Unit 9 · Longer Fiction or Drama III

Minor character ● (core concept) — A character the narrative does not focus on. Minor characters often stay unchanged and may exist mainly to advance the plot or to interact with the major characters.

Suspense ● (core concept) — The held-breath feeling a plot creates as its events crash into and build on each other; structures that break chronology can heighten it by building tension.

Catharsis ● (core concept) — A plot's emotional payoff — the release when built-up anticipation, suspense, or central conflict finally resolves.

Resolution ● (core concept) — The settling of a plot's central conflicts — the point a dynamic character's choices often build toward, and the moment at which a character's response reveals their values.

Unresolved ending ● (core concept) — An ending that leaves the central conflicts unsettled. The absence of resolution is itself meaningful and can shape how the text is interpreted.

Theme ○ — The central idea, underlying message, or insight about life that a literary work conveys. (The CED invokes theme throughout — Unit 9 centers on 'major themes' — but defines it in no EK.)