Definition: A drama where the main character has an unhappy or disastrous ending, usually caused by fate and/or a tragic flaw.
Background
Written by William Shakespeare.
Based on the poem Romeus and Juliet, which is based on an Italian play Julieta y Romeo.
Setting: Verona, Italy in the 1500s; also, the town of Mantua.
Structure and Language
Mostly written in blank verse (meter but no rhyme).
Iambic pentameter.
Main characters usually have unhappy or disastrous endings (Romeo and Juliet both die).
Elements of Shakespeare's Writing
Blank Verse: Unrhymed iambic pentameter. Usually spoken by important/wealthy characters.
Prose: Regular speech without patterns. Spoken by lower-class characters (peasants, servants, cooks, etc.).
Shakespeare's plays: Divided into five acts, each act divided into scenes, and each scene divided into lines.
Citing Shakespeare
Act.Scene.Line
Example: (I.ii.35) - Act 1, Scene 2, Line 35
Comic Relief
Definition: An amusing scene, incident, or speech introduced into serious or tragic elements to provide temporary relief from tension or intensify dramatic action.
Often included due to women in the audience needing a break from the seriousness.
Said by minor characters (servants, soldiers, etc.) to add goofiness; not said by main characters.
Puns
Play on words exploiting different meanings of a word.
Examples:
Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
Monologue
When one character is saying a speech on stage with other characters on stage intended for other characters or the audience to hear.
Mom giving you a lecture.
Soliloquy
When one character is alone on stage saying a speech.
The character reveals his inner thoughts or plans.
Not intended for anyone else to hear.
Solo Equi, like a solo singer on stage.
Aside
When a character says something to another character, himself, or the audience that's not intended for all characters to hear.
Intended for one other character, himself, or the audience.
Literary Terms
Dramatic Irony: When the audience knows something that the characters do not.
Foil: Opposites to emphasize the traits of characters (e.g., Brutus vs. Cassius).
Oxymoron: Two contradictory words next to each other (e.g., jumbo shrimp, seriously funny).
Purpose: To create an effect by juxtaposing contradictory terms, adding complexity, irony, and humor.
Paradox: A statement that seems to contradict itself but is actually true.
Example 1: Less is more (substitute with too many patterns).
Example 2: This hurts me more than it hurts you (parent disciplining child).