04.02 Building Context: Shakespeare's "The Tempest"

act: A major division in a play. An act can be subdivided into scenes.

allusion: a casual or indirect reference to something else- such as another work of literature, a historical event, a biblical story, or mythology

antagonist: a character or force against which another character struggles

aside: words spoken by an actor directly to the audience, but not "heard" by the other characters on stage during a play

climax: the turning point of the action in the plot of a play and the point of greatest tension in the work

comedy: a dramatic work in which the central motif is the triumph over adverse circumstance, resulting in a successful or happy conclusion

comic relief: comic relief serves a specific purpose: it gives the spectator a moment of "relief " with a light-hearted scene, after a succession of intensely tragic dramatic moments

denouement: Literally the action of untying. A denouement (or resolution) is the final outcome of the main complication in a play. Usually the denouement occurs AFTER the climax (the turning point or "crisis"). It is sometimes referred to as the explanation or outcome of a drama that reveals all the secrets and misunderstandings connected to the plot.

dialogue: The conversation of characters in a literary work. In plays, characters' speech is preceded by their names.

drama: a story written to be performed by actors in front of an audience

dynamic character: a character who does undergo a type of inner change (personality/attitude) throughout the play

exposition: the first stage of a fictional or dramatic plot, in which necessary background information is provided

falling action: This is when the events and complications begin to resolve themselves and tension is released. We learn whether the conflict has been resolved or not.

flat character: a character whose personality can be described as having one or two personality traits and who does not change throughout the play

foil characters: a character who creates a contrast to a different character in order to highlight particular qualities of the other character (good appears more "good" when evil is present)

modern chorus: a modern chorus (any time after the Greek period) serves a similar function but has taken a different form; it consists of a character/narrator coming on stage and giving a prologue or explicit background information or themes

monologue: A speech by a single character without another character's response. The character however, is speaking to someone else or even a group of people.

motivation: the thoughts or desires that actively drive a character to pursue a want or need

plot: the sequence of events that make up a story

prologue: in later literature, the prologue serves as explicit exposition introducing material before the first scene begins

protagonist: the main character of a literary work

pun: a play on words

rising action: an event, conflict or crisis or set of conflicts and crises that constitute the part of a play's plot leading up to the climax

round character: a complex character with many personality traits who changes or develops throughout the play

scene: A traditional segment in a play. Scenes are used to indicate (1) a change in time (2) a change in location, (3) provide a jump from one subplot to another, (4) introduce new characters (5) rearrange the actors on the stage. Traditionally plays are composed of acts, broken down into scenes.

soliloquy: a speech meant to be heard by the audience but not by other characters on the stage (as opposed to a monologue which addresses someone who does not respond). In a soliloquy, only the audience can hear the private thoughts of the characters.

static character: a character who does not undergo any type of inner change (personality/attitude) throughout the play

stock character: A recognizable character type found in many plays. For example, comedies have traditionally relied on such stock characters as the miserly father, the beautiful but naïve girl, and the trickster servant.