Shakespearean Literary Devices

Question 0

Aside

Answer 0

Comments heard by the audience but not by other characters on stage.
Usually used for an ironic effect

Question 1

Allusion

Answer 1

Reference to another literary work or character (Pandora’s box)

Question 2

Blank verse

Answer 2

The form of poetry in unrhymed lines that sounds similar to everyday speech.
Written in iambic pentameter.

Question 3

Couplet

Answer 3

Two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme.

Question 4

Comic relief

Answer 4

Light-hearted scenes that relieve the overall tension in a tragedy

Question 5

Foreshadowing

Answer 5

Literary technique used to give clues that usually warn of bad events to come

Question 6

Foil

Answer 6

A character who acts the opposite to another character

Question 7

Oxymoron

Answer 7

A pair of words that contradict one another (pretty ugly)

Question 8

Pun

Answer 8

A “joke” that makes use of two different meanings of a word or of two words that sound alike

Question 9

Soliloquy

Answer 9

A speech a character gives when he/she is alone on stage. It’s purpose is to let the audience know what the character is thinking.