Lit Terms

tragedy

A drama that presents the downfall of a dignified character involved in historically or socially significant events. Events in a tragic plot are set in motion by a decision by the hero that is often an error in judgment. Everything that happens as a result is linked by cause and effect, leading to a disastrous conclusion (usually death).

comedy

Shakespearean comedies usually start out with some kind of misunderstanding or conflict. They often include multiple intertwined plot lines, puns, romance, mistaken identities, and a happy ending that often involves a
wedding.

tragic hero

A dignified but flawed character who experiences
a downfall due to a bad decision.

tragic flaw

A character flaw in the protagonist that leads him to make a poor decision, resulting in his downfall. Tragic flaws include impulsiveness, pride, ambition, and more.

blank verse

Unrhymed poetry written in iambic pentameter that imitates the natural rhythms of English speech.

iambic pentameter

A poetic pattern of meter that contains five
pairs of syllables, the first unstressed and
the second stressed. Used in blank verse
and sonnets; Shakespeare wrote iambic
pentameter for most of his (noble) characters.

PROSPERO:
In few, they hurried us aboard a bark;
Bore us some leagues to sea, where they prepared
A rotten carcass of a butt, not rigged,
Nor tackle, sail, nor mast; the very rats
Instinctively have quit it …

soliloquy

A speech in drama in which a character, usually alone onstage, speaks his or her thoughts aloud.

aside

A short speech in a play to express a private thought. It is usually directed to the audience and presumed to be inaudible to other characters on stage, but sometimes it is addressed privately to one other character.

SEBASTIAN
[Aside to Antonio] One. Tell.

dramatic irony

Occurs when an audience knows something that a character does not (such as the fact that Juliet is not really dead when Romeo enters the Capulet vault).

oxymoron (antithesis)

An oxymoron is a figure of speech that combines two opposite elements, sometimes resulting in a paradox that seems self-contradictory but reveals a possible truth. Shakespeare lurved oxymorons and included them in almost all of his plays and many of his sonnets.

ANTONIO
O, out of that no hope
What great hope have you!

metonymy

A figure of speech that uses something closely related to a thing to stand for the thing itself. With metonymy a writer can use “the crown” to mean the king, “the bottle” to mean liquor, or “the heart” to mean love or emotions.

FERDINAND
The very instant that I saw you, did
My heart fly to your service

hyperbole

A figure of speech that uses deliberate overstatement, or exaggeration, either for comic effect or to express heightened emotion.

PROSPERO
Thou hast said well; for some of you there present
Are worse than devils.

parallelism

A rhetorical device where similar grammatical constructions are used to express ideas related or equal in importance.

PROSPERO
My charm cracks not, my spirits obey, and time
Goes upright with his carriage.