Allusion - An indirect reference to something that originates from outside the text (or

something from earlier in the text)

EXAMPLE OF ALLUSION
"All Overgrown by Cunning Moss" by Emily Dickinson

All overgrown by cunning moss,

All interspersed with weed,
The little cage of "Currer Bell"
In quiet "Haworth" laid.
In this poem, famed American poet Emily Dickinson makes an allusion to Currer Bell,
which was the pen name for English author Charlotte Brontë, who is most famous
for her novel Jane Eyre. Dickinson also alludes to the English village of Haworth, where
Brontë died and was later buried (or "laid," as the poem states).

The quotation marks hint to the reader that these two things (i.e., the name and the
place) didn't merely come out of Dickinson's imagination. Still, you'd have to be familiar
with Brontë herself to be able to make the connection here.

 "Nothing Gold Can Stay" (1923) by Robert Frost

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
Here, iconic American poet Robert Frost makes an allusion to the Biblical Garden of
Eden ("so Eden sank to grief") to strengthen this idea that nothing—not even Paradise
—can last forever.

Assuming you're at least a little familiar with the story of Adam and Eve, you should
know that the two of them were ultimately expelled from Paradise due to their eating of
the forbidden fruit.

"He's a cool guy, but he becomes a lovesick Romeo every time he's around her."
This quotation alludes to the character of Romeo from William Shakespeare's Romeo
and Juliet, wherein Romeo is head-over-heels in love with Juliet, causing him (and her)
to act impetuously.

"Chocolate cake is my Achilles heel."

The allusion here is to "Achilles' heel," or the Greek myth about the hero Achilles and
how his heel was his one weakness. In this case, the speaker's "weakness" is
chocolate cake.

Source : https://blog.prepscholar.com/allusion-examples

Epiphany - a moment when you suddenly feel that you understand, or suddenly become conscious of,

something that is very important to you

Epiphany is defined as a sudden and profound understanding of something.

An example of epiphany is when someone has been looking for their lost keys and suddenly has an idea of where
they are.

EXAMPLE OF EPIPHANY

The Dead

His soul had approached that region where dwell the vast hosts of the dead. He was conscious of, but could not

apprehend, their wayward and flickering existence. His own identity was fading out into a grey impalpable world: the

solid world itself, which these dead had one time reared and lived in, was dissolving and dwindling.

Although James Joyce skyrocketed the term "epiphany" to fame in Stephen Hero, it was also prevalent in many of his

other works. In this excerpt from The Dead, the main character, Gabriel, attends a birthday party that made him

realize how dull his life is. After he returns home for the night, he has an epiphany about his inevitable death and

drastically changes his outlook on life.

To Kill a Mockingbird

I turned to go home. Street lights winked down the street all the way to town. I had never seen our neighborhood from

this angle. There were Miss Maudie's, Miss Stephanie's-there was our house, I could see the porch swing-Miss

Rachel's house was beyond us, plainly visible. I could even see Mrs. Dubose's... Atticus was right. One time he said

you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them. Just standing on the Radley porch

was enough.
Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird was a very-forward thinking novel for its time. It dealt with race relations in the

deep south, through the eyes of a six-year-old girl named Scout. It was during her walk home one evening that she

had an epiphany. Scout came to realize everything her father was trying to teach her. Indeed, he was trying to teach

her the importance of equality and kindness, no matter the color of someone's skin.

Sources : https://www.yourdictionary.com/epiphany

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/epiphany

https://examples.yourdictionary.com/reference/examples/examples-of-epiphany-in-literature.html

MOTIF is a symbolic image or idea that appears frequently in a story. Motifs

can be symbols, sounds, actions, ideas, or words. Motifs strengthen a story by
adding images and ideas to the theme present throughout the narrative.

The word motif (pronounced moh-teef) is derived from the French

phrase motif meaning “pattern.”

EXAMPLE OF MOTIF

Example 1
The typewriter:
Throughout a novel, the main character considers buying a typewriter but decides against it, as they
are too expensive or old-fashioned. Deep-down she wants one, as she has always dreamed of being a
writer. The typewriter emphasizes the theme of avoidance and the protagonist’s temptation to pursue
a different career.
Example 2
Bad weather:
Throughout a story, there is surprisingly bad weather—snow, freezing rain, and even a tornado.
These weather conditions further emphasize the larger theme of nature’s power over humans.
Example 3
A tuxedo:
Throughout a poem, a man wears a tuxedo for a variety of occasions: his wedding, his father’s
funeral, and his own daughter’s wedding. The tuxedo becomes a symbol of his changing duties as a
husband, son, and father as he ages.
As can be seen from these examples, motifs by definition are repetitive
throughout a narrative, to emphasize larger themes and ideas.

SOURCES : https://literaryterms.net/motif/
 Irony - a situation in which something which was intended to have
a particular result has the opposite or a very different result:

Dramatic Irony

Dramatic irony is used when the audience knows more about what's going on than the
characters. This creates suspense, or humor, as the audience waits to see if the characters will
come to understand what's really happening. Dramatic irony heightens the audience's
anticipation, hopes, or fears, but it can also be used for comedic effect.

Have you ever read a novel or watched a play or movie where the narrator
was omniscient (knew what every character was thinking and feeling)? These are great setups
for dramatic irony.
 A novel's heroine visits her favorite café every day from 11am to 1pm to work on her
manuscript. Her brother's best friend knows this and is trying to find a way to ask her out
on a date.The day he gets up the courage to go to the café she's not there. Where is
she? The reader knows she's been taken ill, he does not. Now, a healthy dose of
suspense is added to the plot.
 Let's take the same woman and her brother's best friend in a different, comedic
direction. She still visits the café every day and her brother's best friend is still
determined to tell her how he feels. In this instance, he wants to leave a love poem at
her door. One day, thinking she'll be at the café, he goes to her apartment to slide his
poem under her door, but we know she's running late and is still at home. Right when he
bends down to push the piece of paper under her door, she flings it open in a hurry,
steps out, and trips right over him!

