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

2. 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.

3. 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.”

4. 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…

5. 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?”

6. 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

7. DIALOGUE
Conversation of two or more people as reproduced in writing

8. 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

9. 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.”

10. RUN-ON LINE-Enjambment
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.”

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

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

13. 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

14. 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.”

15. 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.”

16. 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

17. 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.”

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

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

20. 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

21. 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

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