LITERARY

ELEMENTS
in Short Story, Novel,
and Drama
Prepared by:
CHRISTINE IÑEZ A. PADLAN
Plot Moral
Allusion Point of View
Flashback Suspense
Foreshadowing Symbol
Imagery Theme
Irony Tone
Mood Character
PLOT

 It is considered as the skeletal presentation of the story

 It is the sequence of interrelated actions and events in the
story
PLOT
a. Exposition/Introduction
b. Complication/Rising Action
c. Climax/Turning Point
d. Resolution/Falling Action
e. Conclusion/Denouement
Exposition/Introduction
 gives the setting – time and place or locale of the story
 introduces the main characters
 gives background information on what took place before the
actual start of the story
 gives the situation out of which the conflicts develops
Complication/Rising Action
 introduces the conflict or problem to be solved

Conflict - clash of opposing forces in the story

Two (2) Kinds of Conflict
1) External Conflict – the clash of character with the forces
outside him, natural, social or both
2) Internal Conflict – the clash of forces within the character
Climax/Turning Point

 the conflict reaches a height and may turn for the better or
for the worse
Resolution/Falling Action

 conflict is solved
Conclusion/Denouement

 action ends in success or failure for the main character

CHARACTERIZATION
 The presentation and establishment of character
 Two modes of characterization:
1) Expository/Direct – explicit way of characterizing ; it tells
what the character is like
2) Dramatic/Indirect – implicit characterizing; instead of
explicit statements, the speech, action, or thoughts of the
character are ways to know what he or she is like
CHARACTERS

A person, or sometimes even an animal, who takes part in

the action of a short story or other literary work

Characters in a short story may be classified in different ways

 A) MAIN CHARACTERS
1. Protagonist / Hero or
Heroine
2. Antagonist / Villain
B) SECONDARY CHARACTERS
According to 1. Confidant
Roles Played 2. Stock / Type
3. Foil
4. Sidekick
5. Underdog
CONFIDANT
 someone in whom the main character confides, which
reveals the main character’s personality, intentions,
and thoughts. The confidante does not need to be a
person. Animals, teddy bears, and other objects have
been used as confidantes in literature as well as in real
life.
STOCK / TYPE
 is a flat character who represents stereotypical personality traits which may
stem from his or her appearance, the situation he or she finds him-/herself
in, or the culture of the society. They are not the focus of nor are they
developed in the story.
 They are very easy to identify. They are examples of widely known cultural
types with stereotypical characteristics and mannerisms, and are often used
in parody (a work that mocks, comments on, or makes fun of something).
Examples of stock characters include the “computer nerd”, the “shushing
old librarian” or the “dumb jock.”
Example: 

A stock character from the Harry Potter

series is Professor McGonagall, the
stereotypical strict, rule-abiding teacher.

Her personality is evident from her

demeanor, her expression, her manner of
talking, and the typical glasses that seem
to define such teachers.
FOIL
 is a character who enhances the qualities of another character through
contrast.
 is the protagonist's counterpart. He or she generates additional
dramatic or comic tension in the story.
 While the antagonist is directly opposed to the protagonist's goals, the
foil serves as a contrast to the protagonist's personality. Often, the foil
brings out another side of the protagonist, or causes the protagonist to
think about the story's problems in a new way.
Example:

In Harry Potter, the foil would be

Draco Malfoy.

His nastiness and cowardice contrast

with Harry’s goodness and bravery,
making those qualities of Harry’s
seem even stronger.
SIDEKICK
 The sidekick of a main character often has a weaker
personality in comparison to the character him- or herself.
This is a person who stays with the main character all the
time, and usually tends to do as directed by the character.
 Sidekicks are usually flat or static characters who don’t have
much of a role in the story other than to support the main
character.
 Example: 

Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle

are sidekicks to Draco Malfoy in the
Harry Potter series.

They are with him at all times, and do

whatever he wants them to do. They
do not have any strong role to play in
the story other than to back up
Malfoy.

Ron and Hermione are NOT Harry Potter's sidekicks. They are strong characters who have fully
developed personalities and play important roles in the entire story.
Remember that a sidekick will not really have any strong role to play in the story.
 UNDERDOG
 The underdog is a character who is often underplayed in a book[ someone who is
the scapegoat or who all bets would be placed against in any given situation.
 The underdog character taps into hope in the audience. We want the underdog to
succeed and to better him- or herself.
 Underdogs may be cheated, abused, or otherwise mistreated, but they believe in
their God-given ability to affect their own destiny. They actively take
responsibility for their actions and believe they have the power to change their
tomorrows by what they do today. A classic underdog in literature is Cinderella.
Example: 

In the Harry Potter series, Neville

Longbottom is the underdog.

