Julius Caesar Literary & Drama Terms Flashcards
Anachronism
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.
Apostrophe
An address to the absent or dead are spoken to as if present or in animate, as if alive.
Aside
Remarks unheard by other actors on the stage when an actor on stage turns his head toward the audience to speak
Blank Verse
Unrhymed lines written in iambic pentameter. Each line has 5 sets of unstressed then stressed syllables- 10 syllables total.
Comic Relief
Humor inserted into the play to break a serious mood.
Foreshadowing
the dropping of important hints by the author to prepare the reader for what is to come.
Ex.- Beware the ides of March.
Hyberbole
The conscious use of overstatement or exaggeration by a writer for effect.
Ex.- he died a thousand deaths.
Oxymoron
A figure of speech which combines two terms that in ordinary usage are contraries or opposites.
Ex.- Jumbo Shrimp.
Pun
Humorous play on words indicating different meanings.
Ex.- A cobbler saying he is the “mender of soles”
Soliloquy
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.
Consul
Either of the two chief magistrates of the roman Republic, elected for a term of one year.
Feast of Lupercal
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.
Forum
The public square or marketplace of an ancient Roman city that was the assembly place for judicial activity and public business.
Ides
In the ancient Roman calendar, the 15th day of March, May, July, or October, and the 13th day of the other months.
Patrician
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).
