Shakespearean Drama Vocabulary

tragedy

• a work in which the main character, or tragic hero, came to an unhappy ending.

• cleansing of emotions in the audience; the reason audience's enjoyed tragedies

• a writer's use of hints or clues to suggest what events will occur later in a work.

• joke playing with the different possible meanings of a word or the fact that there are words that sound alike but have different meanings.

tragic hero

• the main character who comes to a miserable end.

• a light, mildly humorous scene following a serious one.

• what appears true to one or more characters in a play is seen to be false by the audience.

• A character who acts as a contrast to another character

Catharsis

• cleansing of emotions in the audience; the reason audiences enjoy tragedies

• a light, mildly humorous scene following a serious one.

• a remark that a character makes in an undertone to the audience or another character but that others on stage are not supposed to hear.

• a way of organizing a play, similar to a chapter in a book; all Shakespeare plays have five acts

Chorus

• a group of performers who stand outside the action and comment on the events and characters in the play.

• the poor people who paid a penny to stand and watch a play

• Two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme

• a division of an act into smaller parts

Comic relief

• a light, mildly humorous scene following a serious one.

• cleansing of emotions in the audience; the reason audiences enjoy tragedies

• a work in which the main character, or tragic hero, came to an unhappy ending.

• A character who acts as a contrast to another character

Blank verse

• unrhymed iambic pentameter.

• a speech that a character makes while alone on stage, to reveal his or her thoughts to the audience

• a remark that a character makes in an undertone to the audience or another character but that others on stage are not supposed to hear.

• Two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme

Soliloquy

• a speech that a character makes while alone on stage, to reveal his or her thoughts to the audience.

• A long speech made by one performer or by one person in a group.

• the introduction to a play or an act

• a remark that a character makes in an undertone to the audience or another character but that others on stage are not supposed to hear.

Aside

• a remark that a character makes in an undertone to the audience or another character but that others on stage are not supposed to hear.

• a speech that a character makes while alone on stage, to reveal his or her thoughts to the audience.

• a remark that a character makes in an undertone to the audience or another character but that others on stage are not supposed to hear.

• a joke playing with the different possible meanings of a word or the fact that there are words that sound alike but have different meanings.

Dramatic irony

• what appears true to one or more characters in a play is seen to be false by the audience.

• a line of verse with five metrical feet, each consisting of one short (or unstressed) syllable followed by one long (or stressed) syllable

• A 14 line poem written in iambic pentameter, ending in a couplet

• a writer's use of hints or clues to suggest what events will occur later in a work.

Foreshadowing

• a writer's use of hints or clues to suggest what events will occur later in a work.

• a light, mildly humorous scene following a serious one.

• a work in which the main character, or tragic hero, came to an unhappy ending.

• cleansing of emotions in the audience; the reason audiences enjoy tragedies