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.
