Shakespeare Terms

Chorus

• a group who says things at the same time

• two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme; couplets often signal the EXIT of a character or end of a scene
  

• “unrhymed”-no rhyme at the end of lines

• words that are spoken by a character in a play to the audience or to another character but that are not supposed to be overheard by the others onstage
  

Verbal Irony

• the audience or reader knows something important that a character in a play or story does not know

• character who is used as a contrast to another character; writer sets off/intensifies the qualities of 2 characters this way

• a writer or speaker says one thing, but really means something completely different

• a speech by one character in a play

Pun 

• a speech by one character in a play

• a play on the multiple meanings of a word, or on two words that sound alike but have different meanings

• character who is used as a contrast to another character; writer sets off/intensifies the qualities of 2 characters this way

• humor added that lessens the seriousness of a plot
  

Blank

• “unrhymed”-no rhyme at the end of lines

• two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme; couplets often signal the EXIT of a character or end of a scene
  

• poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter

• character who does not change much in the course of a story

Couplet

• fourteen-line lyric poem that is usually written in iambic pentameter and that has one of several rhyme schemes

• a play, novel, or other narrative that depicts serious and important events in which the main character comes to an unhappy end

• two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme; couplets often signal the EXIT of a character or end of a scene
  

• character who is used as a contrast to another character; writer sets off/intensifies the qualities of 2 characters this way

In Shakespeare's plays, what role does the chorus serve?

• A group of dancers

• A single character who serves as a narrator

• A group of musicians

• A set of props

A sonnet is a 14 line poem with a regular rhyme scheme, ending in a ______.

• Rhyming couplet

• Soliloquy

• Metaphor

• Pun

What is the term for paired, opposite words, or an expression that combines contradictory ideas? (For example, when Romeo says, "brawling love" and "loving hate.")

• dramatic irony

• tragedy

• oxymoron

• tragic flaw

Give me a torch . . . Being but heavy, I will bear the light has a double meaning, which makes it a . . .

• pun

• drama

• comedy

• sonnet

Shakespeare often used a ___________at the end of scenes at the end of a long speech.

• sound effect

• musical interlude

• rhyming couplet

• soliloquy