Academic Language Terms - Romeo and Juliet

Soliloquy

a speech expressing a character’s inner thoughts and feelings usually alone on stage. (thinking out loud)

Oxymoron

the use of two words together in a phrase that contradict one another.

Simile

comparing two unlike things using “like” or “as”.

Alliteration

Repetition of consonant sounds (beginning words).

Ryhmed Couplets

Two lines in a row that rhyme.

Dramatic Irony

Contrasts what the speaker thinks is true and what the reader knows is true (The audience knows something a character does not).

Verbal Irony

Shows the contract between what the speakers says and what the speaker means (speaker means the opposite of what they say).

Foreshadowing

Giving hints or clues that suggest or prepare for events that occur later in the story.

Personification

Giving human traits to a non-human item.

Metaphor

Direct comparison between two ideas/things

Pun

A play on words when either the word has two different meanings or sounds similar to another word for either comic or serious effect.

Sonnet

A fourteen line stanza written in iambic pentameter in the rhyme scheme abab cdcd efef gg

Situational Irony

Occurs when the outcome of a situation is completely different than what is typically expected.

Blank Verse

Unryhmed iambic pentameter.