Terms for Plays

Apostrophe

Addressing (speaking to) an absent person or an object or concept

Aside

an actor's speech heard by the audience but supposedly not heard by other actors on stage

Soliloquy

a dramatic monologue that appears to be a character's inner thoughts

Imagery

SENSE EXPERIENCE conveyed by language

Figures of speech

methods of saying one thing and meaning another

Simile

comparison to two unlike things using like, as, than, similar to

Metaphor

an implied (for example, using the linking verb) comparison of two unlike things

Personification

giving the attributes of a human to an animal, object, or idea

Symbol

that which means more than it is

Allusion

a reference to a person or event in history or literature

Tone

author’s or speaker’s attitude towards the subject

Verbal irony

saying the opposite of what is meant

Irony of Situation

discrepancy between actual circumstances and what would seem appropriate (sarcasm)

Dramatic Irony

discrepancy between what the speaker says and what the author means (audience knows more than the actors)

Paradox

apparent contradicition which is somehow true (oxymoron - compact paradox, e.g. , “sweet sorrow”

Overstatement

exaggeration ”in the service of truth” (hyperbole)

Understatement

saying less than what is meant

Pun

humorous "play” upon the double meaning of a word

Alliteration

repetition of initial constants

Assonance

repetition of vowel sounds

Consonance

repetition of consonant sounds

Rhyme

repetition of accented vowel and all succeeding sounds (combination of assonance and consonance)

Onomatopoeia

use of words which sound like what they mean

Blank Verse

unrhymed iambic pentameter (10 syllables and it is stretched for Shakespeare)