He transforms himself from a

petrified student to someone who
leads a whole army in the fight
against evil. He turns out to be
someone the reader would never have
expected, and we cheer him on in his
transformation.
 A) FLAT CHARACTERS
According to Fullness
of Development
B) ROUND CHARACTERS
 FLAT CHARACTERS…
 are simple and one- or two-dimensional.
 represents a single dominant trait or characteristics and they remain
essentially unchanged throughout the story.
 They play a supporting role to the main character. They are the
background characters who are not really part of the story, but just help to
provide a good setting. They do not undergo substantial change or growth
in the course of a story.
 …FLAT CHARACTERS

 Flat characters have few but easily recognizable traits that make them
stereotypical. For instance, the stepmother who humiliates her stepdaughter,
the school bully, the mean teacher, or the mother who is only focused on
having her daughter married, are all flat characters.
 They do not have much of a personality. Flat characters are also referred to
as two-dimensional characters or static characters.
Example: 

Mr. Filch, the caretaker of Hogwart's

School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is a
flat character, with his only undying
obsession being finding students
breaking school rules.
 ROUND
CHARACTERS…
 are complex and multi-dimensional.
 exhibit a number of traits which may be conflicting.
 A round character is a major character in a work of fiction who encounters
conflict and is changed by it. This is a character that develops throughout
the story, making his or her qualities difficult to identify completely, right
up to the end. The personality of such a character is not consistent, so the
character is more realistic.
 … ROUND
CHARACTERS
  Round characters are more fully developed and described than flat
characters. They show many complex personality traits, just like a real
person.
 A round character is also known as major character, main
character, or dynamic character. Main characters must be round in order to
be believable. If you think of the characters you most love in fiction, they
probably seem as real to you as people you know in real life. This is a good
sign that they are round characters.
 A)STATIC
According to changes
undergone in the story B) DYNAMIC / DEVELOPING
 STATIC CHARACTERS

 Static characters are minor characters who remain primarily the same

throughout a story. Events in the story do not alter his or her outlook on life,
personality, motivation, perception, or habits. Save for the initial
introduction, there is not much to learn about such a character. Also referred
to as two-dimensional characters or flat characters, they play a supporting
role to the main character.
Example: 

In the Harry Potter series,

Professor McGonagall or
Bellatrix Lestrange
are static characters.

Their personalities are

consistent throughout the
series, and our knowledge
of them does not increase.
 DYNAMIC
CHARACTERS…

 A dynamic character is a major character in a work of fiction whose personality

changes through the course of the story due to a change in the situation or the
plot. The change is an internal decision made by the character based on what
happens during the story. Thischange in the character’s personality must be
permanent. 
 The change may be from weak to strong, from strong to weak, from a
cheery person to a person in distress, and the like.
 …DYNAMIC
CHARACTERS

 Dynamic characters tend to be more fully developed and described than flat
characters. Both the protagonist and the antagonist can be dynamic characters.
 A number of elements in fiction make the character dynamic, including
descriptions of a character, the character's dialogue, a character's responses to the
conflicts that arise in the plot, and a character's thoughts.
 Sometimes a dynamic character is called a developing character.
Example: 

Dynamic traits are made evident by

Neville Longbottom, Harry Potter's
classmate.

A perpetually petrified student at

Hogwart's through most of the series,
by the end Neville leads an army of
students to fight against Voldemort, the
evil character feared by all.
ALLUSION

 Allusion is a brief and indirect reference to a person, place, thing or

idea of historical, cultural, literary or political significance. It does not
describe in detail the person or thing to which it refers. It is just a
passing comment and the writer expects the reader to possess enough
knowledge to spot the allusion and grasp its importance in a text.
Examples:

“Don’t act like a Romeo in front of her.” – “Romeo” is a reference to

Shakespeare’s Romeo, a passionate lover of Juliet, in “Romeo and Juliet”.

“Hey! Guess who the new Newton of our school is?” – “Newton”, means a
genius student, alludes to a famous scientist Isaac Newton.

