Literary Devices and Shakespearean Terms: Tragedy, Verse, and Rhetoric

Tragedy

a literary work in which the main character is brought to ruin or suffers, especially as a result of a tragic flaw, moral weakness, or inability to cope with unfavorable circumstances

Iambic Pentameter

an iamb is a pair of syllables, the first is unstressed, the second is stressed. One set of these equals a foot. Five pairs of these in a line = pentameter. "Good sir why do you start and seem to fear?"

Blank verse

verse written in unrhymed iambic pentameter, where each line usually contains ten syllables, and every other syllable is stressed. In Shakespearean plays, the significant characters talk about important truths and use blank verse. When lesser characters speak, or there is punning or less significant subject matter, they typically speak in prose.

Prose

Look at the porter's speeches as examples of prose. Typically, the subject matter contained within prose is of less serious matter and frequently contains puns or other humor.

Trochaic Tetrameter

a trochee is a pair of syllables with the first one stressed and the second one unstressed. Tetrameter means that there are four pairs of whatever unit we are looking at. The witches speak in trochaic tetrameter. "When shall we three meet again"

Rhyming Couplets

two consecutive rhyming lines, often at the end of a scene; they may summarize or emphasize an important idea

Shared Lines

when two or more characters share a line of iambic verse between them

Aside

a remark by a character in a play intended to be heard by the audience but unheard by others on stage

Soliloquy

a speech delivered by a character in a play when alone, or an utterance spoken that is obviously to him/herself, oblivious to (an unheard by) others present. This discloses a character's inner feelings, state of mind, motive, or intentions.

Personification

the attribution of a personal nature or human characteristics to something nonhuman, or the representation of an abstract quality in human form.

Simile

a figure of speech involving the comparison of one thing to a different thing using like or as.

Metaphor

A comparison of two unlike things—where one is said to be the other (IS is the key word, typically). "There's nothing serious in mortality. All is but toys."

Metonymy

A figure which substitutes the name of one thing for the name of another with which it is in some way connected. "A little water clears us of the deed." "Deed" is substituted for blood, which is a result of the deed.

Synecdoche

A literary device where the part represents the whole. "Take thy face hence."

Antithesis

a figure by which words or sentences are placed in direct contrast. "Look like the innocent flower, But be the serpent under it."

Apostrophe

a figure in which a person or thing is addressed. "Come, thick night / And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,"

Foreshadowing

clues or hints of what will happen in the future of a story

Allusion

a reference to another work (the bible, a myth, etc.)

Alliteration

repetition of initial consonant sounds. "Fair is foul and foul is fair."

Hyperbole

a rhetorical figure in which emphasis is achieved through exaggeration

Understatement

a rhetorical figure in which something is presented as smaller, less important than it actually is. "'Twas a rough night."

Paradox

a statement whose two parts seem contradictory yet make sense with more thought. "Fair is foul and foul is fair."

Oxymoron

a figure of speech in which two contradictory words or phrases are combined to produce a rhetorical effect by means of a concise paradox. "dwell in doubtful joy"

Symbol

Object that represents itself and another concept. (Blood in the play is what it is but can also represent a guilty conscience.)

Dramatic Irony

a type of irony where a character perceives his plight in a limited way while the audience or other characters understand it entirely.

Verbal Irony

a type of irony where the meaning is contrary to the words. "Was that not nobly done? Ay, and wisely, too."