English - Macbeth Prep Notes

archetype

a familiar character type that appears over and over again in literature

tragic hero

has a high social rank, has a tragic flaw that leads to a downfall, and suffers from ruin or death

dramatic irony

when the audience knows something that a character does not know

soliloquy

a speech a character gives alone on stage that reveals their private thoughts, feelings, and motivations

aside

a remark given by a character that no one else on stage is supposed to hear; reveals a character’s private thoughts, feelings, and motivations

blank verse

unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter

iambic pentameter

a pattern of rhythm that has five unstressed syllables with each followed by a stressed syllable

repetition

the use of words or phrases more than once to emphasize ideas

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Ex. Thrice to thine, and thrice to mine / And thrice again, to make up nine.

parallelism

the repetition of grammatical structures to express ideas that are related or of equal importance

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Ex. When the hurly-burly’s done, / When the battle’s lost and won.

rhetorical questions

the use of questions that require no answer to make the speaker’s rightness seem self-evident

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Ex. Do you not hope your children shall be kings / When those that gave the Thane of Cawdor to me / Promised no less to them?

antithesis

the use of contrasting ideas within a sentence for effect

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Ex. Fair is foul, and foul is fair…

character foil

a character who provides a striking contrast to another character

hyperbole

exaggerates the importance or scope of something for effect

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Ex. As thick as hail / Came post with post

metonym

substitutes something related to the subject for the subject itself

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Ex. The Thane of Cawdor lives. Why do you dress me / In borrowed robes?

synecdoche

uses a part of something to represent the whole thing or the whole to represent only a part

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Ex. Think upon what hath chanced, and… / … let us speak / Our free hearts each to other.