1. Drama Terms

2. Soliloquy A single character alone on stage thinking out loud
A way of letting the audience know what is on the character’s mind

3. Aside
Words that are spoken by a character in a play to the audience or to another character but that are not supposed to be overheard by the others onstage
A way for characters to tell a secret

4. Foil
A character who is used as a contrast to another character

5. Tragic flaw
A trait that leads a character to his/her downfall

6. Comic Relief
A bit of humor in a serious play to relieve tension and create suspense

7. Pun
A play on words
A pun plays on the multiple meanings on two words that sound alike but have different meanings

8. Iambic meter
Each unstressed syllable is followed by a stressed syllable

9. Iambic pentameter
Five iambic units in a line
“But soft. What light through yonder window breaks?”

10. Blank verse
Poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter

11. couplet
Two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme

12. Foreshadowing
Lines that give hints or clues to future events

13. Verbal Irony
A contrast between what is said and what is meant

14. Dramatic Irony
A contrast between what the audience knows and what a character does not know