Othello Background Flashcards
When and where was William Shakespeare born and dead
Born April 1564
Born in Stratford-on-Avon
Died 1616
Received a ___________ education (including Latin, Greek, history, math, astronomy, and music)
Most likely began as a(n) _______
- Classical
- Actor
How many plays did Shakespeare write
- 38 plays (including comedies, histories, tragedies, and romance)
What is a Verse
What is a Prose
What is the difference between them
- Poetic language that includes meter and sometimes rhyme; organized in lines with a consistent number of syllables
2.Ordinary written language with no meter or rhyme; organized in sentences
Verses are used for what status of a character and what moments are verses used (3 things)
High status characters
Great affairs of war and state
Tragic moments
Proses are used for what status of character and what other moments is proses used for
- Low status characters (servants, clowns, drunks, and villains) (*)
- Proclamations
- Written challenges
- Accusation (*)
- Letters
- Comedic moments (*)
- Express madness
What is a meter
What is a meter responsible for
- The pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables
(Described in terms of the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables and the total number of metrical feet in a line of verse) - Creating the rhythm of a line
What is a Foot ( poetry)
A group of syllables that forms one complete unit of a metrical pattern
What type is the most common metrical pattern in Shakespeare
Iambic pentameter
What order does the stress or unstressed go into for iambic
How many lines and syllables are in pentameter
1.Unstressed (u) then stressed(/)
- Lines of five iambic feet and 10 syllables
What is a blank verse
Unrhymed iambic pentameter
What is a Free verse
No regular meter
What does Shakespeare’s sonnet have (4 things)
- 14 line poem, usually written in iambic pentameter
2.organized in three quatrains and a couplet - Typical rhyme scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GG
- Most pronounced break or turn comes with concluding couplet
What is a quatrain
What is a couplet
- Four-line verse stanza, usually rhymed
- A pair of rhyming verse lines
What is an Aside
A character’s remark, either to the audience or another character, that other characters on stage are not supposed to hear
What is a monologue
An extended speech by a single character that is uninterrupted by others
What is a soliloquy
A speech a character gives when she or he is alone on stage.
What is the difference between the monologue and soliloquy
Soliloquy is when the character is alone on stage while monologue is with other characters listening and in the background.
What is a Foil
A character whose personality or attitudes are in sharp contrast to those of another character in the same work
What is an allusion
What type of allusions does Shakespeare use
- Reference to an event, person, place, or another work of literature
- Greek and Roman mythology
Who is Janus ( allusion) (4 things)
1.Roman god of gates and doors, beginnings and endings.
2.shown to have double-faced head facing opposite directions.
3. Worshipped at the beginning of the harvest time, planting, marriage, birth and other type of beginnings.
4.also represents the transition between primitive life and civilization, between the countryside and the city, peace and war, and the growing-up of young people.
What is a tragedy (4 things)
- A serious play representing the disastrous downfall of the hero.
- Achieves a catharsis by arousing pity and terror in the audience
- Hero is led into fatal calamity by a tragic flaw, which often takes the form of hubris
- Tragic effect depends upon audience’s awareness of the admirable qualities of the hero which are wasted in the disaster
What are some qualities of a tragic hero(4 qualities)
- Good man, important to society
- The hero suffers a fall brought about by something in his nature.
- The fall provokes the emotions of pity and fear in the reader
- The tragic character comes to some kind of understanding or new recognition of what has happened
What is a tragic flaw
Defect of character that leads to the hero’s disastrous downfall
