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F able
   A brief story that is usually told to reveal a moral principle or a lesson. Oftentimes, the characters in fables are animals who speak and act like humans.

  (ex. George Orwell's "Animal Farm")

Falling action

   See Plot.

Farce

   A comedy usually based on ridiculous siutations with stereotyped characters. Farces often use crude physical actions and use characters as the "" of jokes.

Figurative Language

   Language that is not intended to be read in their literal meanings.

   (ex. Shakespeare's "Macbeth" :

   "Out, out, brief candle!
   Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
   That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
   And then is heard no more.
       [V, 5, 23-26]

   Shakespeare did not mean that life is a candle, but made comparisons between the two. This provides many new ways to view the world by using many figures of speech (metaphors, hyperbole, oxymoron, etc. )

Figure of Speech

   A word or an expression not intended to be read in a literal sense The most common figures of speech - metaphor, personification, simile, and metonymy - compare two unlike things.

  (ex. "It's raining cats and dogs" and "You're the apple of my eye")

Flashback

   A scene in a piece of work that interrupts the current action to reveal something from the past.

   (ex.Katherine Mansfield's "A Dill Pickle" and Elizabeth Bowen's "Tears, Idle, Tears")

Foil

   A character of complete contrast of another character.

   (ex. Shakepspeare's "Macbeth" : Banquo and Macbeth.)

Foot

   See Scansion

Foreshadowing

   Hints or clues in a story or a play that indicates what may happen later. Foreshadowing is a device used to create interest and to build suspense by the writers.

   (ex. Graham Greene's "Across the Bridge": The fifth parargraph states that Mr. Calloway's story is a tragedy, which foreshadows the end of the story.)

Free Verse

   Verse without regular meter or line length. Instead, free verse follows the natural speech rhythms and lengths of language. Free is exactly what free verse is. Most free verse belongs to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries but is also found in the Psalms of the Bible.

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