Romeo and Juliet Literary Terms
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Created by:
christinamac18 on February 27, 2012
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36 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 allegory | a narrative in which characters and setting stand for abstract ideas or moral qualities |
| alliteration | a repitition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words ex: "how the silence surged softly..." |
| allusion | reference to a well-known person, place, event, piece of literature, or artwork |
| anaphora | the repetition of the same word or group of words at the beginning of sucessive clauses: "We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills." |
| anecdote | very, very brief story usually told to make a point |
| apostrophe | a rhetorical figure of speech in which the writer or a character addresses a dead person, object, or abstract entity ex. "Death, be not proud." |
| aside | a short speech delivered by an actor in a play, expressing the character's thoughts. It is directed to the audience, and it is assumed that the other actors can't hear it. |
| assonance | repetition of vowel sounds within a line of poetry ex. "weak and weary" |
| blank verse | poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter lines, widely used by Shakespeare and other Elizabethan dramatists |
| round character | shows many different traits-faults as well as virtues |
| flat character | may exhibit only one trait or may remain the same thorughout the story or play |
| consonance | repetition of consonant sounds at the end of words ex. "blink and think" |
| couplet | a pair of rhyming lines of poetry, usually the same length and meter. they generally express a complete thought. |
| drama | a story written to be performed by actors. the script of the story is written as a dialogue- the words the actors say- and stage directions, which are comments on how and where the action happens. |
| dramatic foil | a character who highlights the personality traits of another through their interaction |
| dramatic irony | a contradiction between what a character thinks and what the reader knows to be true |
| euphemism | the substitution of a mild or less negative word or phrase for a harsh or blunt one, as in the use of "pass away" instead of "'die." The basic psychology of euphemistic language is the desire to put something bad or embarrassing in a positive (or at least neutral light.) |
| extended metaphor | similar to a metaphor, the subject is spoken or written of as if it were something else, but in an extended metaphor, several comparisons are made, and the comparisons continue through several lines or for an entire poem. |
| figurative language | writing or speech not meant to be taken literally that creates vivid impressions by setting up comparisons to dissimilar things. some types of this are metaphor, personification, and simile. |
| hyperbole | a deliberate exaggeration or overstatement |
| imagery | words that appeal to the five senses; descriptive language that creates word pictures for the reader. |
| inverted word order | a sentence in which the complement comes at the beginning, followed by the verb and then the subject. |
| irony | contrast between expectations and reality |
| literal language | uses words in their ordinary senses |
| meter | the rhythmical pattern of a poem |
| monologue | a speech by one character in a play, story or poem. character is speaking to other characters. |
| oxymoron | figure of speech that combines two contradictory words, placed side by side |
| onomatopoeia | words that imitate sound |
| personification | human traits given to a creature, idea, or object |
| prose | the ordinary form of written language (not poetry or drama) |
| pun | a play on words; using diff. senses of the same word or similar sense or sound of the same word |
| rhyme scheme | a regular pattern of rhyming words in a poem, using diff. letters of the alphabet for each new rhyme |
| soliloquy | a long speech expressing the thoughts of a character alone on stage |
| sonnet | 14-line poem, usually written in rhymed iambic pentameter |
| shakespearean sonnet | consists of 3 quatrains and a couplet, usually rhyming abab cdcd efef gg |
| tragedy | a work of literature, especially a play, that results in a catastrophe for the main character. ex. "Romeo and Juliet" |
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