Shakespeare Terms

Question 1

Alliteration

Answer 1

• The occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of words next to or close to each other in a sentence.

Question 2

Metaphor

Answer 2

• A figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable.

Question 3

Allusion

Answer 3

• An expression designed to call something to mind without mentioning it explicitly; an indirect or passing reference.

Question 4

Assonance

Answer 4

• In poetry, the repetition of the sound of a vowel or diphthong in non rhyming stressed syllables near enough to each other for the echo to be discernible.

Question 5

Monologue

Answer 5

• A long speech by one actor in a play or movie, or as part of a theatrical or broadcast program

Question 6

Quatrain

Answer 6

• A stanza of four lines, especially one having alternate rhymes.
  ex. -Mary Had a Little Lamb.

Question 7

Aside

Answer 7

• 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.

Question 8

Mood

Answer 8

• Inducing or suggestive of a particular feeling or state of mind.

Question 9

Blank verse

Answer 9

• A verse without rhyme, especially that which uses iambic pentameter.

Question 10

Oxymoron

Answer 10

- A figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction.
ex.
same difference.
serious fun.
seriously funny.
student teacher.
sweet misery.

Question 11

Comic Relief

Answer 11

• Comic episodes in a dramatic or literary work that offset more serious sections.

Question 12

Personification

Answer 12

• The attribution of a personal nature or human characteristics to something nonhuman, or the representation of an abstract quality in human form.

Question 13

Conceit

Answer 13

• a fanciful expression in writing or speech; an elaborate metaphor.
  ex. -Thy tempest-tossed body.” He compares Juliet to a boat in a storm. The comparison is an extended metaphor in which he compares her eyes to a sea, her tears to a storm, her sighs to the stormy winds, and her body to a boat in a storm.

Question 14

Pun

Answer 14

• A joke exploiting the different possible meanings of a word or the fact that there are words which sound alike but have different meanings.

Question 15

Dramatic Irony

Answer 15

• A literary technique, originally used in Greek tragedy, by which the full significance of a character’s words or actions are clear to the audience or reader although unknown to the character.

Question 16

Rhyming Couplet

Answer 16

• Two lines of the same length that ​rhyme ​and complete one thought.
  ex. - Double, double, toil and trouble; Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

Question 17

Dynamic Character

Answer 17

-A dynamic character is a character who undergoes significant internal change throughout the course of a story.

Question 18

Round Character

Answer 18

• A deep and layered character in a story.

Question 19

External Conflict

Answer 19

• External conflict is a struggle that takes place between the main character and some outside force. Therefore, it is outside the body of the protagonist.

Question 20

Simile

Answer 20

• A figure of speech involving the comparison of one thing with another thing of a different kind, used to make a description more emphatic or vivid.
  (w/ like or as)

Question 21

Flat Character

Answer 21

-A flat character is a character with little to no complex emotions, motivations, or personality. They also don’t undergo any kind of change to make them more well-rounded.

Question 22

Soliloquy

Answer 22

• An act of speaking one’s thoughts aloud when by oneself or regardless of any hearers, especially by a character in a play.

Question 23

Foil

Answer 23

• A foil is a character that shows qualities that are in contrast with the qualities of another to highlight the traits of the other.
  ex. - While Romeo is a whimsical lover, Mercutio doesn’t see the big deal. In fact, he’s skeptical of love. Romeo is anything but, and it shows. Their opposite attitudes about love make them foil characters, and Mercutio’s “whatever” attitude works to show the depth of Romeo’s feelings.

Question 24

Static Character

Answer 24

• One that does not undergo important change in the course of the story, remaining essentially the same at the end.

Question 25

Foreshadow

Answer 25

• Be a warning or indication of (a future event).

Question 26

Verbal irony

Answer 26

• Verbal irony is a figure of speech. The speaker intends to be understood as meaning something that contrasts with the literal or usual meaning of what he says.
  ex. - a character stepping out into a hurricane and saying, “What nice weather we’re having!” (sarcasm pretty much)

Question 27

Iambic pentameter

Answer 27

• Iambic pentameter is a type of metric line used in traditional English poetry and verse drama. The term describes the rhythm, or meter, established by the words in that line; rhythm is measured in small groups of syllables called “feet”.
  ex. -As yet but knock, breathe, shine and seek to mend. Every other word in these two lines of poetry are stressed.

Question 28

Shakespearean Sonnet

Answer 28

• A poem with three quatrains, using a rhyme scheme of abab cdcd efef, followed by an ending couplet of two lines with a rhyme scheme of gg.

ex.- Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimmed.
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
Nor shall Death brag thou wand’rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st.
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Question 29

Internal Conflict

Answer 29

• Internal conflict’ refers to a character’s internal struggle. A character might struggle with an emotional problem such as fear of intimacy or abandonment, for example.

Question 30

Consonance

Answer 30

• The recurrence of similar sounds, especially consonants, in close proximity.
  ex. - Mike likes his new bike.

Question 31

Irony

Answer 31

• The expression of one’s meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect.
  ex. -two friends coming to a party in the same dress is a coincidence. But two friends coming to the party in the same dress after promising not to wear that dress would be situational irony