Literary Elements (Romeo & Juliet and The Odyssey - ELA MIdterms)

Blank Verse

verse without rhyme, especially that which uses iambic pentameter.

Comic Relief

scene that relieves the overall emotional intensity

Allusion

a figure of speech that makes a reference to a place, person, or something that happened. This can be real or imaginary and may refer to anything, including paintings, opera, folk-lore, mythical figures, or religious manuscripts.

Foil Character

A character whose personality or attitude contrasts with another character (usually the protagonist) in the same work

Soliloquy

an act of speaking one's thoughts aloud when by oneself or regardless of any hearers.

Iambic Pentameter

a line of verse with five metrical feet, each consisting of one short (or unstressed) syllable followed by one long (or stressed) syllable.

unstressed = shown by a half circle

stressed = shown by a forward slash

When you see a character’s lines start midway across the page, it is because they are finishing the iambic pentameter that the previous speaker started. 

example: 

Benvolio: Good morrow, Cousin.
Romeo:                                                       Is the day so young?
Benvolio: But new struck nine.
Romeo:                                      Aye me, sad hours seem long! (I.1.131-

Pun

A play on words, especially those that sound alike, but have different meanings (i.e. “Ask for me tomorrow and you will find me a grave man”)

Oxymoron

When two opposite terms are used together (i.e. “O heavy lightness!”)

Tragedy

Drama that ends in catastrophe (often death)

Monologue

a long and typically tedious speech by one person during a conversation.

Aside

a remark or passage by a character that is intended to be heard by the audience but unheard by the other characters in the play. The purpose is to reveal the character’s inner thoughts.

Tragic Hero

A tragic hero is a person of noble birth with heroic or potentially heroic qualities. This person is fated by the Gods or by some supernatural force to doom/destruction or at least to great suffering.

Sonnet

• A sonnet is a fourteen-line lyric poem that is written in iambic pentameter. These Shakespearean sonnets have three four-line units, or quatrains, followed by a concluding two-line unit, or couplet.  The rhyme scheme for the Shakespearean sonnet is:

 ABAB CDCD EFEF GG.  

The most notable examples of a Shakespearean sonnet in The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet is in The Prologue and in the meeting of Romeo and Juliet in Act 1 Scene 5.

Here is an example from the Prologue of Act I: 

Prologue

Two households, both alike in dignity,    A

In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,    B

From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,    A

Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.    B

From forth the fatal loins of these two foes    C

A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life;    D

Whose misadventured piteous overthrows    C

Doth with their death bury their parents' strife.    D

The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,    E

And the continuance of their parents' rage,    F

Which, but their children's end, naught could remove,    E

Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;    F

The which if you with patient ears attend,    G

What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.    G

Prose vs. poetry in R&J

• When characters aren’t speaking in iambic pentameter (see above), they are speaking in prose, or “normal” language. For prose, there is no meter, no rhyme, it’s just normal sentences that go all the way to the margins. This is usually the language of comedy or of lower-class people. Poetry is reserved for nobility or for language of love. 

Example: The entire opening of the play (I.1) 

* Generally speaking, high-class characters speak in iambic pentameter; lower class characters speak in prose

Dramatic Irony

When the audience/reader knows something that the characters in the story do not know.

Epic Hero

Odysseus (is not like ordinary people), excels in strength, a specific skill (his craft or guile; often seen as quick-thinking), and courage. He values honor and has the help of Athena (goddess of wisdom and strategic warfare)

Epic Simile

• A comparison between two things, using ‘like’ or ‘as’ and going on at great length and detail

  • “And Odysseus let the bright molten tears run down his cheeks, weeping the way a wife mourns for her lord on the lost field where he has gone down fighting the day of wrath that came upon his children. At sight of the man panting and dying there, she slips down to enfold him, crying out; then feels the spears prodding her back and shoulders, and goes into slavery and grief.

Epithet

• A brief, descriptive phrase that helps to characterize a person or thing. ONLY an epithet if it is repeated! 

  • Odysseus is referred to as “master mariner and soldier” or “old contender”

  • Dawn comes with “fingertips of rose”

  • The ocean becomes a “wine dark sea”

Damsel in Distress

a young woman in trouble, implying that the woman needs to be rescued.

The 3 major stages of an epic hero’s journey: Separation, Initiation, and Return. Elements of each

1. Separation

• Call to adventure: The hero becomes aware of a life beyond everyday existence

• Refusal of the call: The hero denies abilities and does not desire to leave (Odysseus is called to fight in the Trojan War on the day his son, Telemachus, was born)

• Crossing the first threshold: The hero is tested and pulled into a new realm.

2. Initiation

• The road of trials: A Series of tests to prepare the hero

• Meeting with the goddess: An Offering is made to request the hero’s success

• Woman as temptress: The hero is distracted by selfish pleasure

• Atonement with the Father: The hero comes to terms with parents/protector

• Apotheosis: Hero is transformed into his full potential/divine state

• The Ultimate Boone: a favor/blessing is bestowed to complete the journey 

3. Return

• The Refusal of the Return: The hero hesitates to return home (Odysseus is unsure whether Penelope still loves him, since he has been gone for so long)

• The Magical Flight or Rescue: the hero has made an extraordinary journey home

• Crossing of the Return Threshold: The hero has supernatural force to help him cross back over

• Master of Two Worlds: The hero is now a bridge/master of these two seemingly separate worlds 

• Freedom to Live: The hero can move freely between the two realms 

In “Media Res”

in the middle

• The Odyssey begins its story ten years after the Trojan War. It will take Odysseus another ten years to get home (he will have been away from Ithaca, his home, for twenty years).