Julius Caesar Literary & Drama Terms

Question 1

Anachronism

Answer 1

Person, place, or thing placed in the wrong period of time.

Ex. - A clock is mentioned in Julius Caesar, but clocks had not yet been invented.

Question 2

Apostrophe

Answer 2

An address to the absent or dead are spoken to as if present or in animate, as if alive.

Question 3

Aside

Answer 3

Remarks unheard by other actors on the stage when an actor on stage turns his head toward the audience to speak

Question 4

Blank Verse

Answer 4

Unrhymed lines written in iambic pentameter. Each line has 5 sets of unstressed then stressed syllables- 10 syllables total.

Question 5

Comic Relief

Answer 5

Humor inserted into the play to break a serious mood.

Question 6

Foreshadowing

Answer 6

the dropping of important hints by the author to prepare the reader for what is to come.
Ex.- Beware the ides of March.

Question 7

Hyberbole

Answer 7

The conscious use of overstatement or exaggeration by a writer for effect.
Ex.- he died a thousand deaths.

Question 8

Oxymoron

Answer 8

A figure of speech which combines two terms that in ordinary usage are contraries or opposites.
Ex.- Jumbo Shrimp.

Question 9

Pun

Answer 9

Humorous play on words indicating different meanings.

Ex.- A cobbler saying he is the “mender of soles”

Question 10

Soliloquy

Answer 10

Speech delivered while the actor is alone on stage. It informs the audience of what is happening in the character’s mind or gives needed information about other character.

Question 11

Consul

Answer 11

Either of the two chief magistrates of the roman Republic, elected for a term of one year.

Question 12

Feast of Lupercal

Answer 12

A Roman festival supervised by priests on February 15th celebrating the God of fertility. the festival included a race in which men dressed in sacrificial goat skins and ran through spectators in the streets, and their touch was thought to cure sterility.

Question 13

Forum

Answer 13

The public square or marketplace of an ancient Roman city that was the assembly place for judicial activity and public business.

Question 14

Ides

Answer 14

In the ancient Roman calendar, the 15th day of March, May, July, or October, and the 13th day of the other months.

Question 15

Patrician

Answer 15

A member of one of the noble families of the ancient Roman Republic, which before the 3rd century B.C. had exclusive rights to the Senate and the magistracies (a position where one has the power to enforce or create laws).

Question 16

Plebeian

Answer 16

Of or elating to the common people of ancient Rome.

Question 17

Province

Answer 17

Any of various lands outside Italy conquered by the Romans and administered as self- contained units.

Question 18

Senate

Answer 18

The supreme council of state of the ancient Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire.

Question 19

Tribune

Answer 19

(A) An officer of ancient Rome elected by the plebeians to protect their rights from arbitrary acts of the patrician magistrates.
(B) A protector or champion of the people.

Question 20

Triumvirate

Answer 20

A government of three officers or magistrates functioning jointly.

Question 21

Stoicism

Answer 21

A philosophy that focuses on:

• Duty, self-discipline, and subjection to the natural order of things.
• Civic obligations; duty BEFORE self!
• Repressing all emotions– do not outwardly show happiness, sadness, etc.
• Speaking in a calm and emotionless manner.

Question 22

Epicurean

Answer 22

A philosophy that focuses on:

• Human freedom; “I am the center of the universe” attitude
• Being good only to increase one’s own happiness; self BEFORE duty!
• Eliminating fear from life, especially fear of death and the fear of the supernatural ( the Gods live in their own world and are too busy to bother with us on Earth).
• Speaking in a vibrant and emotional manner.