| Alliteration | Repetition of initial consonant sounds. Usually gives emphasis, imitates sound, or gives musical effect. Ex. “From forth the fatal loins of these two foes; a pair of star cross’d lovers take their life.” |
| Allusion | Reference to a well-known person, place, event, literary work, or work of art. Ex. “But all so soon as the all-cheering sun should in the farthest east begin to draw the shady curtains from Aurora’s bed.” |
| Apostrophe | Speaker addresses someone absent, dead, or inanimate. . .Ex. “O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?” |
| Aside | Short speech delivered by an actor in a play, usually directed to an audience and presumed inaudible to the other actors. Ex. “Shall I hear more or shall I speak at this?” |
| Blank verse | Poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter lines. Doesn’t rhyme. Ex. “Put up your swords, you know not what you do.” |
| Dramatic irony | Contradiction between what a character thinks and what the reader/audience knows to be true. Ex. |
| Flat character | Shows only one trait. Ex. Tybalt, Paris |
| Foil character/dramatic foil | Character who provides contrast to another character. Ex. Romeo and Benvolio |
| Iambic pentameter | Foot with one unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable, as in “again.”Ex. |
| Metaphor | Figure of speech which one thing is spoken as though it were something else. It implies a comparison between them. Ex. “If I profane with my unworthiest hand this holy shrine. . .” |
| Monologue | A speech by one character in a play, story, or poem. |
| Oxymoron | Figure of speech which two ideas of opposite meaning are combined to form an expressive phrase. Ex. “Damned saint,an honorable villain!” |
| Personification | Type of figurative language which a nonhuman subject is given human characteristics. |
| Rhyme scheme | Regular pattern of rhyming words in a poem |
| Round character | Shows many different traits – faults and virtues. |
| Simile | Figure of speech which like or as is used to make a comparison between two basically unlike ideas. |
| Soliloquy | Long speech expressing thoughts of a character alone on stage. |
| Symbolism | Anything that stands for/represents something else. An object that serves as a symbol has it’s own meaning but also represents abstract ideas. |
| Tragedy | Work of literature, especially a play, that results in a catastrophe for the main character. Tragedy causes fear and pity. |
Romeo and Juliet literary terms
November 11, 2019