Unit 4 Vocabulary

Unit 4 Vocabulary Drama: The Shakespearean Tragedy

Drama • A play written for stage, radio, film, or television; usually about a serious topic or situation

Tragedy • A dramatic play that tells the story of a character (or characters), usually of a noble birth, who meets an untimely and unhappy death or downfall, often because of a specific character flaw or twist of fate

Tragic hero • An archetypal hero based on the Greek concept of tragedy; the tragic hero has a flaw that makes him vulnerable to downfall or death • Greed • Rage • Lust • Mental illness

Theatrical Elements • Elements employed by dramatists and directors to tell a story on stage. • Costumes • Makeup • Props • Set • Acting choices

Interpretation • The evaluation and critical analysis of a work • Through a given lens (Feminist, Marxist, etc.)

Metacognition • The ability to know and be aware of one’s own thought processes; self-reflection

Monologue • A dramatic speech delivered by a single character in a play

Protagonist • The central character (or characters) in a work of literature; the one who is involved in the main conflict in the plot

Diction • An author’s choice of words

Imagery • The use of sensory details to convey ideas

Metaphor • The direct comparison of two unlike things (no use of ‘like’ or ‘as’)

Hyperbole • Over-exaggeration for a specific effect (such as humor)

Allusion • A reference to a well-known person, place, literary work, work of art, event, etc.

Personification • A figure of speech (figurative language) that gives human qualities to an animal, object, or idea

Character Foil • A character whose actions or thoughts are juxtaposed against those of a major character in order to highlight key attributes of the major character

Dramatic Irony • A literary device that exploits readers’ expectations • The reader or audience knows more about the circumstances or future events in a story than the characters within it • Different from verbal irony or situational irony

Theme • The central message about life or human nature in a work

Blank verse • Unrhymed verse

Heroic couplet • A couplet written in iambic pentameter

Old English • The form of English spoken by the Anglo-Saxons from the 5th – 11th centuries

Old English examples

Middle English • The form of English spoken throughout most of Britain from the 12th – 15th centuries • Forrþrihhtanan se time commþattureDrihhtinwolldebenborenniþissmiddellærdforr all mannkinnenedehe chæshimmsonekinnessmenn all swillkesumm he wolldeand whær he wolldeborennben he chæs all att hiss wille. • No standardized spelling or grammar • As soon as the time camethat our Lord wantedbe born in this middle-earthfor all mankind sake,at once he chose kinsmen for himself,all just as he wanted,and he decided that he would be bornexactly where he wished.

Modern English • The current form of English spoken from the 16th century to the present • Early modern (Shakespeare) • Late modern (present-day)

Elizabethan English • The common-day English spoken by Shakespeare and his contemporaries (The “Queen’s English”)

Soliloquy • A long speech delivered by an actor alone on the stage • All soliloquies are monologues • Not all monologues are soliloquies

Symbolism • The use of anything (object, animal, event, person, or place) to represent itself and stand for something else on a figurative level

Oxymoron • The juxtaposition of two opposite things; words that would appear to contradict each other • “jumbo shrimp” • “honest politician” • “loving hate”

Alliteration • The repetition of initial consonant sounds in words that are close together

Iambic Pentameter • A rhythm characterized by 5 meters (groups) of the unstressed+stressed foot

Sonnet • The Shakespearean sonnet is characterized by 14 lines written in iambic pentameter, following the ABAB CDCD EFEF GG rhyme scheme

Unit 4 Vocabulary