Upgrade to remove ads
Busy. Please wait.
Log in with Clever
or

show password
Forgot Password?

Don't have an account?  Sign up 
Sign up using Clever
or

Username is available taken
show password


Make sure to remember your password. If you forget it there is no way for StudyStack to send you a reset link. You would need to create a new account.
Your email address is only used to allow you to reset your password. See our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.


Already a StudyStack user? Log In

Reset Password
Enter the associated with your account, and we'll email you a link to reset your password.

Literary Terms for Romeo and Juliet

        Help!  

Literary Term
Definition
alliteration   repetition of initial consomant sounds  
🗑
allusion   an indirect reference to a person, place, or event in literature that would be widely understood (usually from the Bible, mythology, or history)  
🗑
aside   dramatic convention by which an actor directly addresses the audience but is not supposed to be heard by the other actors on the stage  
🗑
blank verse   unrhymed iambic pentameter  
🗑
comedy   a play which ends happily  
🗑
comic relief   humorous speeches and incidents in teh course of the serious action of a tragedy; frequently comic relief widens and enriches the tragic significance of the work  
🗑
conceit   unusual comparison between two very different things (extended or exaggerated metaphor)  
🗑
couplet   a pair of successive verses which rhyme  
🗑
foil   character whose treaits are the opposite of another character and who thus points up strengths and weaknesses of the other character  
🗑
foreshadowing   the use of hints or clues to reveal future events  
🗑
groundlings   the poor class of people who stood around the platform of the stage to see the plays  
🗑
the heavens   the turret, the huts, and the canopy area of Shakespeare's stage; usually decorated with signs of the zodiac  
🗑
hell   the area below the stage  
🗑
hyperbole   conscious exaggeration used to heighten effect. Not intended literally, hyperbole is often humorous  
🗑
iambic pentameter   a line consisting of 5 feet (iambs) with an unaccented syllable followed by an accented syllable  
🗑
imagery   the use of images, especially in a pattern of related images, often figurative to create a strong unified sensory impression  
🗑
verbal irony   to say one thing and mean the opposite  
🗑
dramatic irony   a reader knows something that a character in the story does not  
🗑
situational irony   a discrepancy is shown between what the audience expects and what actually happens, something unexpected  
🗑
metaphor   a comparison of two things, often unrelated  
🗑
oxymoron   rhetorical antithesis, juxtaposing two contradictory terms  
🗑
pathos   qualities of a fictional work which stimulates emotions of pity, sorrow, or tenderness  
🗑
personification   figurative language in which inanimate objects, animals, ideas, or abstractions are endowed with human traits or human forms  
🗑
pit   the sunken area in front of the stage  
🗑
poetic justice   ideal that judgment that rewards virtue and punishes vice  
🗑
prologue   that which comes before  
🗑
pun   humorous use of a word to suggest two literal meanings at one time  
🗑
pyramid plot line   the acton of Shakespeare's plays follows the silhouette of a pyramid with the climax coming in the third act, characters and conflicts in first act, rising action in second act, falling action fourth act and resolution of conflicts last act  
🗑
simile   figurative comparison of two thins, often dissimilar, using the connecting words "like" or "as"  
🗑
soliloquy   a character (usually alone on stage) speaking his innermost thoughts aloud  
🗑
sonnet   14 lines of poetry rhyming: ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. Usually written in iambic pentameter  
🗑
tragedy   representations of serious actions which turn out disastrously. Major character meets a disastrous end.  
🗑


   

Review the information in the table. When you are ready to quiz yourself you can hide individual columns or the entire table. Then you can click on the empty cells to reveal the answer. Try to recall what will be displayed before clicking the empty cell.
 
To hide a column, click on the column name.
 
To hide the entire table, click on the "Hide All" button.
 
You may also shuffle the rows of the table by clicking on the "Shuffle" button.
 
Or sort by any of the columns using the down arrow next to any column heading.
If you know all the data on any row, you can temporarily remove it by tapping the trash can to the right of the row.

 
Embed Code - If you would like this activity on your web page, copy the script below and paste it into your web page.

  Normal Size     Small Size show me how
Created by: Lidiak
Popular English Vocabulary sets