| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Drama | Literature intended to be performed. |
| Comedy | Drama that ends in a union. |
| Tragedy | Drama that ends in a separation. |
| Catharsis | The outpouring of fear and pity by the audience for the protagonist. |
| Fear | Audience worry that the plot could happen to them. |
| Pity | Audience empathy for the protagonist. |
| Tragic flaw | The character trait that brings about the downfall of the protagonist |
| Dramatic foil | A character who contrasts another serving to highlight the protagonist's traits. |
| Iamb | U / |
| Trochee | / U |
| Spondee | / / |
| Pyrrhic | U U |
| Dactyl | / U U |
| Anapest | U U / |
| Scansion | The process of marking and identifying poetic meter. |
| Foot | A unit of poetry defined by a combination of stressed and/or unstressed syllables. |
| Formal poetry | Poems that follow a set meter and form. |
| Heroic Couplet | Two lines of rhymed iambic pentameter |
| Aside | One actor speaking directly to the audience without other actors hearing. |
| Monologue | One actor speaking as if others are listening. |
| Soliloquy | One actor speaking/revealing inner thought. |
| Dialogue | Conversation among two or more actors |
| Prologue | Words spoken at the outset of a play intended to give background information to the audience. |
| Macbeth | Thane of Cawdor and Glamis |
| Banquo | A brave and honorable general in the army. |
| Macduff | Thane of Fife. |
| Lady Macbeth | The Thane of Cawdor's wife. |
| Duncan | An innocent and trusting king. |
| Malcolm | The dead king's son who fled to England. |
| Donalbain | The dead king's son who fled to Ireland. |
| Fleance | The honest general's son. |
| Paradox | A true statement built upon seeming contradictory elements. |
| Oxymoron | A self-contradictory combination of words or smaller verbal units. |
| Innuendo | A disparaging remark that hints by way of allusion. |
| Pun | A play on words based on the similarity of sounds between two words with different meanings. |
| Anecdote | A short narrative detailing the particulars of an interesting episode or event. |
| Euphemism | A literary device in which an indirect phrase replaces a more direct on in the interest of avoiding offensiveness. |
| Edward the Pious | King of England who aids Duncan's sons. |
| Macdonwald | A rebel in act I |
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