Climax:
The peak of importance in a play or in a story. It is the point at which the rise of action ends and the fall of action begins. Antigone’s death in Oedipus’s Antigone is the most important event after which the action falls. Her death is the climax of the tragedy. The climax of Macbeth is the point at which, so far ambitious and‘brave, Macbeth first gets afraid at the appearance of Banquo’s ghost. It is the turning point of his fall. A statement xnay also have a climax. For instant "He smiles, he laughs and he roars". The climax is at the end of the sentence.
Comic Relief:
A humorous scene in between serious scenes of a tragedy. purpose is to relieve the tension of the foregoing tragic scenes fov short time, and thus, heighten the tragic effect by contrast. The com scenes of Doctor Faustus are bright examples: In Act III, Scene IV, Wagner makes fun of the clown. This scene is a comic relief to serious scenes that precede and follow it. In Hamlet, the humorous dialogues between the grave diggers in Act V, Scene I, offer con relief to the deeply tense action of its foregoing scenes and enhance the tragic effect of the subsequent scenes.
Conceit:
Comparison between two far-fetched objects of different kinds. It surprises its readers by its ingenious discovery and delights them by its intellectual quality. A famous example is Donne's comparison between two lovers' souls and the two arms of a pair of compasses "A Valediction Forbidding Mourning":
If they be two, they are two so
A stiff twin compasses are two;
Thy soul, the fixed foot, makes no show To move, but doth, if th' other do.
Of the several conceits in "The Good-Morrow", here is one:
Where can we find two better hemispheres,
Without sharp North, without declining West?
The comparison between two hemispheres and two lovers is I unusual, thought provoking one, and so, it is a conceit.
Connotation:
The indirect meaning of a word. It is the suggestion or associated significance implied by a word.
Examples:
'Horne is the place where, when you have to go there,
They have to take you in'.
(Frost: "The Death of the Hired Man")
"Home" literally means a roofed structure to live in (denotation) but its connotative meaning, as it is suggested here, may be peace, intimacy, family bond, etc.
Thus, a "bird" is a winged biped (denotation) but the connotation of the word "bird" may be freedom, or sweet voice; "island" is piece of land surrounded by water (denotation) but its connotation is "isolated" as in the sentence "Every man is an island in a crowded city". The "bridge party" in E. M. Forster's Passage to. India, literally means a party to reduce the gap between the natives and the English. But its connotative meaning is the party to discover others' intentions through intimacy. Connotative meanings may be positive or negative. [see Denotation]
