Romeo and Juliet Act 1

Monday december 15

shakespearean sonnet

14 lines, organized into three quatrains and a final couplet.

quatrain

A stanza of four lines with a rhyme scheme. In a Shakespearean sonnet, the first 12 lines are three quatrains.

couplet

Two consecutive lines that rhyme and complete a thought. Shakespeare often ends scenes or sonnets with a couplet for emphasis or closure.

alliteration

The repetition of initial consonant sounds in nearby words (ex: “From forth the fatal loins…” from the Prologue).

imagery

Language that appeals to the five senses—visual, sound, touch, taste, smell. Act I features lots of light/dark and emotional imagery describing love and conflict.

oxymoron

A figure of speech where two opposite, contradictory words appear together (ex: Romeo says “O brawling love, O loving hate”). Used to show his confusion about love.

paradox

A statement that appears impossible or contradictory but reveals a truth (ex: Romeo describing love as “a choking gall, and a preserving sweet”).

metaphor

A direct comparison between two unlike things without using “like” or “as.” (ex: Romeo comparing love to “a smoke raised with the fume of sighs”).

simile

A comparison using “like” or “as.” (ex: Romeo saying Rosaline’s beauty “hangs upon the cheek of night / Like a rich jewel in an Ethiope’s ear”—Act I, scene 5).

personification

Giving human qualities to nonhuman things (ex: Romeo personifies the sun, describing it as “making himself an artificial night” because Romeo blocks out the daylight).

apostrophe

Addressing someone absent, dead, or nonhuman as if present and capable of responding. In Act I, Romeo often speaks to abstract ideas like “love” as if they were real beings.

soliloquy

an act of speaking one’s thoughts aloud by themselves

hyperbole

exaggerated statements not meant to be taken literally

aside

a short remark spoken directly to the audience not meant to be heard by other members of the cast

ethos

focus on the speaker’s credibility or reputation

pathos

appeal to audiences emotion or sense of identity

logos

appeal to logic or reason