1. Julius Caesar
Literary term notes

2. Three Types of Plays
Comedy- a play with a happy ending. Typically ends with a marriage. Comedic elements are present, but it is not necessarily the same as a comedy we think of today.
Tragedy- a play in which a character meets his/her downfall due to a tragic flaw in the character, or because of fate. Death is typical in tragedies, and the title character(s) usually die.
History plays- plays in which Shakespeare retells a story about a historical figure/event.

3. Protagonist vs. Antagonist
Protagonist- the main character in a work of literature, who is involved in the central conflict of the story. Usually, the protagonist changes after the central conflict reaches a climax. He or she may be a hero and is usually the one with whom the audience tends to identify.
Antagonist- a principal character or force in opposition to a protagonist.

4. Tragic Hero
A central character in a drama who displays heroic features. Often has a tragic flaw.
Tragic flaw- a flaw that a character deals with throughout a play. This flaw often creates problems for the character and eventually results in their death.

5. Irony
An contrast between expectations and reality, in which the opposite of what is expected occurs.

6. Three Types of Irony
Situational irony- a contrast between what a reader or character expects and what actually exists or happens.
Verbal irony- exists when someone knowingly exaggerates or says one thing and means another.
Dramatic irony- where the reader or viewer knows something that a character does not know.

7. Soliloquy
Soliloquy- a speech in which a character speaks his or her thoughts aloud.
Aside- a short speech directed to the audience, or another character, that is not heard by the other characters on stage.

8. Pun
A pun is a play on words in which a humorous effect is produced by using a word that suggests two or more meanings or by exploiting similar sounding words having different meanings.

9. Prose v. Verse Prose- everyday speech with no metrical structure.
Verse- writing arranged with a metrical rhythm, typically having a rhyme.

10. Iambic Pentameter
Foot- the unit which makes up iambic pentameter. One foot consists of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable.
A succession of five feet makes up iambic pentameter.
Sonnets are not the only form of poetry in which iambic pentameter is used.

11. Blank Verse Blank verse- unrhymed poetry written in iambic pentameter.
Appears in almost all of Shakespeare’s plays