MacBeth Context

Question 1

Allegory

Answer 1

A story, character, place, or event is used to convey a hidden meaning, typically
moral or political, about real-world events or issues (e.g. Duncan’s death is an allegory for
the risks of killing your king).

Question 2

Allusion

Answer 2

An indirect reference to another event, person or work which the writer assumes the reader is familiar.

Question 3

Archetype

Answer 3

The first real example or prototype of something; an ideal model or the perfect
image of something.

Question 4

Bathos

Answer 4

An anti-climax which is abrupt; usually humour that comes from an odd and sudden change in tone.

Question 5

Biblical

Answer 5

Language that relates to the bible and thus has religious connotations.

Question 6

Blazon

Answer 6

A poem in which the speaker describes a woman’s physique by focusing on and
listing various individual parts of a woman’s body.

Question 7

Caricature

Answer 7

An imitation where particular notable characteristics are exaggerated to a
comic or grotesque effect

Question 8

Colloquialism

Answer 8

An informal word or phrase used in normal or familiar conversation

Question 9

Comic relief

Answer 9

Relief from tension caused by the introduction of a comedic element.

Question 10

Connotation

Answer 10

An impression, idea, or feeling associated with a word or phase beyond its literal meaning.

Question 11

Dichotomy

Answer 11

A division or contrast between two opposed things.

Question 12

Double entendre

Answer 12

Words or phrases that have a double meaning and is deliberately ambiguous, especially when one of the meanings is risqué. (For example: In Elizabethan England, the use of the word “die” referred to both death and orgasm).

Question 13

Dysphemism

Answer 13

The substitution of a more offensive term for one considered less so.

Question 14

Epithet

Answer 14

A word or phrase applied to a person to describe an actual or credited quality. (For
example: “star crossed lovers” = Romeo and Juliet).

Question 15

Epitome

Answer 15

A perfect example of a specific quality

Question 16

Epizeuxis

Answer 16

The repetition of words in succession within the same sentence.

Question 17

Euphemism

Answer 17

The substitution of a harmless term for one that is considered as offensively risqué or explicit.

Question 18

Extended metaphor

Answer 18

A metaphor that continues over many sentences and could even extend throughout the entire play.

Question 19

Foreshadowing

Answer 19

A device in which an author suggests certain plot developments that might come later in the play.

Question 20

Grotesque

Answer 20

Ugly and distorted, physically or figuratively, in a way that is comic or repulsive.

Question 21

Hyperbole

Answer 21

An extravagant exaggeration of fact, used either for serious or comic effect.

Question 22

Ideology

Answer 22

A system of beliefs and ideals, typically forming a framework for a political policy or a religion.

Question 23

Imagery

Answer 23

Use of language which is visually descriptive or symbolic.

Question 24

Irony

Answer 24

The use of words where the meaning is contrary to what is expected to actually occur.

Question 25

Juxtaposition

Answer 25

A literary technique that places two opposing words, phrases or events side
by side, often for the main purpose of comparing or contrasting them. (For example - “Here is much to do with hate, but more to do with love.”)

Question 26

Manifestation

Answer 26

A physical expression or realisation of an abstract idea through a character, object, place, or event.

Question 27

Motif

Answer 27

An element that reoccurs, such as a word, phrase, idea, image, action, character or
symbol that appears throughout the play for emphasis.

Question 28

Oxymoron

Answer 28

A form of paradox that combines a pair of contrasting terms into a single,
sometimes unique expression. (For example - When Juliet says “O happy dagger”).

Question 29

Parable

Answer 29

A story used to teach a moral or spiritual lesson, typically told in the Bible by Jesus.

Question 30

Pathetic Fallacy

Answer 30

When human emotions or characteristics are given to objects, nature or the weather.

Question 31

Personification

Answer 31

Giving something non-human a human trait, capability, or personality.

Question 32

Pun

Answer 32

A play on words which suggests multiple meanings.

Question 33

Satire

Answer 33

The use of humour, irony or exaggeration to ridicule and criticize an individual’s stupidity.

Question 34

Semantic Field

Answer 34

When a writer employs multiple words which are similar and thus group together under one sub-heading

Question 35

Sibilance

Answer 35

The repetition of ‘s’ sounds close together.

Question 36

Simile

Answer 36

Comparing something to something else in a nonliteral way, in order to convey a particular idea or quality of the original thing.

Question 37

Symbolism

Answer 37

Using one object or character to expose a broader idea running throughout the play.

Question 38

Trope

Answer 38

A particular type of character, event, or setting that is used frequently in stories (e.g. ‘The Damsel In Distress’ is a trope)

Question 39

Zoomorphism

Answer 39

Imagery representing animal forms.

Question 40

Anaphora

Answer 40

Repeating a sequence of words at the beginning of adjacent clauses.

Question 41

Antithesis

Answer 41

Parallel structure that uses opposites to create emphasis. (For example: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”).

Question 42

Aside

Answer 42

A part of an actor’s lines that are not meant to be heard by other characters on stage
and intended only for the audience; a short digression

Question 43

Blank verse

Answer 43

Unrhymed poetry written in iambic pentameter

Question 44

Couplet

Answer 44

A rhymed pair of lines

Question 45

Cyclical

Answer 45

When the same sequence of events repeats throughout a story

Question 46

Dramatic Irony

Answer 46

When a character shows that they are oblivious of the reality of which the audience is aware.

Question 47

Dramatic monologue

Answer 47

A passage of speech in which one person is speaking to an audience or “thinking out loud”.

Question 48

Epistrophe

Answer 48

When the same word (or group of words) is employed at the end of successive sentences with the aim of emphasising it.

Question 49

Exposition

Answer 49

Information provided through stage directions, narration, dialogue, or description, used to introduce the audience to crucial background information.

Question 50

Heroic couplet

Answer 50

The last two lines of a Shakespearean Sonnet - a couplet of rhyming iambic pentameter.

Question 51

Iambic pentameter

Answer 51

A sentence (10 syllables in total) which is composed of two syllables: the first unstressed; the second stressed.

Question 52

In Media Res

Answer 52

Starting in the middle of the action

Question 53

Microcosm

Answer 53

Using a place, group of people, or event in the small-scale to represent something much larger (e.g. the battle at the start of Macbeth is a microcosm for the whole play)

Question 54

Paradox

Answer 54

A statement that seems to contradict itself but is still true.

Question 55

Paradox

Answer 55

A statement that seems to contradict itself but is still true.

Question 56

Parallelism

Answer 56

Using components that are similar in grammar, structure, or meaning within a sentence or multiple sentences, or throughout the text as a whole (e.g. “He came, he saw, he conquered”).

Question 57

Refrain

Answer 57

A word, phrase, or sentence that is repeated throughout a text.

Question 58

Soliloquy

Answer 58

A dramatic device whereby a character stands alone on stage and addresses the audience, giving voice to their deepest thoughts and feelings.

Question 59

Sonnet form

Answer 59

highly stylized form of poetry, with 14 lines written in iambic pentameter. (For example - Romeo and Juliet’s first real encounter in the balcony scene)

Question 60

Stichomythia

Answer 60

A dialogue between two characters who speak one after the other. For
example:

LADY MACBETH: _____
MACBETH: _____
LADY MACBETH: ____
MACBETH: ____