Drama and Poetry Terms
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114 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 Drama | a literary art form that recreates human like and human life and emotions. The medium is dialogue and action within a frame of sequential events. It has both written form (a script) and a living form (the stage presentation) |
| Catharsis | a cleansing or purifying of emotion used in Tragedy |
| Tragedy | a drama that gives the audience an experience of catharsis. The protagonist, a person of nobility, must make a moral decision that in turn infuences the outcome of the drama. The protagonist usually has a serious fault - the tragic flaw - that leads to his downfall and death. The terror and pity felt bu the audience produces a catharsis. |
| Sonnet | a fourteen line stanza consiting of iambic penatmeter lines. The two major sonnet forms are the Italian and English. |
| Patrarchan Sonnet | Italian Sonnet |
| Shakespearean Sonnet | English Sonnet |
| Types of Drama | Farse, Tragedy, Comedy, and Romantic Tragedy |
| Example of Tragic Flaw | Romeo and Juliet: Friar tricks parents instead of having them own their actions. Once he has lied, reached point of no return. |
| English/ Shakespearean Sonnet Format | 3 quatrains, 1 couplet: abab cdcd efef gg |
| Example of English/ Shakespearean Sonnet | Sonnet 73 by Shakespear |
| Sonnet 73 Stanza 1 | Seasons: birth/ spring, middle/ fall, old/ winter |
| Sonnet 73 Stanza 2 | Day: birth/ rise, middle age/ noon, old/ dusk, death/ night |
| Sonnet 73 Stanza 3 | Fire: birth/ kindling, middle age/ roaring, old/ embers, death/ ash |
| Sonnet 73 Stanza 4 | She is showing more love and kindness because she knows he won't live forever |
| Italian/ Patrarchan Sonnet Format | 1 octave, 1 sestet: abbaabba (cdecde, cdccdc, or cdcdcd) |
| Heroic Couplet/ Closed Couplet | consits of two successive rhyming verses that contain a complete thought within two lines. It usually consits of iambic pentameter lines. |
| Foil | a character who is presented as a contrast to a second character so as to point to or show to advantage some aspect of the second character |
| Example of Foil | John Proctor and Abigail from "The Crucible" |
| Concealment | a dramatic convention that allows a character to be seen by the audience, but remain hidden from fellow actors. This conventions shows the differing perceptions of the various characters. |
| Soliloquy | allows a character to speak his or her thoughts aloud, but not directly to the audience; insight to private thoughs like a thought bubble or monologue |
| Example of Soliloquy | Romeo and Juliet: Juliet talking in her room with Romeo below. She doesn't think anyone can hear her thoughts. |
| Aside | a convention that letas a character speak directly to the audience ithout belong overheard by the other characters. This conventions permits emphasis of character difference, and audience involvement on a more personal level. |
| Example of Aside | The scene of Juliet's Soliloquy freezes for Romeo to speak to the audience |
| Dramatic Monologue | poem addressing a silent reader, similarly to a soliloquy. can be stream of consciousness |
| Example of Dramatic Monologue | "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" |
| Dramatic Irony | occurs when a character's words or acts carry a larger meaning he doesn ot percieve. The audience, however, is fully aware of the character's situation and can realize the full importance of the action |
| Example of Dramatic Irony | Othello: "Honest" Iago |
| Tragic Hero | a common man (not a god) who is torn between forces and who inevitably becomes a victim |
| Tragic Flaw | the serious flaw that leads to the tragic hero's downfall and eventual death |
| Overhearing | when a concealed character hears the words or sees the actions of another character. |
| Example of Overhearing | Romeo and Juliet: Romeo listens to Juliet's Soliloquy before his Aside |
| Foreshadowing | the presentation of material in a work in such a way that later events are prepared for. It can result from the establishment of a mood or atmosphere |
| Example of Foreshadowing | Romeo and Juliet: Friar (an herbist) distinguishes the good and evil in everything, then points out the poison |
| Flashback | a device which presents scenes or incidents that occuring prior to the opening scene of the work |
| Example of Flashback | House: scenes that show events prior to the medical complication |
| Elegy | a song or peom expressing sorrow or lamentation, especially for one who is dead, NOT A EULOGY |
| Example of Elegy | "Candle in the Wind", Elton John |
| Pathos | the quality in something experienced or observed which arouses feeling of pity, sorrow, sympathy, or compassion |
| Pun | a play on words based upon the similarity of sound between two words which convey a different meaning |
| Example of Pun | Mrs. Stinebaugh to Alex, "Take your hands out of my drawers!" |
| Melodrama | usually a play based on a romantic plot and developed sensationally, with little regard for motivation and with an excessive appeal to the emotions of hte audience |
| Flat Character | one who is one- dimensional |
| Examples of Flat Characters | Dudley Dooright: good, Snidley: bad, Penelpe: weak |
| Dramatic Structure in a Tragedy | Intro, Complication, Climax, Falling Action, Catastrophe |
| Introduction | provides exposition, creates tone, defines setting, and introduces characters. It is the background info essential to understanding the play |
| Complication | the rising action; the building of tension caused bythe conflict of opposing interests. The complication peaks at the moment of crisis |
| Climax | the peak of action and emotional intensity. From this zenith, action and intensity must necessarily decline, so is also called the turning point |
| Falling Action | stresses actoin from teh forces opposing the protagonist. Suspense must be maintained while the action moves swiftly and logicallyl toward the disaster, the tragedy. |
| Catastrophe | The moment marking the hero's tragic failure, often mani9fested by his death. This moment of tragedy satisfies the audience in its logical comformity to the order of events and in teh mobility of the dying hero. |
