Shakespeare Terms

Question 1

Verse

Answer 1

Lines arranged in metrical patterns; rhythm

Question 2

Blank Verse

Answer 2

Speech of most of the upper class; un rhymes; main verse in all of Shakespearean plays; also called iambic pentameter

Question 3

Iambic pentameter

Answer 3

5 iambs (10 syllables)

Question 4

Prose

Answer 4

The speech of commoners; uses poetic devices but has no rhythm

Question 5

Soliloquy

Answer 5

One person speaking on stage; usually expresses thoughts/feelings

Question 6

Monologue

Answer 6

A speech made by a character to other characters, sometimes to a crowd

Question 7

Dramatic irony

Answer 7

Readers know something the character does not

Question 8

Verbal irony

Answer 8

Saying opposite of what is meant

Question 9

Situational irony

Answer 9

What happens is opposite of what is expected

Question 10

Structure of tragedy

Answer 10

1. Exposition (setting)
2. Exciting force (conflict introduced)
3. Rising Action (conflict develops - acts 1+2)
4. Climax (act 3)
5. Falling action (acts 4+5)
6. Denouement/Catastrophe (deaths)

Question 11

Catharsis

Answer 11

Powerful emotional experience which not only gives our natural feelings of pity and fear, but does so in a way which conduces rightful understanding and response to events in the human world

Question 12

Tragic Flaw

Answer 12

Tragic hero is an essentially good man who has a character weakness, a.k.a. the tragic flaw

Question 13

Foreshadowing

Answer 13

Describes when a piece of dialogue or action refers to events that will happen later in the play even though the characters have no prior knowledge, such events will occur 

Question 14

Puns

Answer 14

A joke based on the use of a word, or more than one word, that has more than one meeting, but the same sound 

Question 15

Metaphor

Answer 15

Comparison in which an object or person is directly linked to something else could be completely unrelated

Question 16

Oxymoron

Answer 16

Describes when two juxtaposed words have opposing or very diverse meanings

Question 17

Paradox

Answer 17

Statement or situation with seemingly contradictory components, but the combination of these components is indeed appropriate

Question 18

Assonance

Answer 18

Repetition of vowel sounds

Question 19

Alliteration

Answer 19

Repetition of consonant sounds (usually initial letters)

Question 20

Consonance

Answer 20

Repetition of consonant sounds within words

Question 21

Couplet

Answer 21

Two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme

Question 22

The great chain of being

Answer 22

Hierarchical universe ordained by God

Question 23

Shakespeare Sonnet

Answer 23

• 14 line poem, 3 quatrains, 1 rhyming couplet
• written in iambic pentameter
• quatrain: 4 line stanza

Question 24

Pathos

Answer 24

Quality of experience that stirs up emotions of pity, sympathy, and sorrow