Drama: The Shakespearean Tragedy
Unit 4 Vocabulary
A play written for stage, radio, film, or television; usually about a serious topic or situation
Drama
A dramatic play that tells the story of a character (or characters), usually of a noble birth, who meets an untimely and unhappy death or downfall, often because of a specific character flaw or twist of fate
Tragedy
An archetypal hero based on the Greek concept of tragedy; the tragic hero has a flaw that makes him vulnerable to downfall or deathGreedRageLustMental illness
Tragic hero
Elements employed by dramatists and directors to tell a story on stage.CostumesMakeupPropsSetActing choices
Theatrical Elements
The evaluation and critical analysis of a workThrough a given lens (Feminist, Marxist, etc.)
Interpretation
The ability to know and be aware of one’s own thought processes; self-reflection
Metacognition
A dramatic speech delivered by a single character in a play
Monologue
The central character (or characters) in a work of literature; the one who is involved in the main conflict in the plot
Protagonist
An author’s choice of words
Diction
The use of sensory details to convey ideas
Imagery
The direct comparison of two unlike things (no use of ‘like’ or ‘as’)
Metaphor
Over-exaggeration for a specific effect (such as humor)
Hyperbole
A reference to a well-known person, place, literary work, work of art, event, etc.
Allusion
A figure of speech (figurative language) that gives human qualities to an animal, object, or idea
Personification
A character whose actions or thoughts are juxtaposed against those of a major character in order to highlight key attributes of the major character
Character Foil
A literary device that exploits readers’ expectations
The reader or audience knows more about the circumstances or future events in a story than the characters within it
Different from verbal irony or situational irony
Dramatic Irony
The central message about life or human nature in a work
Theme
Unrhymed verse
Blank verse
A couplet written in iambic pentameter
Heroic couplet
The form of English spoken by the Anglo-Saxons from the 5th – 11th centuries
Old English
Old English examples
The form of English spoken throughout most of Britain from the 12th – 15th centuries
Forrþrihht anan se time comm þatt ure Drihhtin wolldeben borenn i þiss middellærd forr all mannkinne nedehe chæs himm sone kinnessmenn all swillke summ he wolldeand whær he wollde borenn ben he chæs all att hiss wille.
No standardized spelling or grammar
As soon as the time camethat our Lord wantedbe born in this middle-earthfor all mankind sake,at once he chose kinsmen for himself,all just as he wanted,and he decided that he would be bornexactly where he wished.
Middle English
The current form of English spoken from the 16th century to the presentEarly modern (Shakespeare)Late modern (present-day)
Modern English
The common-day English spoken by Shakespeare and his contemporaries (The “Queen’s English”)
Elizabethan English
A long speech delivered by an actor alone on the stage
All soliloquies are monologuesNot all monologues are soliloquies
Soliloquy
The use of anything (object, animal, event, person, or place) to represent itself and stand for something else on a figurative level
Symbolism
The juxtaposition of two opposite things; words that would appear to contradict each other“jumbo shrimp”“honest politician”“loving hate”
Oxymoron
The repetition of initial consonant sounds in words that are close together
Alliteration
A rhythm characterized by 5 meters (groups) of the unstressed+stressed foot
Iambic Pentameter
The Shakespearean sonnet is characterized by 14 lines written in iambic pentameter, following the ABAB CDCD EFEF GG rhyme scheme
Sonnet