Shakespeare Vocabulary

drama

a story written to be acted for an audience

tragedy

a play, novel, or narrative that depicts serious and important events in which the main character comes to an unhappy end (usually death)

prologue

a short introduction at the beginning of a play that gives a brief overview of the plot

prose

direct, unadorned form of language, written or spoken, in ordinary use (not poetry)

blank verse

poetry written in un-rhymed iambic pentameter; each line of poetry contains five iambs (metrical feet) that consists of an unstressed syllable followed by a stress

couplet

two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme; couplets often signal the exit of a character or the end of the scene

sonnet

a fourteen-line poem that is usually written in iambic pentameter and that has one of several rhyme schemes (Shakespearean--three quatrains, followed by a concluding couplet; abab cdcd efef gg)

colloquial speech

speech using characteristics of familiar and informal conversation; practically unacceptably informal (everyday talk)

double entendre

words which let the audience interpret the words in one way while the characters interpret them differently (one interpretation is usually risque)

pun

a play on the multiple meanings of a word, or on two words that sound alike but have different meanings

chorus

a group who says things at the same time

monologue

a speech by one character in a play

soliloquy

an unusually long speech in which a character who is on stage alone expresses his or her thoughts aloud

aside

words that are spoken by a character in a play to the audience or to another character but that are not supposed to be overheard by the others onstage

anachronism

event or detail that is inaccurate for the time period

verbal irony

a writer or speaker says one thing, but really means something completely different

dramatic irony

the audience or reader knows something important that a character in a play or story doesn't know

foil

a character who is used as a contrast to another; the writer sets off/intensifies the qualities of two characters this way

oxymoron

a combination of contradictory terms

comic relief

humor added that lessens the seriousness of the plot

static character

a character who doesn't change much in the course of the story

dynamic character

a character who changes as the result of the story's events

petrarchan conceit

an overblown, almost ridiculous, metaphor comparing two extremely different things

paradox

a person, situation, or action having seemingly contradictory qualities or phrases

tragic flaw

(also known as hamartia) a flaw in a character that brings about the downfall of the hero of a tragedy

catharsis

a purifying or purging that brings about spiritual renewal or release from tension

motif

a recurring thematic element, especially a dominant idea or central theme