10/09/14 Flashcards
Tragic Hero
The downfall of a dignified character or characters who are involved in historically or socially significant events.
Tragic Flaw
An error in judgement on the part of the hero that sets the events in a tragic plot in motion.
Foil
A character who provides a striking contrast to another character.
Soliloquy
A speech in which a character speaks his or her thoughts out loud.
Aside
A short speech directed to the audience, or another character, that is not heard by other characters on stage.
Comic Relief
Consists of humorous scenes, incidents, or speeches that are included in a serious drama to provide a reduction in emotional intensity.
Blank Verse
Untuned poetry written in iambic pentameter.
Pun
A joke that comes from a play on words.
Iambic Pentameter
A metrical pattern of five feet, or units, each of which is made up of two syllables, the first unstressed and the second stressed.
Sonnet
A lyric poem of 14 lines, commonly written in iambic pentameter.
Stanza
A group of two or more lines that form a unit in a poem.
Refrain
One or more lines repeated in each stanza of a poem.
Rhyme Scheme
A pattern of end rhymes in a poem. Noted by assigning a letter of the alphabet, beginning with “a”, to each line. Lines that rhyme are given the same letter.
Rhythm
A pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a poem.
Parody
An imitation of another work, a type of literature, or a writer’s style, usually for the purpose of poking fun.
