Shakespearean Features

A major division in a play like a chapter in a book. Can be sub-divided into scenes.

• Act
• Peripeteia or Reversal
• Linear Plot
• Catharsis

The conventional structure of plays in Shakespeare's period. Modern playwrights today prefer to use three-act structure.

• Five-act structure
• Point of Attack
• Monologue
• Character Foil

This is a term that comes from Aristotle's Poetics about tragedy and refers to the scene in which the tragic hero recognizes his mistake or gains some insight into the meaning of life before he dies at the end of the play.

• Anagnorisis or Recognition
• Resolution/ Denouement
• Peripeteia or Reversal
• Character Motivation

Words spoken by an actor directly to the audience, but not "heard" by the other characters on stage during a play.

• Aside
• Rising Action
• Point of Attack
• Climax

The planned movement of the actors on the stage as planned by the director to best execute the dialogue and action of a play.

• Blocking
• Scene
• Resolution/ Denouement
• Comic Relief

The purging of the feelings of pity and fear in the audience. According to Aristotle's Poetics, the audience should experience this at the end of a tragedy.

• Catharsis
• Situational Irony
• Rising Action
• Complication

Two characters who are in similar situations in the play, but they make different decisions. One often makes a wiser decision than the other while the other character's decision can lead to tragedy. The audience is meant to draw comparisons between the characters.

• Character Foil
• Soliloquy
• Scene
• Cosmic Irony, Irony of Fate

Includes the thoughts, desires, wishes, and will of the character to accomplish a specific task or attain a specific goal. This can lead the character to make mistakes or make wise decisions.

• Character Motivation
• Stage Direction
• Situational Irony
• Deus Ex Machina

The major turning point of the action in the plot of a play and the point of greatest tension in the work.

• Climax
• Staging
• Soliloquy
• Dialogue

This provides a moment of 'relief' from the drama of a play. Typically, these scenes parallel the drama they interrupt.

• Comic Relief
• Static Character
• Stage Direction
• Dramatic Irony