| pun | a play on words, “we’ll not carry coals” “no, for then we should be colliers” “while you live, draw your neck out of a collar” |
| oxymoron | putting two contradictory words together: “serious vanity; brawling love; loving hate” |
| irony | a difference between appearance and reality; the two households are dignified, but in a violent feud. |
| foreshadowing | hints at the events to occur later in a story: Romeo dreams a dream that the events at the party will lead to his untimely death |
| aside | a statement made by a character in a play not by the other characters on the stage — Samson asks Gregory: “Is the law on our side if I say ‘aye’?” |
| sonnet | a fourteen-line poem, usually in iambic pentameter: the prologue to the play – “Two households, both alike in dignity…” |
| monologue | a lengthy speech in which a character speaks to other characters: Capulet’s long speech to Paris about the feast tonight: “Tonight we hold an old accustomed feast…” |
| Prologue | The first words of the play – an opening sonnet that serves as an introduction. “Two households, both alike in dignity”; or Act 2: “Now old desire doth in his deathbed lie…” |
| Quatrain | A set of 4 rhymed lines (abab or abba, or abcb) |
| Couplet | A set of 2 rhymed lines (aa, bb, etc.): “The which, if you with patient ears attend/ What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.” |
| Drama | fiction represented in performance – an audience watches: Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, The Simpsons, MI4, Wicked, etc. |
| Comedy | a drama that ends happily, like with a marriage: Much Ado About Nothing, R&J first 2 acts |
| Tragedy | A drama where main character(s) are brought to ruin or sorrow due to a character flaw or error in judgment. Romeo and Juliet, Oedipus Rex, Macbeth, Othello |
| Soliloquy | A speech in a play that is spoken alone; representing character’s inner thoughts – Romeo’s “What light through yonder window breaks?” below the balcony |
| Dramatic irony | When the audience knows something the character does not know: when Romeo can hear everything Juliet says on the balcony when she thinks she’s alone |
| Irony | The opposite of what is expected – a twist: it’s ironic that fate brings together a Capulet and Montague to fall in love |
| Iambic | A beat with an unstressed followed by a stressed syllable: “two HOUSEholds BOTH aLIKE in DIGniTY” |
| Pentameter | A repetition of a rhythm five times in a line. “from FORTH / the FA / tal LOINS / of THESE / two FOES” |
| Classical Allusion | Reference to a Greek or Roman myth or god: Mercutio says to Romeo, “You’re a lover – borrow cupid’s wings…” |
| Simile | Imaginative comparison of two unlike things using the words “like” or “as” — Friar says that “darkness like a drunkard reels.” |
| Metaphor | Imaginative comparison of two unlike things, one spoken of as if it were the same as the other (not using “like” or “as”) – Friar says the morning is “checkering the eastern skies with streaks of light,” referring to the clouds as a checkerboard. |
| Personification | Language that gives nonhuman things human-like qualities: Capulet says that “Death is my son-in-law.” |
| Stage Directions | Instructions written into the play in italics, such as for exits, entrances, and specific actions and ways of saying lines. |
| Blank Verse | Poetic lines of the play that have a set rhythm but do not rhyme — Shakespeare uses blank verse in iambic pentameter for his upper class characters |
Romeo and Juliet: term examples
November 6, 2019