Vocab for Macbeth/The Empress/Jekyll and Hyde Flashcards
Valiant / Righteous
possessing or showing courage or determination. Doing something for the greater good.
Facade
a deceptive outward appearance - faking what you are like or who you are
Deception
making someone believe something is true or real when it is in fact a lie or false.
Bravado
a bold manner or a show of boldness intended to impress or intimidate (think Lady Macbeth at the start; Macbeth at the very end)
Equivocation / equivocate
to bend the truth so that you are NOT lying but what you have said can be very deceptive.
Machiavellian
cunning, scheming, and unscrupulous, especially in politics. Someone who does not care who gets hurt, or what damage is done if they get what they want.
Subverts
(in literature) will portray what we expect as something unexpected, and have us (as readers) examine the truth of what things are like for ourselves. This is often done with the hope to challenge the reader/audience’s expectations.
Consequence
the positive or negative outcome of an action as a direct result of what was done.
Tyrant / Tyrannical
a cruel and oppressive ruler. Or, a person exercising power or control in an extreme and unreasonable way.
Regicide
to kill a king
Treason
to act in a way that goes against the wishes, demands or rules of a government. It can also mean to try to harm or take down a king/government.
Rightful (heir to the throne)
full of right, the only true version of a thing (EG: Malcolm being the rightful heir to the throne)
Remorse / Guilt / Regret
to feel terrible about things you have done and possibly to wish you had not done them or could avoid the consequences of what you have done.
Corrupt
act dishonestly in return for money or personal gain OR to be evil or to act without morality. In can be a verb whereby something infects other things and ‘corrupts’ them (usually making them worse)
Soliloquy
a SINGLE person giving a speech unable to be heard by any other character
Monologue
a longer speech given in front of another character as part of a conversation.
Aside
a short remark given only to the audience that usually reveals a character’s inner feelings.
Stage directions
statements in italics - written by the playwright - that detail critical set information and how characters should act - what type of voice to use or important movements.
Dramatic irony
where the characters on the stage do not know something that the audience know
Tragedy
a play dealing with tragic events and having an unhappy ending, especially one concerning the downfall of the main character.
Tragic hero
the central character of a play, film, etc., depicted as a noble figure (either meaning rich or well respected EG a lord or Prince etc) who experiences a tragic downfall in part due to their own actions.
Hamartia / Fatal flaw
a personality flaw that speeds up the tragic hero’s downfall examples are: greed, ambition or jealousy.
Writer’s intent
What the writer aims to show / teach the audience
Prejudice
dislike, hostility, or unjust behaviour deriving from preconceived and unfounded opinions
Exploitation
the action or fact of treating someone unfairly in order to benefit from their work.
Coercion
the practice of persuading someone to do something by using force or threats.
Naive
showing a lack of experience, wisdom, or judgement.
Disillusioned
disappointed in someone or something that a person discovers to be less good than they had believed.
Subservience
○ willingness to obey others unquestioningly.
○ the condition of being less important than something else.
Hierarchy
a system in which members of an organisation or society are ranked according to relative status or authority.
Marginalised
treated as insignificant or pushed to the sidelines.
Oppression
prolonged cruel or unjust treatment or abuse of authority
Form
the type of writing it is for example, monologue, soliloquy, aside, conversation or song.
Cross Cutting
editing or theatrical technique where both scenes are shown so that it can appear as if you are looking at both at the same time.
Subversion
(in literature) will portray two separate ideals clashing, and have us (as readers) examine them for ourselves. With the hope to challenge the reader/audience’s expectations.
Stage directions
Statements in italics that detail critical set information and how characters should act
Characterisation
how a fictional character is built up; features of their description; what they say; what they do
Duality of man
the idea that all humans are good and bad inside and not either a ‘good’ or a ‘bad person’
Devolution / devolve
the opposite of evolution, becoming less human
Primitive
a person or idea which is in an early stage in the evolutionary or historical development of something
Repression / Repress
to push down a thought or emotion of your own - to pretend like it is not there and you are not aware of it.
A gentleman
a status symbol in the Victorian Era. Gentlemen were rich upper class men who were (believed to be) respectable, polite, kind and ‘the best’ of what a person can be.
Reputation
what other people think and know about you. In the Victorian times it was very important to have a good reputation.
Civilised (antonym uncivilised)
a civilised person is polite and well-mannered; a civilised society has rules and is ordered and organised. To be uncivilised means to be out of order, chaotic and not law abiding.
Transformation
a complete change in the character or shape of something or someone
Hypocritical/ Hypocrisy (N)
when you say one thing but actually do the opposite.
Morality
how good or bad you are.
Social class
your place in society based on your economic status
Macabre
something disturbing because it is to do with death
Uncanny
something that is both familiar and unfamiliar at the same time
Grotesque
something ugly or distorted or stretched beyond appropriate to a shocking degree
Secretive
to hide something and keep it a secret from other people
Deceptive / Deceive
acting in a way to trick other people into thinking something else other than the truth.
Form
J+H
what ‘type’ of writing the chapter is: a letter, confession, told from the person centred view of Utterson
Novella
a short novel but longer than a short story
Epistolary
a novel / novella formed in part by letters written by characters
Zoomorphism
comparing a human to an animal.
Narrative perspective
whose point of view the writing is from
Symbolism
- using images to represent a bigger idea - for example, Jekyll’s cane in Jekyll and Hyde represents ‘being a gentleman’, the fog in London represents secrets and hidden mysteries.
Pathetic fallacy
the weather matches the mood or atmosphere
Motif
an idea that is used many times in a piece of writing
Gothic
a genre that focuses on unnerving the reader and uses isolated settings and supernatural characters
Mystery
a genre that focuses on a crime or mystery that is solved as a detective figure works out clues
