and her father-crying Andy , Andy (but that wasn't her name, she would no longer be called that)" (pg. 316)
Narrative: (JoAnne
Taylor)
Narrative tells the story by giving us the events in a logical or an
orderly way
Examples:
Ex. #1: Alberto Alvararo Rios' short story The Secret Lion could be considered a narrative because of the way it tells us the events. We learn about how the main character grew up and certain events in his life that helped develop him as a person, and we are told in a logical, orderly way.Ex. #2: Tillie Olsen's story I Stand Here Ironing could also be considered a narrative. The main character, the mother, tells the story of Emily and events that happened as she grew up, and it is told in a logical, orderly way.
Ex. #3: Edgar Allen Poe's story The Cask of Amontillado could be considered a narrative as well. While the story is a flashback with the main character relating what he did, it is still told in a logical, orderly way.
Narrator,
Omniscient: (Dana Garry)
An omniscient narrator
is one who is able to jump from one character's mind to another. They remain
objective throughout a story, they are not confined to the images or views
of one character. Omniscient narrators are outside the story, they are
able to hear all, see all and know all. Omniscient narrators usually appear
in a story that is told in third person.
Examples:Narrator, Third Person: (Natalie Jibben)
1. Kate Chopin's "The Story of the Hour", is told in third person. It also jumps between the main character's mind (Mrs. Mallard) and the thoughts of the sister (Josephine). The narrator of the story tells of the heart condition of Mrs. Mallard, setting the stage for the climax of the story.2. Katherine Mansfield's "Mrs. Brill" is told by an omniscient narrator. The narrator knows what Mrs. Brill is feeling and doing. It realizes and tells the reader that the world that Mrs. Brill is living in, is one of her own invention. When the teenagers come by and ruin her day, we see what Mrs. Brill sees the kids as and what the teens see Mrs. Brill as a "stupid old thing" and they wonder why she even bothers to attend the concerts in the park. The narrator makes it very obvious through Mrs. Brill's thoughts that the teenagers had hurt her feelings and her pride.
3. Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" is told in third person. Each character is referred to by their name as one of their lines is recited by the narrator. The narrator jumps mostly between the grandmother's thoughts and those of the father and later of the high-jackers.
They can fall under three categories.
1. Omniscient- (all knowing) narrators, that move at will from one character's mind to another. They can present a more inclusive overview of events and characters than first-person narrators can. They speak from outside a character, they are reliable; they maintain an objective distance from events, giving readers an accurate version of what happened. (ex. 1)2. Limited omniscience- focusing on only what a single character experiences. This focuses only on one characters perspective, and nothing is revealed that the character does not see, hear, feel, or think. (ex. 2)
3. Objective- (or dramatic point of view) remaining entirely outside the character's minds. Events unfold the way they would in a play or a movie. Narrators tell the story only by reproducing dialogue and recounting events. This doesn't include thoughts or explain their motivation. (ex 3)
EXAMPLES:
EX 1 In a house in the suburb, in a city, there were a man and his wife who loved each other very much and were living happily ever after. They had a little boy, and they loved him very much. They had a cat and a dog that the little boy loved very much. They had a car and a caravan trailer for holidays, and a swimming pool which was fenced so that the little boy and his playmates would not fall in and drown. They had a housemaid who was absolutely trustworthy and an itinerant gardener who was highly recommended by the neighbours. For when they began to live happily after they were warned, by that wise old witch, the husband's mother, not to take anyone off the street.EX 2 Daisy and Matt sat silent, shocked. Matt rubbed his forehead with his fingertips. Imagine, Daisy thought, how they mustlook to Mr. Lanham: an overweight housewife in a cotton dress and a too-tall, too-thin insurance agent in a baggy, frayed suit. failures, both of them-the kind of people who are hurrying to catch up, missing the point of things that everyone else grasps at once. She wished she'd worn nylons instead of knee socks.
EX 3 The waitor took the brandy bottle and another saucer from the counter inside the cafe and marched out to the old man's table. He put down the saucer and poiured the glass full of brandy.
"You should have killed yourself last week," he said to the deaf man. The old man motioned with his finger. "A little more," he said. The waiter poured on into the glass so that the brandy slopped over and ran down the stem into the top s aucer of the pile. "Thank you," the old man said. The waiter took the bottle back inside the cafe. He sat down at the table with his colleague again.
Narrator,
Unreliable: (Katy Holt)
A first person narrator may be, whether
they mean to or not, unreliable. This may happen for a variety of
reasons such as inexperience, psychological disorders, self-serving intentions,
confusion or instability. Through an unreliable narrator events become
distorted and readers are often misled. Look for differences in what
the narrator is communicating and what you are perceiving. This is
not to be confused with limited perspective (see limited omniscience).
Example One:"He had a weak point - this Fortunato - although in other regards he was a man to be respected and even feared...Fortunato, like his countrymen, was a quack, but in the matter of old wines he was sincere. In this respect I did not differ from him materially; - I was skillful in the Italian vintages myself, and bought largely whenever I could." ("The Cask of Amontillado," Edgar Allen Poe)
The narrator, Montresor, is sharing the above passage with the reader. The story itself is Montresor's attempt to justify his killing Fortunato. We as readers begin to distrust the narrator because he lacks emotion as he tells of the cold-blooded murder. In this passage Montresor portrays Fortunado as useful only in wine tasting in an attempt to justify killing him.
