aside

1
aside

• Words that are spoken by a character in a play to
  the audience or to another character, but that
  are not supposed to be overheard by the others on
  the stage.

Shall I hear more, or shall I speak at this?
2
dramatic irony

• When the readers or audience know something that
  a character does NOT know which makes that
  characters words or actions funny in a twisted
  sort of way.

When Capulet tells Paris that Capulet is sure
Juliet will be happy to marry Paris, his comments
are funny to the audience because we know Juliet
has already married Romeo, so she will NOT be
happy to marry Paris.
3
foil

• Character who is used as a contrast to another
  character.

Mercutio is a foil for Romeo because of
Mercutio's constant joking and low opinion of
love.
Romeo is a lover not a fighter. Mercutio is
a fighter not a lover.
A character who is a foil, is like the metal
behind the gem that is used to intensify its
brilliance.
4
apostrophe
Words that are spoken to a person who is absent
or imaginary, or to an object or abstract idea.
O Romeo, Romeo, Wherefore Art Thou Romeo?
Death, lie thou there.
5
oxymoron
A figure of speech in which two words with
opposing meanings are used together intentionally
for effect.
6
pun

• a joke which comes from a play on words

As Mercutio is dying he says, "Ask for me
tomorrow, and you shall find me a grave man.
7
Imagery

• language that appeals to the senses that create
  vivid images

8
monologue
a speech by one character that is spoken to
another character or characters
9
soliloquy

• a speech in which a sole (single) character says
  his or her thoughts aloud, usually while he or
  she is alone on stage.

At the beginning of the balcony scene, Juliet
believes she is alone, so she talks to herself
about her love for Romeo.
10
paradox

• a statement that seems to contradict itself,
  but is true.

Romeo says that love is "A choking gall, and a
preserving sweet during a conversation with
Benvolio. (Something technically be sweet and
bitter at the same time.)
11
personification

• figure of speech which gives human qualities to
  an object, an animal, or an idea

When Lord Capulet said to Paris, "The earth hath
swallowed all my hopes but she he implied that
the earth was human-like by saying the earth had
a mouth.
12
tragedy

• a dramatic work which presents the downfall of a
  good character brought about by himself.

We like Romeo, but because he does not slow down
to carefully think through his desires and plans,
his actions lead to many deaths and his own
suicide.
13
tragic flaw

• a trait (usually beyond the character's ability
  to control) that causes a character's downfall
  that may result in death

Romeo and Juliet both suffer from the tragic flaw
of impulsiveness.
14
dramatic conventions

• certain practices or methods that are accepted by
  a reader or an audience even though they are not
  realistic.

In Shakespeare's time, most plays were written
in poetry, even though people don't really talk
that way.
If an actor entered the stage from the trap door
in the platform, everyone in assumed the
character was coming from HELL.
15
allusion

• an indirect reference to another literary work or
  to a famous person, place or event.

Romeo claimed Rosaline wouldnt let herself fall
in love when he told Benvolio, "She'll not be
hit with Cupid's arrow.
16
couplet

• a pair of rhyming lines usually the same length
  and meter.

For sweet love rememberd such wealth brings That
then I scorn to change my state with kings.
17
alliteration

• The repetition of an initial consonant sound.

The slick, slimy snake slithered slowly across
the sizzling sidewalk.
Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
Sally sells seashells by the seashore.
18
iambic pentameter

• A line of poetry that has 10 syllables.
• Each lightly-stressed syllable is followed by a
  heavily-stressed syllable

I hope
that I
can go
to school
today.
19
blank verse

• Poetry that does not rhyme, but uses iambic
  pentameter as its meter.
• I wish I were a frog on lily pads.
• Then I could learn about the warming sun.
• And bask in golden sun on leaves all day.

20
metaphor

• a comparison of two things without using the
  words like or as.

When Romeo saw Juliet standing on her balcony he
said, Juliet is the sun.
21
simile

• a comparison of two things using like or as.

Tears flowed down his cheeks like a waterfall.
She laughed like a hyena!
Mark was as cute as a kitten and as tall as a
tree.
22
foreshadowing

• When an author includes hints about what will
  happen later in the story.

The prologue foreshadows the events of the play.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes  A
pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life
Whole misadventured piteous overthrows  Do with
their death bury their parents' strife.
23
comic relief

• a humorous scene, incident, or speech that is
  included in a serious play to break the tension

After the serious love scene between Romeo and
Juliet, at the Capulets party, Mercutio and
Benvolio are a bit drunk and they clown around as
they look for Romeo.
24
hyperbole
a figure of speech in which the truth is
exaggerated.
Juliet tells Romeo, "A thousand times good
night.
25
chorus

• in Greek tragedy, the chorus was a group of
  actors who commented on the actions of the
  characters

• In Romeo and Juliet, a single actor stepped on
  stage, before the main action began, and
  summarized what would happen during the show by
  speaking the Prologue.

26
Sonnet

• a fourteen-line lyric poem usually written in
  iambic pentameter. The English or Shakespearean
  sonnet consist of three quatrains (four-line
  stanzas) and a couplet (two lines), usually
  rhyming abab cdcd efef gg.

Two households, both alike in dignity,
    In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
    From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
    Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
    From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
    A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their
life     Whole misadventured piteous overthrows
    Do with their death bury their parents'
strife.     The fearful passage of their
death-mark'd love,     And the continuance of
their parents' rage,     Which, but their
children's end, nought could remove,     Is now
the two hours' traffic of our stage     The
which if you with patient ears attend,     What
here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.