The rise in poverty will unlock the Pandora’s box of crimes. – This is an
allusion to one of Greek Mythology’s origin myth, “Pandora’s box”.
 FLASHBACK
 It refers to an interruption of the chronological sequence to give way to an event
that had occurred earlier.
 the entire scene is shifted to an earlier time by means of recollections of a
character, the narrator’s commentary dream episode
 Writers do to insert past events, in order to provide background or context to the
current events of a narrative. By using flashbacks, writers allow their readers to
gain insight into a character’s motivations, and provide a background to a
current conflict. Dream sequences and memories are methods used to present
flashbacks.
 FORESHADOWING
 A literary device in which a writer gives an advance hint of what is to come
later in the story. Foreshadowing often appears at the beginning of a story, or a
chapter, and helps the reader develop expectations about the coming events in a
story. 
 A writer may use character dialogues to hint at what may occur in the future. In
addition, any event or action in the story may throw a hint to the readers about
future events or actions. Even a title of a work or a chapter title can act as a clue
that suggests what is going to happen. Foreshadowing in fiction creates
an atmosphere of suspense in a story, so that the readers are interested to know
more.
Examples:

#1 The final graveyard flower is blooming, and its smell drifts through their
house, speaking gently the names of their dead. - Foreshadows death

#2 Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is rich with foreshadowing examples, one of

which is the following lines from Act 2, Scene 2:
“Life were better ended by their hate,
Than death prorogued, wanting of thy love”
In the balcony scene, Juliet is concerned about Romeo’s safety as she fears her
kinsmen may catch him. Romeo says, in the above lines, that he would rather
have her love and die sooner, than not obtain her love and die later. Eventually,
he gets her love and dies for her love, too.
 IMAGERY

 a writer’s use of words and phrases that create vivid sensory experiences for
the reader
 also refers to the process of generating mental pictures or movies
 IRONY

It refers to the discrepancy between what seems and what is, or
the way something appears and what is actually true
It is classified into three (3):
1. Verbal Irony
2. Dramatic Irony
3. Irony of Situation
VERBAL IRONY

An irony where the speaker speaks something that is

contradictory to what he really meant.
Examples:

#1 A student who goes to the restroom

every day during class asks the teacher if
he can go.

Her response is "Sure, it's not like we do

anything important in this class.“

#2 A small child does not flush the toilet,

and the mother says, "I really appreciate
when you flush the toilet! Thank you for
remembering your manners!"
 DRAMATIC IRONY

 A discrepancy between the knowledge of the audience and the knowledge

of the characters
 Storytellers use this irony as a useful plot device for creating situations in
which the audience knows more about the situations, the causes of
conflicts, and their resolutions before the leading characters or actors.
That is why readers observe that the speech of actors takes on unusual
meanings.
 IRONY OF SITUATION
 it occurs when incongruity appears between expectations of something to
happen, and what actually happens instead. 
 Thus, something entirely different happens from what audience may be
expecting, or the final outcome is opposite to what the audience is
expecting.
 The purpose of ironic situations is to allow the readers to make a distinction
between appearances and realities, and eventually associate them to
the theme of a story.
Examples:
#1 A marriage counselor files for divorce.
This is ironic because the expectation is that a professional who coaches couples
through rough patches would herself have a strong marriage.

#2 The police station gets robbed.

Again, the expectation is that professional crime fighters would be able to help
themselves; in this case, by securing their own station.

#3 A husband realizes it's his wife's birthday and rushes to make dinner
reservations, only to find that she has forgotten what day it is and stayed at work
late.
The husband expected to treat his wife, by the plans end up ruined anyway. It's
only the reason why that's unexpected.
 MOOD

 the feeling or the atmosphere that a writer creates for a reader

 Connotative words, sensory images, and figurative language contribute to the
mood of a selection, as do the sound and rhythm of the language
 it is the overall feeling of the piece or the passage
Example:

William Shakespeare’s tragedy, Hamlet, creates a particular mood from the

opening scene. Let’s say…

The opening scene occurs as the watchmen are changing guard. Their discussion
is about a ghost they saw the previous night. And, just as they are discussing, the
ghost itself appears.

