Romeo and Juliet Literary Terms by Act

ACT I Terms to understand and identify…

monologue  Along speech by one single character (spoken while other people are on stage)

soliloquy  Along speech made by one single character, revealing his/her private thoughts and emotions (spoken when on stage alone)

pun  A funny play on words

alliteration  Repetition of consonantsounds at the beginning of words  The s limy, s lithering s nake s nuck across the s alty s ea coast.

foreshadowing  A technique the playwright uses to provide clues or hints about something that will happen later in the story When Ruth Jones's alarm clock woke her at seven o'clock that morning, she had no idea that today would be the longest day of her life.

imagery  Words that appeal to the 5 senses :  sight  sound  touch  taste  smell

allusion  A reference to a mythological, literary, or historical person place, or thing

similes & metaphors  simile : comparison of two unlike things using “like” or “as”  metaphor : a DIRECT comparison of two unlike things  eature=related eature=related

personification  Giving human qualities to inanimate (lifeless) objects or nonhuman things  As soon as the panda began singing “Kung-Fu Fighting,” all the chipmunks started break dancing in the trees.  panda = singing  chipmunks = dancing

rhyming couplet  2 back-to-back lines of poetry that rhyme  Shakespeare ends all of his sonnets with a couplet  Shakespeare ends most of the scenes of his plays with a rhyming couplet

sonnet  A 14 line poem that has a structured rhythm and rhyme scheme  Rhythm : iambic pentameter  Rhyme scheme :  Ababcdcdefefgg

aside  A quick comment made by a character that is directed at the audience, but is not heard by the other characters onstage  Frequently used to provide information to the audience and to reveal private thoughts of characters irSH7Rg

oxymoron (oxymora)  Two consecutive words that have contradictory meaning  Examples:  a little big  an educated guess  awfully good  pretty ugly  jumbo shrimp

paradox  A statement that seems contradictory, but upon closer inspection, it actually makes perfect sense.  Examples:  Don’t go near the water until you have learned how to swim.  "Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again." (C.S. Lewis to his godchild, to whom he dedicated The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe)

ACT II Terms to understand and identify…

tone  The author’s voice or attitude heard through the text  Developed through:  Characters’ actions  Characters’ speech  Characters’ thoughts  Stage directions  Pacing of events…fast or slow…  Examples: fearful; angry; happy

mood  The way the reader feels while reading the text  Examples:  Depressing  Anxious  Scary

symbol  a particular object that represents an idea larger than itself

hyperbole  Hyperbole: EqHIE&feature=related nk

Dramatic irony…  The audience knows information the characters in the play, movie, or story do not know  Example : In a scary movie, when the audience knows the character is about to die, but the character does not know  M M

Act 3 Literary Terms

situational irony  When the outcome of a story or situation is opposite of what was expected  Examples:  A firehouse burns down  A teacher is caught cheating  A policeman gets a DUI  A man steps aside to avoid getting sprinkled by a wet, shaking dog, only to accidentally fall into a swimming pool

Act 4 Literary Terms

Comic Relief  A technique a playwright uses to lighten the mood. Usually, a funny scene follows a stressful one.  Example: In Act 1, Romeo and Benvolio have a deep, heartfelt talk about how Romeo is depressed that Rosaline doesn’t love him. In the next scene, the Nurse blabs about Juliet having sex, a rooster’s testicle, and how sexy Paris is - all to lighten the mood!

Act 5 Literary Terms

Tragic Hero & Tragic Flaw  Tragic Hero:  a literary character who makes an error of judgment or has a fatal flaw that, combined with fate and external forces, brings on a tragedy  Tragic Flaw:  the character defect that causes the downfall of the protagonist of a tragedy

Leonidas: Leader of the Spartan Army…too proud???  Movie: 300

Tragedy  Tragedy: Drama where the main character(s) suffer disaster or great misfortune (often death )  In many tragedies, downfall results from:  Fate (something that was destined to happen)  A character flaw (tragic flaw)  A combination of the flaw and fate