| Similie | figure in which a similarity between tow objects are directly expressed uing "like" or "as" |
| Example of Similie | Her legs were like Sequoia trees. |
| Metaphor | an implied analogy identifying one object withanother and ascribing to the first object one or more of the qualities of the second |
| Example of Metaphor | Mr. Rupnik is stale bread. |
| Hyperbole | the use of exaggeration for the sake of emphasis |
| Example of Hyperbole | "That took you forever!" |
| Personification | a figure that endows animals, ideas, abstractions, and inanimate objects with human form; the represending of imaginary creatures or things as having human personalities, intelligence and emotions |
| Example of Personification | A broken record sounds charming compared to my student teacher in Mr. Galucy's class. |
| Oxymoron | juxtaposing two words with opposite meaning |
| Example of Oxymoron | jumbo shrimp, open secret, larger half, freezer burn, living dead, minor crisis, unbiased opinion |
| Paradox | an apparently self- contadictory statement, the underlying meaning of which is revealed only carefel scrutiny. The purpose is to arrest attention and provoke free thought. |
| Example of Paradox | Orwell's "Animal Farm": "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than the other." |
| Metonymy | the substition of a term naming an object closely associated with the word in mind for the word itself |
| Example of Metonymy | news from the oval office, confirmation from the whitehouse, The B.L.T. left without paying |
| Apostrophe | addresses someone or something as though they are there, but they are not |
| Example of Apostrophe | "Rain, rain, go away. Come again some other day!", "Oh darkness, why do you scare me so?" |
| Alliteration | the repetition of an initial consonant sound |
| Example of Alliteration | Parkland, in PA, is a particulary populated public school. |
| Example of Consonance | "They plucked and anchor out of the aching deep.", "last but not least" |
| Consonance | the repetition of consonant sounds anywhere in group of words |
| Assonance | the repetition of vowel sounds anywhere in a group of words |
| Example of Assonance | "The Bee Meeting," by Sylvia Plath: "Strips of tinfoil winking like people" |
| Synechdoche | a trope in which a part signifies the whole part |
| Examples of Synechdoche | All hands on deck, all eyes up here, get you but over here |
| Litotes | a form of an understatement in which a thing is affirmed by stating hte negative of its opposite |
| Example of Litotes | Monty Python: "It's just a flesh wound!!!" |
| Antithesis | a rhetorical device in which irreconcilable opposites or strongly contrasting ideas are placed in sharp juxtaposition and sustained tension |
| Example of Antithesis | Shakespear: "Fair is foul, and foul is fair", "they promised freedom and provided slavery" |
| Poetry Scansion | the analysis of patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables to establish the metrical or rhythmical pattern of a poem |
| Types of Poetry Scansion | couplet, triplet/ tercet, quatrain, sestet, septet, ocatave |
| Couplet | two lines of verse that rhyme |
| Triplet/ Tercet | a three line stanza or is three lines of verse within a larger unit that usually rhymes |
| Quatrain | four rhymed lines that can be: aaaa, abab, aabb, or abac |
| Quintet | Five line stanza that may have any on of several rhyme schemes |
| Sestet | six line stanza that is sometimes used to refer to the last six lines of an Italian sonnet |
| Septet | seven line stanza |
| Octave | an eight line stanza with numerous possibilites for different rhyme schemes and is often used to refer to the first eight lines of a sonnet. |
| Iambic Pentameter | a line of poetry that contains five feet per line and two syllables per foot. the second syllable is always stressed |
| Example of Iambic Penameter | Shakespear: ˘A /jug l ˘of /wine l ˘a /loaf l ˘of /bread l ˘and /thou. l |
| Blank Verse | consists of lines of iambic pentameter without end rhyme |
| Free Verse | consists of lines that do not have a regular meter and do not contain rhyme; absence of any rules |
| Meter | the pattern of stress and unstressed syllables established in a line of poetry. The stressed syllable (/) is also called the accented or long syllable. The unstressed (˘) syllable is also called the unaccented or short syllable. In determining the it, the position in the metrical patter, and other linguistics factors should be considered. In identifying it in a line of a free verse, the type and number of feet are considered. |
| Types of Meter | Monometer, Dimeter, Trimeter, Tetrameter, Pentameter, Hexameter, Heptameter, Octameter |
| Monometer | one foot line |
| Dimeter | two foot line |
| Trimeter | three foot line |
| Tetrameter | four foot line |
| Pentameter | five foot line |
| Hexameter | six foot line |
| Heptameter | seven foot line |
| Oxtameter | eight foot line |
| Foot | a unit of measure. A metrical one can have two or three syllables, but any type generally consits of one stressed on one or more unstressed syllables. A line may have one, two, etc. Poetic lines are classified according to the number of it in a line. |
| Types of Feet | Iamb, Trochee, Anapest, Dactyl, Spondee, and Pyrrhic |
| Iamb | a two syllable foot wit hthe stress on the second syllable |
| Example of Iamb | ˘be /low, ˘de /light, ˘a /muse |
| Trochee | foot consisting of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable |
| Example of Trochee | /ne ˘ver, /ga ˘ther, /hap ˘py |
| Anapest | foot consisting of three syllables with the stress on the last syllable |
| Example of Anapest | ˘cav ˘a /lier |
| Dactyl | foot containing three syllables with the stress on the first syllable |
| Example of Dactyl | /tan ˘ger ˘ine, /mur ˘mur ˘ing |
| Spondee | foot containing two stressed syllables. Compound words are often good examples are used for variation |
| Example of Spondee | /well /loved, /pan /cake, /rail /road |
| Pyrrhic | foot consiting of two unstressed syllables. This type of food is rare and found interspersed with other feet. |
| Example of Pyrrhic | ˘in ˘the, ˘on ˘a |
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