Here, Shakespeare utilizes diction, setting, and tone to create an ominous mood.
He appropriately sets the stage for his tragedy, providing relevant background
information, including the ghost of the murdered king, pulling in his audience and
inciting fear and mystery.
 MORAL

 an exhortation to good behavior, some rule of conduct regarded as

applicable to one’s life; may take the form of maxim, a proverbial
formula that tells us how to get along in life

Example:
Crime does not pay
 POINT OF VIEW…

 It refers to the position of the narrator in the story in relation to the events
that he/she is recounting.
 POINT OF VIEW

 It can be classified into:

1. nonparticipant narrator
a. omniscient narrator
b. limited omniscient narrator or selective omniscient narrator
c. objective narrator or dramatic narrator
2. participant narrator
 NONPARTICIPANT NARRATOR

 always speaks in the third person, referring to characters by name and as

“he” or “she,” never as “I.”
 This kind of narrative voice may develop a personality of its own
(humorous, solemn, ironic) but does not belong to any character in the
fictional world it creates.
 A nonparticipant narrator may comment on the action in the story but does
not participate in it.
 OMNISCIENT NARRATOR

 knows not only what is happening everywhere but what everyone is

thinking. Such a narrator can provide us with broad overviews
(“Smithville has been for decades the dullest town in the state”), can
describe events involving various characters (“While Joe slept
peacefully, his younger brother, across town, was buying a gun”), and
can dip into the minds of any number of characters to tell us their
thoughts (“Carol wondered whether her investigation of Joe’s murder
would lead to a front page story”).
 LIMITED OMNISCIENT
NARRATOR

 is also a third-person narrator, a disembodied voice, but one that has access to
the inner thoughts of only one character and focuses on the experiences and
perceptions of that single character, sometimes a character in the thick of the
story’s action, sometimes one on the periphery, more observer than actor.
 OBJECTIVE NARRATOR

 a third person narrator that describes characters from the outside only, never
revealing their thoughts. Since readers want and need to know what characters
are thinking, the burden on this kind of “fly-on-the-wall” narrator, as it is
often called, is to describe characters’ appearance, speech, and actions in a
way that enables us to infer their thoughts.
 An objective narrator is sometimes also called a dramatic narrator, since
dialogue—what characters say—often becomes, as in drama, the key element
in revealing their thoughts.
 PARTICIPANT NARRATOR

 is a character in the story as well as the teller of the story. Such a narrator
describes a fictional world of which he or she is a part and therefore, says
“I.”
 This “I” may be central to the action, or may be a minor character, more
witness than actor. Like the limited omniscient narrator, the first-person
participant narrator enters into the mind of only one character, himself or
herself.
 SUSPENSE

The tension or excitement felt by the reader as she or he becomes

involved in a narrative and eager to know either the outcome of a
conflict or how the outcome occurred.
 SYMBOL

 A person, place, or object that represents something beyond itself;

suggests something deeper
Example:
“His life was an oak tree that had just lost its leaves.”
The symbol might be the oak tree which evoke the cycle of death
and rebirth through the loss and growth of the leaves.
 THEME

 The central idea or belief in a short story.

 It is considered as the soul of the story.
 it is a writer’s perception about life or humanity shared with a reader. It
is the generalization about life or human character that a story explicitly
or implicitly embodies
NOTE: A theme should always be in the form of proposition with a subject
and a predicate
Example: “Poverty degrades.”
 TONE

 The attitude a writer takes towards a subject

 Every written piece comprises a central theme or subject matter. The manner
in which a writer approaches this theme and subject is the tone. The tone can
be formal, informal, serious, comic, sarcastic, sad, or cheerful, or it may be
any other existing attitude.
Example:

Sentence 1]
“I want to ask the authorities what is the big deal? Why do they not control the
epidemic? It is eating up lives like a monster.”

Sentence #2]
“I want to draw the attention of the appropriate authorities toward damage caused
by the epidemic. If steps are not taken to curb it, it will further injure
our community.”

The theme of both tone examples is the same. The only way we can
differentiate between them is their separate tone. The tone in the first example is
casual or informal while, it is more formal in the second.
Example:

Sentence 1]
“Yeah, your grades on this exam will be as good as the previous exams.”

Sentence #2]
“Can someone tell me what the hell is going on here?”

The tone in the first example is pessimistic while, it is more aggressive in

the second.
Example:

Robert Frost, in the last stanza of his poem The Road Not Taken, gives us an

insight into the effect of tone:

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Frost tells us about his past with a “sigh,” this gives the above lines an
unhappy tone. This tone leads us into thinking that the speaker in the poem had to
make a difficult choice.