Dramatic Conventions and Techniques (The Tragedy of Macbeth)

Aside

A dramatic convention by which an actor directly addresses the audience but it is not supposed to be heard by the other actors on the stage.

Dramatic Irony

Occurs when another character(s) and/or the audience know more than one or more characters on stage about what is happening

Soliloquy

A speech given by a character alone on stage (or who thinks he/she is alone on stage) - TRUTHFUL

Monologue

A long speech made by one performer or by one person in a group.

Allusion

A reference to a well-known person, place, event, literary work, or work of art

Personification

A figure of speech in which an object or animal is given human feelings, thoughts, or attitudes

Drama

a story written to be performed by actors

Tragedy

A drama or literary work in which the main character is brought to ruin or suffers extreme sorrow due to a fatal flaw

Tragic Hero

A protagonist who experiences catastrophe due to his own tragic flaw

Tragic Flaw (Hamartia)

A weakness or limitation of character (character/personality flaw), resulting in the fall of the tragic hero.

Script

the written part of a play

Stage directions

A playwright's descriptive or interpretive comments that provide readers (and actors) with information about the dialogue, setting, and action of a play.

Oxymoron

a set of contradictory terms used to illustrate a character's state of mind

Verbal Irony

irony in which a person says or writes one thing and means another, or uses words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of the literal meaning.

Situational Irony

occurs when the outcome of a work is unexpected, or events turn out to be the opposite from what one had expected

Pun

a joke exploiting the different possible meanings of a word or the fact that there are words that sound alike but have different meanings.

Motif

A recurring theme, subject or idea

Character Foil (Dramatic Foil)

A person whose character traits are the opposite and therefore accentuates the traits of another character.

Catharsis

the purging of emotion at the end of the play

Rhyming Couplet

Two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme

Sonnet

14 line poem

Iambic pentameter

a poetic meter that is made up of 5 stressed syllables each followed by an unstressed syllable

Kairos

The opportune moment/time/situation to take action

Logos

The use of evidence, statistics, and logical reasoning to persuade

Ethos

The use of personal character, expertise/credibility/authority to persuade

Anaphora

In rhetoric, the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning a multiple lines of poetry or prose to create emphasis/balance/harmony.

Comic Relief

The incorporation of a humorous scene or event meant to provide a moment of relief from the intensity of the play

Equivocation

the use of ambiguous language to conceal the truth or to avoid committing oneself; prevarication.

Antithesis

Antithesis is a literary device that contrasts opposing ideas through parallel grammatical structures.

Double entendre

a word or phrase that is open to two interpretations, one of which is usually risqué or indecent.

Great Chain of Being

The medieval belief that society was organized by God into a natural and rigid hierarchical structure.

Paradox

A statement that seems contradictory but contains a complex truth.

Pathos

In rhetoric, the use of inflammatory language or imagery to appeal to the emotions.

Imagery

The use of language to stimulate any one or all of the five senses.

Rhyme Scheme

The pattern of rhyme a poem follows.

Alliteration

The repetition of consonant sounds in prose or verse.

Blank Verse

Blank verse refers to poetry that does not rhyme but follows a regular meter, most commonly iambic pentameter.