Literary and Dramatic Elements

1. Literary and Dramatic Elements Definitions and Examples in Romeo and Juliet

2. What is drama? • A story that is written to be acted for an aidience • Elements include exposition, complications (rising action), climax, and resolution

3. What is tragedy? • A play that depicts serious and important events in which the main character(s) comes to an unhappy end • The character’s downfall may be caused by a character flaw or by forces that are beyond human control

4. What is exposition? • The beginning part of a plot that gives information about the characters and their problems or conflicts • How the playwright lets us know what is going on in the story

5. What is scene design? • Sets, lights, costumes, props, all of which bring a play to life on stage • Furnishings and scenery that suggest the time and place of the action

6. What is meter? • The regular patter of stressed and unstressed syllables in poetry • Meter provides the rhythm of a line

7. What is iambic pentameter? • Line of poetry that contains five iambs • Iambs are units of measure with an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable • In Shakespeare, the main characters often speak in poetry and use iambic pentameter, with the “common” people speaking prose

8. What is blank verse? • Poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter • Most of Shakespeare’s plays use blank verse, especially when the main characters are speaking • Contrast to prose

9. What is a soliloquy? • A long speech in which a character who is onstage alone expresses his or her thoughts aloud • The audience overhears the character’s private thoughts • Contrast to a monologue, which is any extended speech by one person, often expressed to another person

10. What is an aside? • Words that are spoken by a character in a play to the audience or to another character but that are not supposed to be heard by the others on the stage • Often noted through stage directions (italics on text of play)

11. What is dialogue? • The conversation between characters in a story or a play • Helps audience learn about the characters and move the plot forward

12. What is a couplet? • Two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme • Shakespeare often uses couplets to end important speeches or a scene (signal to audience)

13. What is dramatic irony? • When the audience knows something important that a character does not know

14. What is foreshadowing? • The use of clues to hint at events that will occur later in the plot • Used to build suspense and anxiety in the audience