Shakespeare & Drama Terms “He was not of an age but for all time.” -Ben Jonson

Standard for this Lesson ELA9RL1 The student identifies, analyzes, and applies knowledge of the themes, structures, and elements of dramatic literature and provides evidence from the text to support understanding; the student: a. Identifies and analyzes types of dramatic literature (i.e., Shakespearean tragedy and comedy). b. Analyzes the characters, structures, and themes of dramatic literature. c. Identifies and analyzes dramatic elements, (i.e., exposition, rising action, climax, denouement, dialogue, monologue, soliloquy, aside, dramatic irony). d. Identifies and analyzes how dramatic elements support and enhance interpretation of dramatic literature.

exposition, complication, climax, falling action, catastrophe. ACTS & SCENES An act is major division of a drama. Acts are divided into scenes. Romeo and Juliet has five acts. The five acts follow the five major divisions of dramatic action: exposition, complication, climax, falling action, catastrophe.

ALLUSION Reference to a well-known person, place, event, literary work, or work of art “She’ll not be hit with Cupid’s arrow. She hath Dian’s wit.”

ASIDE A short line delivered by a character in a play to express true feelings and thoughts Think “Zach” in those old Saved by the Bell reruns you’ve seen too many of…

BLANK VERSE Poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter An iamb is an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable Pentameter refers to five of these units “But Soft! What light through yonder window breaks?”

COUPLET A pair of rhyming lines “Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow That I shall say good night till it be morrow.” ***Often signals the exit of a character or end of a scene

DIALOGUE Conversation of two or more people as reproduced in writing

STAGE DIRECTIONS Notes included in a drama to describe how the work is to be performed or staged Printed in italics and are not spoken aloud Used to describe sets, lighting, sound effects, and the appearance, personalities, and movements of characters ***In Shakespeare’s day, these instructions were given in Latin

END-STOPPED LINE Line of verse in which both the grammatical structure and the sense reach completion at the end of the line “O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse thy name: Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, And I’ll no longer be a Capulet.”

RUN-ON LINE Line having no pause or end punctuation but having uninterrupted grammatical meaning continuing into the next line “The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars As daylight doth a lamp; her eyes in heaven Would through the airy region stream so bright That birds would sing and think it were not night.”

FOIL CHARACTER A character who provides a contrast to another character Benvolio and Tybalt

FORESHADOWING The use of clues that suggest events that have yet to occur

IRONY Differences between appearance and reality Verbal- words are used to suggest the opposite of what is meant Situational- an event occurs that directly contradicts the expectations of characters and the audience Dramatic- a contradiction between what a character thinks and what the audience knows to be true

METAPHOR A figure of speech in which one thing is spoken of as though it were something else “It is the East, and Juliet is the sun.”

SIMILE A figure of speech in which the words like or as are used to compare two apparently dissimilar things “It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night As a rich jewel in an Ethiop’s ear.”

MONOLOGUE A speech given by a character to an identifiable but silent listener at a dramatic moment in the speaker’s life Mercutio’s Queen Mab speech

SOLILOQUY A long speech expressing the thoughts of a character alone on stage “To be or not to be – that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles  And, by opposing, end them. To die, to sleep⎯  No more – and by a sleep to say we end  The heartache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to – ‘tis a consummation Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep⎯ To sleep, perchance to dream.”

OXYMORON A figure of speech that brings together two contradictory terms “cheerful pessimist” “wise fool” “jumbo shrimp” “sweet sorrow”

PROLOGUE A preface or introduction which gives background information for the play Usually spoken by a Chorus or a single speaker

PUN A play on words involving a word with two or more different meanings or two words that sound alike “Ask for me tomorrow, and you shall find me a grave man.” Grave= burial site and serious

TRAGEDY A work of literature, especially a play, that results in a catastrophe, a disaster, or great misfortune for the main character, or tragic hero. The main character is a significant person- a king or a hero- and the cause of the tragedy is a tragic flaw, or weakness, in his or her character

SUSPENSE Feeling of uncertainty about the outcome of events in a literary work