EXAMPLE TWO:
"The paper looks to me as if it knew what a vicious influence it had! There is a recurrent spot where the pattern lolls like a broken neck and two bulbous eyes stare at you upside down." ("The Yellow Wall-Paper," Charlotte Perkins Gilman)The narrator of this story is also unreliable. She is unintentionally distorting the facts because she suffers from a mental illness. As readers we are aware that the wallpaper probably isn't moving, but it is very real to the narrator.
Example Three:
"Except that it would have made no difference if I had known. It was the only place there was. It was the only way we could be together, the only way I could hold a job." ("I Stand Here Ironing," Tillie Olsen)
The narrator in this short story believes she is a product of her environment and would like to believe she had no other choices. Therefore, she is self-serving in her description of events. Readers must wonder if she really had no other choice.
Plot: (Rosanne
Rougemont)
The process in which the story's actions take place.
Examples: In "A Rose for Emily," we see the plot develop as different events happen. The order in which these events happen affect the plot. Emily's house begins to smell bad after she bought the arsenic. Then later, we note Homer's disappearance. These events, put in their specific order, help to create the plot.
In "Trifles," the events unfold up to the climax of Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters finding the dead canary. Previously, we were given background information on Mrs. Wright and the situation and once they find this bird, they are given a motive for the crime and everything starts to make sense to these two women after that. It's presented in common plot structure of exposition, rising action, climax, falling action and resolution.
In "The Brute," Mr. Smirnov and Mrs. Popov are the two main characters we see and they are the action itself. The plot is revealed through their dialogue as it is a play without a narrator to provide us with information. The central themes in the plot of this play range in emotions of the characters from indifference, to hatred and on to love between these two and there are other little things that add to it along the way.
Protagonist:
(Barb Gunderson)
The protagonist is the main character
of the story who plays the central role and has the longest speaking part.
In the short story "Young Goodman Brown" Goodman Brown is the protagonist as the story is centered around his voyage into the woods to witness a witch's babtismIn "A Worn Path" Pheonix Jackson is the protagonist. The story tells of her journey to town to get the much needed medicine for her grandson.
In the short story "A Rose For Emily" the protagonist is the townspeople as the story is told from their point of view.
Stream
of Consciousness: (Angel Murphy)
This style ties words and thoughts together in
a sequence. This connection between words and thoughts is used to
show the way thoughts run through the human mind. Words stream through
our consciousness in a way that can not be easily written without some
mangling with the usual rules of sentence and paragraph structure.
Examples:
An example of stream of consciousness is found in Alberto Rios' The Secret Lion.
Sub-plot: (Shelly Folkestad)One had been dropped, or thrown-what do caboose men do when they get bored-but it got down there regardless and as we were walking along yelling about one girl or another, a particular Claudia, we found it, one of these things, looked at it, picked it up, and got very very excited, and held it and passed it back and forth, and we were saying "Guythisis, this is, geeGuythis...": we had this perception about nature then, that nature is imperfect an that round things are perfect: we said "GuyGodthis is perfect, thisisthis is perfect, it's round, round and heavy, it'sit's the best thing we'veeverseen.This example works to convey the stream of consciousness of a young boy and convincingly display his thoughts concerning what he has found.A further example of stream of consciousness is found in I Stand Here Ironing, by Tillie Olsen.
You do not guess how new and uneasy her tenancy in her now-loveliness. You did not know her all those years she was thought homely, or see her poring over her baby pictures, making me tell her over and over how beautirful she had been-and would be, I would tell her-and was now to the seeing eye.Olsen describes the thoughts running through a mother's head concerning her daughter. The thoughts flow in a pattern reminiscent of how thoughts run through the human mind.Stream of consciousness is also found in a sample of David Kaplan's, Doe Season.
They were the same woods that lay behind her house, and they stretch all the way to here, she thought, for miles and miles, longer than I could walk in a day, or a week even, but they are still the same woods. The though made her feel good: it was like thinking of God; it was like thinking of the space between here and the moon; it was like thinking of all the foreign countries from her geography book where even now Andy knew, people were going to bed, while they-she and her father and Charlie Spoon and Mac, Charlie's eleven-year-old son-were driving deeper into the Pennsylvania countryside, to go hunting.In this situation, like the others, a person's thoughts are represented by many sentences related by the fact that they are connected by a stream of logic, one thought neccesarily leading to the next, and stemming from, the previous.
An example of sub-plot is in Shakesphere's Hamlet, Fortinbras acts a certain way to his father and an action occurs that underestimates Hamlet's thoughts when faced with challeges. This is an example of a sub-plot setting up a contrast.A Sub-plot can also reinforce the main plot. An example of this is A Doll House, when the threats of Dr. Rank's death and the threat of Nora's connect close to one another. Both of these characters were running out of time in their lives.
In Shakesphere's King Lear, Gloucester misjudges his children, and looks to favor a son that doesn't deserve this favor. Lear's poor judgement has an impact on the end of the story, because of the extra emphasis put on poor judgment and consequences.
XYZ
-back
to top-
Xavier - a type of wolf that loves computers.
Xavier surfing the net. |
The ANTI-Xavier. |
