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