Romeo and Juliet Literary Terms

Play, novel, or other narrative that depicts serious and important events in which the main character comes to an unhappy ending.

• tragedy

• sonnet

• poetry

• exposition

Attitude a writer takes toward the audience, a subject, or a character.

• alliteration

• theme

• allusion

• tone

Tags

CCSS.RL.11-12.3

CCSS.RL.6.3

CCSS.RL.7.3

CCSS.RL.8.3

CCSS.RL.9-10.3

Central idea of a work of literature.

• tone

• tragedy

• theme

• irony

Tags

CCSS.RI. 9-10.9

CCSS.RI.11-12.9

CCSS.RL.11-12.2

CCSS.RL.8.2

CCSS.RL.9-10.2

Person, place, thing, or event that stands for itself and for something beyond itself as well.

• allusion

• symbol

• personification

• foreshadowing

Tags

CCSS.RL.11-12.3

CCSS.RL.6.3

CCSS.RL.7.3

CCSS.RL.8.3

CCSS.RL.9-10.3

Uncertainty or anxiety the reader feels about what is going to happen next.

• suspense

• imagery

• flashback

• situational irony

Fourteen line lyric poem that is usually written in iambic pentameter and that has one of several rhyme schemes. Lyric poetry does not tell a story but is aimed only at expressing a speaker’s emotions or thoughts.

• foil

• inversion

• rhythm

• sonnet

Tags

CCSS.RL.11-12.13

CCSS.RL.8.10

CCSS.RL.8.4

CCSS.RL.8.5

CCSS.RL.9-10.9

An unusually long speech in which a character who is onstage alone expresses his or her thoughts aloud.

• soliloquy

• oxymoron

• couplet

• sonnet

Tags

CCSS.RL.11-12.10

CCSS.RL.8.10

CCSS.RL.8.3

CCSS.RL.8.7

CCSS.RL.9-10.10. RL.11-12.10

Figure of speech that makes a comparison between two unlike things, using a word such as like, as, resembles, or than.

• symbol

• simile

• pun

• metaphor

Tags

CCSS.RL.11-12.3

CCSS.RL.6.3

CCSS.RL.7.3

CCSS.RL.8.3

CCSS.RL.9-10.3

The time and place of a story or play.

• tone

• flashback

• suspense

• setting

Tags

CCSS.RL.11-12.3

CCSS.RL.6.3

CCSS.RL.7.3

CCSS.RL.8.3

CCSS.RL.9-10.3

Musical quality in language produced by repetition.

• rhythm

• dramatic irony

• rhyme

• theme