Romeo & Juliet

Literary Terms

Drama

a story written to be performed by actors

Soliloquy a long speech expressing the thoughts of a

character alone on stage

Monologue

a speech by one

character in a play, story, or poem

Prologue an opening speech

that introduces the play’s main

characters, plot, and setting

Tragedy a work of literature, especially a play, that

results in a catastrophe for the

main character.

Tragic heroa character of noble birth with

the potential for greatness, but due to a tragic flaw in his character makes an error in judgment that leads to his death

Aside

a short speech delivered by an actor in a play traditionally directed at the audience.

Comic Relief

a technique that is used to interrupt a serious part of a literary work by introducing a humorous character or situation.

Dialogue

a conversation between

characters

Blank Verse

poetry written in unrhymed iambic

pentameter

Dramatic Foil

a character that provides a contrast to

another character –

opposites

Suspensea feeling of uncertainty

about the outcome of events in a story –

a way to keep the reader interested

Dramatic Irony

when a reader

knows something that a character doesn’t know

PunShakespeare loved to use them.

Humorous use of a word with two meanings > sometimes missed by the reader because of Elizabethan language and sexual innuendo

ProseOrdinary writing that is not

poetry, drama, or songOnly characters in the lower social classes speak this way in Shakespeare’s plays

Why do you suppose that is?

A fourteen line lyric poem, usually written in rhymed iambic pentameter

Topics: Love Friendship Mortality Immortality of poetry

Sonnets

Iambic Pentameter

A series of five stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry

Couplet

a pair of rhyming lines in poetry

That completes our notes on literary terms. Now we will

discuss sonnets more in depth.

Sonnets

A sonnet consists of three quatrains and one couplet

Sonnets

A quatrain is a series of four rhymed lines

SonnetsFirst quatrain: the subject is revealed and why it is loved is explained

Second quatrain: describe what is special about the subject – be descriptive and imaginative

Third Quatrain: A problem arises with loving the subject

SonnetsA couplet is a series of

two rhymed lines

Summarizes and leaves the reader with a new, concluding image

SonnetsRhyme Scheme – a pattern of rhyme in a poem

Sonnet Rhyme Scheme: ABAB/CDCD/EFEF/GG

SonnetsIambic Pentameter: 

five beats of alternating unstressed and stressed syllables (“da-DUH”); ten

syllables per line.

Meter means rhythm.

Sonnets

“Who’s wood / these are / I think / I know /his house”

“Is in / the village / though he / will not / mind me / stopping”