| Act | main division of a drama |
| Aliteration | repetition of the same initial sound in two or more consecutive words |
| allusion | reference back to something in the past |
| aside | brief remark made my character intended to be heard by the audience, not the other characters |
| comic relief | humorous scene or speech in a drama that is meant to provide relief from the emotion and intensity of the drama |
| Foreshadowing | hint of what is to come in the story |
| imagery | term used to describe words or phrases that appeal to the five senses |
| irony | contrast between what is and what appears to be |
| metaphor | figure of speech that implies or states a comparison |
| oxymoron | contrast of two contradictory terms for the sake of emphasis |
| personification | figure of speech where human qualities are attributed to inanimate objects |
| scene | small unit of a play in which there is no shift or locale or time |
| simile | figure of speech that states a comparison between two unlike things which are similar in one aspect |
| soliloquy | speech given by a character alone on the stage |
| tragedy | type of drama of human conflict which ends in defeat and suffering |
Romeo and Juliet Glossary Terms
September 6, 2019