1. For The Crucible

2. Aside A dramatic convention by which an actor directly addresses the audience but is not supposed to be heard by the other actors on the stage.

3. Comic Relief A humorous scene, incident, or speech in the course of a serious fiction or drama, introduced to provide relief from emotional intensity and, by contrast, to heighten the seriousness of the story

4. Flat/stock character A character constructed around a single idea or quality. Flat characters don’t change over the course of the story.

5. Round/ dynamic character A character sufficiently complex to be able to surprise the reader (change) without losing credibility

6. Foil A character who underscores the distinctiveness of another by means of contrast

7. Foreshadowing The presentation of material in a work so as to prepare the audience for later events

8. Dramatic Irony A technique in which the audience knows something the characters don’t.

9. Rhetorical Irony (Sarcasm) A figure of speech in which one says the opposite of what he/she means

10. Situational Irony A figure of speech in which the outcome of a state of affairs is different from what the audience was led to expect.

11. Stage Directions Material that the author adds to a text to indicate movement, attitude, manner, style, or quality of speech, character, or action. Stage directions are usually written in italics.