Hamlet Vocabulary

Aside A brief remark by an actor directly to the audience, which is not “heard” by the other characters on stage during a play.
Comic Relief The use of a comic scene to interrupt a succession of intense tragic dramatic moments. These scenes typically parallel the tragic action that the scenes interrupt.
Conflict The struggle in a work of literature
Denouncement Portion of plot that reveal the final outcome of a conflict or a solution of mysteries.
Foil A character who contrasts and parallels the main character.
Foreshadowing To hint at a future course of action.
Hubris Great pride that bring about the downfall of character.
Monologue A long speech delivered by one character
Soliloquy A recitation in a play in which a character agree to be thinking out loud, thereby communicating his inner thoughts and feelings.
Tragedy A form of literature that depicts the downfall of the leading character.
Tragic Flaw A weakness or limitation of a character, resulting in fall of tragic hero.
Tragic Hero A privileged, exalted character of high repute, who by virtue of a tragic flaw and fate, suffers a fall from glory into suffering.
Imagery Representation through language of sensory experience.
Inversion Changing order usual of word
Irony A contradiction of incongruity between appearance or expectations and reality
Dramatic Irony When the audience or another character has knowledge of present or future circumstances of which a character is ignorant.
Situtational Irony A situation in which the opposite of what is exacted occurs
Verbal Irony Characters say the opposite of what they mean
Metaphor A figure of speech in which something is directly or indirectly compared to something else
Motif A unifying element in a text, especially any recurrent image, symbol, or theme.
Paradox A statement that seems self contradictory or nonsensical on the surface but that, on closer examination, maybe been to contain an underlying truth
Pun A play on words that capitalizes on a similarity of spelling and/or pronunciation.
Theme The main idea or ideas implied or stated by a literary work.
Apostrophe A figure of speech in which the speaker directly addresses a person who is dead or not physically present, an imaginary person or entity, something inhuman, or a place or concept.
Allusion Reference to a historical event or to mythical biblical or literary figure
Anaphora Repetition of a term at the beginning of word groups covering one after the other.
Metatheatres A level of communication in which the theater talks about itself as theatrical.
Antithesis Juxtaposition of 2 words, phrases, clauses, or sentences contrasted or opposed in meaning in such a way as to give emphasis to contrasting ideas
Aphorism Short, often witty statement measuring an observation or a universal truth.
Euphemism Substitution of mild or less word or phrase for harsh or blunt one, as in the use of “pass away” instead of “die”
Hyperbole Exaggeration; overstatement
Litotes Understatement
Metonomy Where 1 thing is represented by another that is commonly and often physically associated with it
Simile Comparing one thing to an unlike thing, using “like” or “as”
Synecdoche Substitution of a part to stand for the whole, or the whole to stand for the part
Alliteration The repetition of beginning consonant sounds.
Iamb An unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable.
Pentameter Verse written in 5 – foot line.
Syllepsis A single word used once with 2 different meanings.
Chiasmus inversion of word from the first half of a statement in the second half
Scasion Analysis of poetic meter
August 24, 2019