Literary Devices Grace O'Day, Courtney Preston, Raven Jones, and Brittany Wolff

Iambic pentameter Is the meter that Shakespeare nearly always used when writing in verse. examples: If mu- / -sic be / the food / of love, / play on Is this / a dag- / -ger I / see be- / fore me?

Aside An actor’s speech, directed to the audience, that is not supposed to be heard by other actors on stage. An aside is usually used to let the audience know what a character is about to do or what he or she is thinking. Example: When Hamlet first appears onstage, for example, his aside "A little more than kin, and less than kind!" gives the audience a strong sense of his alienation from King Claudius

Soliloquy a device often used in drama whereby a character relates his or her thoughts and feelings to him/herself and to the audience without addressing any of the other characters, and is delivered often when they are alone or think they are alone Examples: To be, or not to be--that is the question Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer

Comic relief Comic relief usually means a releasing of emotional or other tension resulting from a comic episode interposed in the midst of serious or tragic elements in a drama Examples: the opening scene of Act V of Hamlet, in which a gravedigger banters with Hamlet

Similes A figure of speech involving a comparison between unlike things using like, as, or as though Example: "My love is like a red, red rose."

Metaphors A implied comparison is made between two unlike things that have something in common. Example: "His heart is made of stone."

Dramatic Structure is the structure of a dramatic work such as a play or film. Example: The kings ghost

Allusion a passing or casual reference: an incidental mention of something, either directly or by implication Example: Here feel we but the penalty of Adam, The seasons' difference, as the icy fang And churlish chiding of the winter's wind

Couplet 1. A unit of verse consisting of two successive lines, usually rhyming and having the same meter and often forming a complete thought or syntactic unit. 2. Two similar things; a pair.

Meta-drama Drama in which the subject of the play is dramatic art itself, especially when such material breaks up the illusion of watching reality. Examples: When Macbeth cries out, "Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player / who struts and frets his hour upon the stage, / and then is heard no more," as does Hamlet's plan to use The Mouse-Trap as an ethical litmus test for Claudius: - "The play's the thing / wherin I'll catch the conscience of the king."