Romeo and Juliet Literary Terms

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Run-on line

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A line of poetry that ends with no punctuation, allowing the thought to continue into the next line.

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Tragedy

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A play of serious actions that ends unhappily, often involving the downfall of the main character.

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Iambic pentameter

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A type of poetry with ten syllables per line, alternating between unstressed and stressed syllables.

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Blank verse

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Poetry that is written in iambic meter but does not rhyme.

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Dramatic irony

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A situation in a play where the audience knows something that a character does not.

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Couplet

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A pair of consecutive lines of poetry that usually rhyme and have the same meter.

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Dramatic foil

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A character who contrasts with another character, usually the protagonist, to highlight particular qualities.

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Sonnet

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A 14-line poem, typically written in iambic pentameter, with various rhyme schemes.

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Tragic flaw

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A character trait that leads to the downfall of the protagonist in a tragedy.

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Theme

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The central idea or message conveyed in a literary work.