Drama Literary Terms

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TERMS TO KNOW FOR UNIT ON SHAKESPEARE’S ROMEO AND

JULIET

Aside FOR THE AUDIENCE!!

Short phrases spoken by a character in a play, usually in an undertone

The audience understands that the words aren’t heard by other characters

Hamlet is talking to the audience about why he does not want to kill his uncle while he is praying

Blank Verse10 syllables of IAMBIC PENTAMETER where the ends of the lines don’t rhymeUnrhymed Iambic

Pentameter

Blank Verse

These are the gardens of the Desert, theseThe unshorn fields, boundless and beautiful,For which the speech of England has no name—The Prairies. I behold them for the first,And my heart swells, while the dilated sight

Greek Chorus

There is no Greek Chorus in a Shakespearean play – they are replaced by the ASIDE

A group of performers who stood outside the action (in Greek plays)

They commented on characters actions and hinted at events to come

Chorus

Comedy OPPOSITE of TRAGEDY

- has a happy ending, usually involving marriages between the unmarried characters, and a tone and style that is more light-hearted

Comedy

Couplet two RHYMING lines!

Two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme

Where-e'er you find "the cooling western breeze," In the next line, it "whispers through the trees;"

If crystal streams "with pleasing murmurs creep," The reader's threatened (not in vain) with "sleep."

Couplet

Dialogue conversation

- Conversation between characters in a drama

Dialogue

Drama Meant to be acted!

- a dramatic work intended for performance by actors on a stage

Dramatic structure Shakespearean Dramatic Structure

- The structure of a play (acts & scenes)

Dramatic structure

Iambic meter One iamb = two syllables

Metric verse consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable

da DUM

Iambic meter

One IAMB

Iambic pentameter 5 meters x 2 da dums = 10

Five verse feet with each foot an iamb (a total of ten syllables)

Five da DUMS

Iambic pentameter

IronyIt doesn’t seem like these ads should be so close!!

A literary technique that portrays differences between appearance and reality; the opposite of what is expected.

Dramatic Irony We know something she doesn’t know!!

When the audience knows something that the characters don’t

Dramatic Irony

Situational IronyIt seems that the psychics would have foreseen this!

A contrast between what is expected and what really happens is called situational irony

Situational Irony

Verbal Irony They say the opposite of what they mean!!

- the contrast between what is said and what is meant.

Verbal Irony

MonologueSandra Bullock is making a speech to a guy in a coma.

A long, uninterrupted speech presented in front of other characters

Monologue

Motivation How SHOULD the actor act his/her part?

A reason that explains or partially explains a character’s thoughts, feelings, actions, or behaviors in a certain way

Motivation

Oxymoron

a figure of speech that combines apparently contradictory terms

contradictions

Pun That’s so punny!

The humorous use of a word or phrase to suggest two or more meanings at the same time

SoliloquyHamlet is alone on the stage – speaking to the skull of his childhood friend– Yorick

a speech in which a character is alone (SOLO) on stage and expresses his/her thoughts out loud for the benefit of the audience.

Soliloquy

Tragedy Opposite of a COMEDY!

A Dramatic work that presents the downfall of a dignified character involved in historically or socially significant events

Tragedy

Verse VERSE VS. PROSE

- Poetry: literature written in metrical form, using figurative language

POETRY = VERSESynonyms!!They mean the

same thing!!

SonnetThere are many kinds of sonnets but they all have 14 lines!!

A fourteen-line poem, written in iambic pentameter, with one of several rhyme schemes

Sonnet

This shows a Shakespearean Rhyme

scheme: ABAB CDCD EFEF GG

Iambic Pentameter

Iambic Pentameter is the rhythm and meter in which poets and playwrights wrote in Elizabethan England. It is a metre that Shakespeare uses.

Heartbeat.Quite simply, it

sounds like this: dee DUM, dee DUM, dee DUM, dee DUM, dee DUM. It consists of a line of five iambic feet, ten syllables with five unstressed and five stressed syllables. It is the first and last sound we ever hear, it is the rhythm of the human heart beat.

Pentameter?

Well an ‘iamb’ is ‘dee Dum’ – it is the heart beat.

Penta is from the Greek word for five.

Meter is really the pattern

Sooooooooooo, there are five iambs per line!

(Iambic penta meter )

Tragic Flaw What is Romeo’s TRAGIC FLAW??

- Fatal error in judgment or weakness in a character that leads to his or her destruction

Tragic Flaw

Tragic Hero DOOMED!

- Protagonist or main character in a tragedy; doomed characters who face defeat with great courage and dignity

Tragic Hero

- A character who sets off another character by contrast

Harry Potter’s foil is Draco Malfoy

George’s foil is Lennie

George’s OPPOSITE

Epithet descriptive information

- A descriptive adjective or phrase used to characterize someone or something

Epithet

Allusion

a reference in one work of literature to a person, place or event in another work of literature or in history, art, or music.

Allusion

Mickey Mouse is giving acting instructions to a character who is playing the part of Ahab, a historical figure – that historical figure is the ALLUSION

A picture can be an allusion

Drama Literary Terms

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