Romeo & Juliet Flashcards
Greek Tragedy
A person of importance and outstanding personal qualities, falls to disaster through the combination of a personal failing and circumstances with which he or she cannot deal.
Tragic Protagonists
Despite their virtuous and sympathetic traits and ambitions, they ultimately meet defeat.
Antagonist
A person who actively opposes or is hostile to someone or something.
Extended Metaphor
A version of metaphor that extends over the course of multiple lines, paragraphs, or stanzas of prose or poetry.
Soliloquy
An act of speaking one’s thoughts aloud when by oneself or regardless of any hearers.
Aside
A remark or passage in a play that is intended to be heard by the audience but unheard by the other characters in the play.
Hubris
Excessive pride towards or defiance of the gods, leading to nemesis.
Hamartia
A fatal flaw leading to the downfall of a tragic hero or heroine.
Catharsis
The process of releasing strong or repressed emotions.
Dramatic Irony
A literary device by which the audience’s or reader’s understanding of events or individuals in a work surpasses that of its characters.
Monologue
A long speech by one actor in a play or film.
Unrequited Love
When one person yearns for unconditional love from another individual who doesn’t feel the same way.
Courtly Love
A medieval tradition of love between a knight and a married noblewoman.
Volatile
Liable to change rapidly and unpredictably, especially for the worse.
Emotional
Having feelings that are easily excited and openly displayed.
Impetuous
Acting or done quickly and without thought or care.
Machismo
Strong or aggressive masculine pride.
Antithesis
A person or thing that is the direct opposite of someone or something else.
Iambic Pentameter
A line of verse with five metrical feet, each consisting of one short syllable followed by one long syllable.
Sonnet
A poem of fourteen lines using any of a number of formal rhyme schemes, in English typically having ten syllables per line.
Shared Lines
When two or more characters share a line of iambic verse between them.
Rhyming Couplets
A rhyming pair of successive lines of verse, typically of the same length.
Protagonist
The leading character or one of the major characters in a play.
Prose
Written or spoken language in its ordinary form, without metrical structure.
Verse
Writing arranged with a metrical rhythm, typically having a rhyme.
Fate
The development of events outside a person’s control, regarded as predetermined by a supernatural power.
Free Will
The power of acting without the constraint of necessity or fate.
Honour
Regard with great respect.
Society
The aggregate of people living together in a more or less ordered community.
Patriarchy
A system of society or government in which the father or eldest male is head of the family and descent is reckoned through the male line.
Primogeniture
The state of being the firstborn child.
Feud
A prolonged and bitter quarrel or dispute.
Reputation
The beliefs or opinions that are generally held about someone or something.
Mercurial
Subject to sudden or unpredictable changes of mood or mind.
Anarchic
Unruly and chaotic.
Impulsive
Someone who acts on a whim, without thinking.
Tempestuous
Someone who is unpredictable and has many conflicting emotions.
Liberal
Willing to respect or accept behaviour or opinions different from one’s own.
Social Class
Social class, also called class, a group of people within a society who possess the same socioeconomic status.
Contemporary
Living or occurring at the same time.
Quixotic
Extremely idealistic: unrealistic and impractical.
Melancholic
A feeling of sadness, typically with no obvious cause.
Masculinity
Qualities or attributes regarded as characteristic of men.
Challenging Conventions
Going against what is perceived as the norm.
Ingenuous
Innocent and unsuspecting.
