Key vocab Flashcards
What is soliloquy?
A speech delivered by a character alone on stage, revealing their innermost thoughts.
Example: Macbeth’s “Is this a dagger which I see before me?” (Act 2, Scene 1) reveals his internal conflict about murdering Duncan.
What is Aside
A short comment or speech directed to the audience, unheard by other characters.
Example: Macbeth’s asides in Act 1, Scene 3, after hearing the witches’ prophecy, show his ambitious thoughts.
What is Prolepsis?
A flash-forward or anticipation of future events.
Example: Lady Macbeth’s invocation of darkness and death in “Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts…” (Act 1, Scene 5) anticipates the murders to come.
What is Antithesis?
The juxtaposition of contrasting ideas in a balanced structure.
Example: Lady Macbeth’s “Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under it” (Act 1, Scene 5) contrasts appearance and reality.
What is Apostrophe?
A figure of speech in which a character directly addresses an absent person, an abstract idea, or an inanimate object.
Example: Macbeth’s speech in “Is this a dagger which I see before me?” (Act 2, Scene 1) includes an apostrophe when he addresses the dagger: “Come, let me clutch thee.”
What is Hubris?
Excessive pride or ambition that leads to a character’s downfall.
Example: Macbeth’s overconfidence in Act 5, believing he is invincible due to the witches’ prophecies.
What is Iambic Pentameter?
A common meter in Shakespeare’s plays, consisting of lines with ten syllables in an unstressed-stressed pattern.
Example: Macbeth: “If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well it were done quickly” (Act 1, Scene 7).
What is Anagnorisis?
The moment when a character realizes a critical truth.
Example: Macbeth’s realization that the witches have deceived him (“They have tied me to a stake,” Act 5, Scene 7).
What is a paradox?
A seemingly contradictory statement that reveals a deeper truth.
Example: The witches’ chant, “Fair is foul, and foul is fair” (Act 1, Scene 1).
What is an allusion?
A reference to another text, historical event, or mythological figure.
Example: Macbeth’s reference to Neptune in “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?” (Act 2, Scene 2).
What is a Trochaic Tetrameter?
A meter with four trochaic feet per line (stressed-unstressed pattern), often used to distinguish supernatural characters.
Example: The witches’ chant, “Double, double, toil and trouble; Fire burn, and cauldron bubble” (Act 4, Scene 1).
What is a lexical field?
a segment of reality symbolized by a set of related words
What is a semantic field?
a collection of words which are related to one another be it through their similar meanings, or through a more abstract relation.
What is an antithesis?
a person or thing that is the direct opposite of someone or something else.
What is parallelism?
a literary device in which parts of the sentence are grammatically the same, or are similar in construction
