1. Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet
Dramatic and Poetry Terms

2. Acts and Scenes
An act is a unit of division of a play. Plays can be anywhere from one to five acts.
Shakespeare’s plays are all written in five acts.
A scene is a unit of division of a act. Acts typically contain several scenes.
Typically, a new scene begins when there’s a change in time or location.

3. Chorus
A chorus offers background and summary information to help the audience follow the performance.
Shakespeare begins each Act with a little summary from the Chorus.

4. Aside An aside is when a character speaks to the audience.
What the character says to the audience is unheard by the other characters on stage.
An aside is usually a brief comment, rather than a speech, such as a soliloquy.

5. Pun
A pun is a type of word play where a word or a phrase has two or more meanings.
It is often intended for humorous effect.
Examples (in joke form):
I believe we should all pay our tax bill with a smile. I tried — but they wanted cash.
I wondered why the baseball was getting bigger. Then it hit me.

6. Protagonist
A protagonist is the main character (the central or primary personal figure) of a narrative.
Events of the narrative's plot revolve around the protagonist.
The audience is supposed to empathize most with the protagonist.

7. Tragic Hero A tragic hero is the main character in a tragedy.
A tragic hero usually has a tragic flaw - an error in his or her actions or a personality trait - that leads to his or her downfall.
Macbeth’s flaw was ambition; Othello’s, jealousy, etc.

8. Antagonist An antagonist is a character who opposes the protagonist.
In the classic style of story where in the action consists of a hero fighting a villain, the two can be regarded as protagonist and antagonist, respectively.

9. Dramatic Foil
A foil is a person who contrasts with another character (usually the protagonist) in order to highlight various features of the main character's personality.
A fighter’s foil might be a peace-keeper. A comedian’s foil might be someone who’s terribly serious all the time.

10. Oxymoron
A figure of speech in which contradictory terms appear side by side
Examples:
Act naturally
An original copy
Jumbo shrimp

11. Idiom
An idiom is a popular expression. It is a figure of speech and it not meant to be taken literally.
In many cases, the origins of the expression have been forgotten, but most native speakers understand what it’s supposed to mean.
Examples:
A dime a dozen
A chip on your shoulder
A piece of cake
It’s Greek to me

12. Foreshadowing
Foreshadowing is a literary technique used by many different authors to provide clues for the reader to be able to predict what might occur later on in the story.
In other words, it is a literary device in which an author drops hints about the plot and what may come in the near future.

13. Figurative Language
Figurative language refers to words and groups of words that exaggerate or alter the literal meanings.
Example:
The linebacker is as big as a house.
Be careful; the walls have ears.
I can’t wait to eat lunch. I’m starving!

14. Metaphor A direct comparison between two unlike things. Examples:
The kids I babysit are monsters.
Extended metaphors are allegories (remember Terrible Things?)

15. Simile
A less direct comparison between two unlike things, using “like” or “as”.
Examples:
He runs like a cheetah.
Her smile shines as brightly as the sun.

16. Comic Relief
Comic relief is the inclusion of a humorous character, scene or witty dialogue in an otherwise serious work, often to relieve tension.

17. Personification
A type of metaphor in which a thing or concept is represented as a person.
Example:
If you love your car then she’ll love you back.
Time is passing so slowly. The clock is laughing at me!

18. Irony
Irony is a literary technique in which there is an contradiction between what is said or what happens and what is expected to be said, especially when the contradiction is either funny or absurd.
There are three types of irony: Dramatic, Verbal and Situational.

19. Verbal Irony
Verbal irony occurs when a character says one thing but means something else.

20. Dramatic Irony
Dramatic irony is a contrast between what a character understands of his or her situation and what the audience understands the character's situation actually to be.

21. Situational Irony
Situational irony is when the outcome of an action turns out to be very different from what was expected.

22. Iambic Pentameter
One of many meters used in poetry and drama. It describes a particular rhythm that the words establish in each line.
In iambic pentameter, each line is ten syllables, and every other syllable is stressed to create a rhythm.
(da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM)

23. Sonnet A sonnet is a type of poem. It is: 14 lines long
Written in iambic pentameter
The rhyme scheme in a Shakespearean sonnet is a-b-a-b, c-d-c-d, e-f-e-f, g-g .
The last two lines are a rhyming couplet.

24. Rhyming Couplet A couplet is a pair of lines of meter in poetry.
A couplet is a rhyming couplet, if the last two words of each line rhyme.
Example:
True wit is nature to advantage dress'd;
What oft was thought, but ne'er so well express'd.
— Alexander Pope

25. Alliteration
A literary device where the same consonant sounds are repeated at the beginning of two or more words in close succession.
Example: “ Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.”

26. Soliloquy A soliloquy is a speech given by a character alone on stage.
Soliloquies let the audience know what the character is thinking and feeling.