Situational Irony

This type of irony occurs when something happens that is completely different from what was
expected. Usually, these instances incorporate some type of contradiction and a certain level of
shock.

 An ambulance driver speeds to the scene of a road accident. The victim isn't badly hurt
until the ambulance driver whips around a corner and runs over the victim's legs, not realizing
she'd crawled to the center of the road.
 The whole story of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum is a case of
situational irony. Dorothy and her friends are in search of external forces to help them get what
they need, but discover that they each had what they needed the whole time. Dorothy learns
that the shoes she was wearing can get her home. Scarecrow discovers he was smart all along.
 The Tinman finally learns that he has a good heart. The cowardly Lion turns out to be extremely
courageous.

Verbal Irony

This type of irony comes to play when a speaker says one thing, but means another.

That sounds a lot like sarcasm, doesn't it? Let's say we were reading about a character who
was afraid of heights. One day, her boyfriend surprises her with two tickets for a hot air balloon
ride. She replies with, "Wow, I can't wait!" Would you think that's verbal irony or sarcasm? It's
actually verbal irony. This form of irony occurs when a character says one thing, but means
another. Sarcasm comes into play when a witty attack or somewhat derogatory statement is
made.

Here are two examples of verbal irony and two examples of sarcasm:

 A writer is working on his manuscript, and it's a comedy. The days have been fraught
with rain and clouds, bringing down his mood and hampering his ability to craft witty scenes. As
he opens his blinds one morning, he sees the dark clouds outside again and says, "Great.
Another rainy day. How wonderful."
 A woman has a Saint Bernard with a massive drooling problem. She tries to keep him off
the sofa, but he loves pretending he's a lap dog. One night, he trots over to her and places a
gigantic paw on her lap. He's looking at her with those sad brown eyes. "All right," she says.
"You know how I just love dog drool on my sofa."

Sources : https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/irony

https://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-irony.html

5 TYPES OF CHARACTERS
 Static – Characters who are static do not change throughout the story.
Their use may simply be to create or relieve tension, or they were not
meant to change. A major character can remain static through the whole
story.
 Dynamic – Dynamic characters change throughout the story. They may
learn a lesson, become bad, or change in complex ways.
 Flat – A flat character has one or two main traits, usually only all positive
or negative. They are the opposite of a round character. The flaw or
strength has its use in the story.
 Round – These are the opposite of the flat character. These characters
have many different traits, good and bad, making them more interesting.
 Stock – These are the stereotypical characters, such as the boy genius,
ambitious career person, faithful sidekick, mad scientist, etc.

Static or flat character

Flat characters are not an eye-catching part of the story, but still play an important role in the
flow and help the main character in his or her intention. This character doesn’t have strong
characteristics or doesn’t reveal much about the self. It also stays static throughout the story
and feels the gap in the storyline.

Such characters often have a very short role in the story, but sometimes the writer can make
such character very interesting and memorable by giving it a special style and manner.

One of the static character examples is Mr. Filch in the Harry Potter Series. He is a caretaker of
the Hogwarts school of magic. He is a flat character because of his role of finding the students
who break the rules of the school.

Changing or dynamic character

Opposite to the flat character, a dynamic character plays a role that develops and changes
during the events in the story. This character may change positively or negatively depending on
the need of the story. It can be anything from a supporter of the main character to a partner of
the antagonist and may change its direction from positive to negative or negative to positive.

This type of character often rises from a normal non-important person to an important one and
makes a significant effect on the story.

Neville Longbottom is the best example of a dynamic character who converts himself from a
simple student of the school to a leader of the students and leads the students in a fight against
the evil character Lord Voldemort.

Get the most reliable help online from our partners and achieve success!

Stock character

Unlike other characters, the characters of this type are of no much value in a story. They are
usually stereotypical and are conventionally used repeatedly in the stories of a particular type.
They are like any guy found in the stories who just take the space but doesn’t have any impact
on the plot. They just come and go and are generally not recognized by the readers.
This type of characters sometimes fits in the flat character definition that comes in during any
stereotypical situations as part of the society in the plot. They don’t develop and can’t get a
special attention in the story, yet they can be easily identified. They are just the part of the
culture like, for example, an unreliable servant in the Italian comedy that just makes fun and
comments on something.

We can identify Professor McGonagall as an example of a stock character who is a teacher and
seeks the students to follow the rules strictly. Her appearance is like that of a typical teacher
with a conventional style of talking and has stereotypical manners.

Round character

This is the character which contributes the most in making the story interesting and keeps the
reader confused about the person’s actual nature. Harry Potter himself in the Harry Potter series
will help you know what is a round character. This type of character acts subtly and changes in
the face of conflict. This character develops itself and rather becomes complex as the story
progresses as he or she doesn’t stick to the limited qualities.

This way, the character makes it difficult for the readers to fully understand and identify how the
person will act in the story until the end of the story. You can call this character a main or major
character or also a dynamic character due to the changes and development in the personality.

Another characteristic of the person with this type of character is that he or she seems more
realistic by becoming inconsistent in his or her role throughout the story. It is even expected by
the readers as they see realistic characters like those around in the real world more connecting
with normal human-like characteristics.

Some of the great examples of the characters of this type are Harry Potter, Hermione Granger,
Ronald Weasley in the Harry Potter series. They fit perfectly in this type as per the round
character literary definition. We can also consider the other two as round characters in the same
series. They are Ginny Weasley and Severus Snape.

Sources : https://www.aresearchguide.com/character-types-in-literature.html