| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Analogy | The description of an idea comparing it with other ideas that are more familiar (all the worlds a stage) |
| Hyperbole | an exaggeration for the sake of effect |
| Image Strands | the image, or series of images, that dominate a play |
| Cosmic Irony | reveals human beings to be at the mercy of a cruel fate (macbeth with witches prophecy) |
| Dramatic Irony | creates tension by emphasizing the gap in knowledge between audience and some or all of characters |
| Structural Irony | occurs when a central character in a work has a naive view of the world that runs counter to the experiences of the other characters and the audience or reader |
| Verbal Irony | toned down form or sarcasm in which someone says on thing means another |
| Litotes | form of understatement which denies the contrary (if you think someone is stupid and say he's not the brightest person I know) |
| Metaphor | The writer describes one idea or object in terms of another so there is an identity between to the two (dirt poor, she was an eagle in flight) |
| Metonymy | this device substitutes an emotionally associated object for an idea (when you take your spouses hand in marriage) |
| Onomatopoeia | this device matches the sound of the word as closely as possible to what is being described (buzz, tick tock) |
| Oxymoron | this device yokes together two contradictory ideas (jumbo shrimp, close acquaintance) |
| Personification | this figure of speech treats animals, ideas, or inanimate objects as if they were human (macbeth begs the earth not to betray him) |
| Simile | denotes merely a likeness and does so using words like, as, so (my love is like a rose) |
| Synecdoche | occurs when either a part substitutes for a whole or when the whole statnds in for a part (i like your wheels when referring to a car) |
| Adage | short saying very much like a proverb (haste makes waste, there is no virtue like necessity) |
| Alliteration | the repetition of the same initial sounds, usually consonants, in successive or nearby words (the bitter bread of banishment) |
| Anaphora | the repetition of words at the beginning of successive clauses, lines, or sentences (starting every clause with I know not what i do) |
| Antistrophe | the repetition of words at the end of clauses, lines, or sentences |
| Aside | comment or short speech by one character to audience or another character which, by convention, is not heard by other characters on stage |
| Assonance | repetition of vowel sounds in successive or nearby words where the consonants that follow the vowels differ from each other |
| Caesura | a pause in a line of verse or prose, usually shown with comma |
| Chiasmus | the sequence of two or more phrases in the first part of sentence is reversed in the second part (ask not what you're country can do for you, but what you can do for your country) |
| Consonance | repetition of final consonant sounds in successive or nearby words in which vowl sounds are different |
| Enargia | the vivid description of something (Clarence's nightmare in the ocean) |
| Ethos | the character of the speaker - the match between the content of the lines spoken and the personality of the speaker |
| Isocolon | Precise form of grammatical parallelisms in which phrases or clauses are of the same length and structure (sharp and sententious, pleasant without scurrility, witty without affection) |
| Logos | the fit between thought and its expression as well as the appearance of clear development |
| Pathos | the emotion in speech, the purpose being to move audience to sorrow, compassion, and sympathy |
| Soliloquy | speech delivered to audience by character when alone on stage, usually to show their inner most thoughts or what their intentions are |
| Stichomythia | dialoge in which two characters dispute each other in short, alternating sentences |
Combine with other sets
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