Understanding Shakespeare Literary Terms Definitions Understanding Shakespeare Terms
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Understanding Shakespeare Literary Terms & Definitions
Understanding Shakespeare Terms & Definitions
BARDOLOGY Understanding Shakespeare Terms & Definitions
1. Elizabethan • An adjective describing any person or thing dating from the reign of Elizabeth I in England (1558– 1603). • During Queen Elizabeth’s reign, London became a cultural and commercial center where learning and literature thrived.
2. Soliloquy A speech given by a character alone on stage, used to reveal his or her private thoughts and feelings. Among other things, soliloquies often help an audience understand a character’s motivation. • Examples: • Hamlet’s “to be or not to be” is perhaps the world’s most famous soliloquy.
3. Aside When a character directly addresses the audience or, occasionally, when a character makes a remark to one other character on stage that is intended only for that character and no one else on stage can hear it.
4. Apostrophe • A literary device in which someone directly addresses an inanimate object or someone who is either dead or simply not there.
5. Anastrophe • Inversion of the usual syntactical order of words for rhetorical effect. • A figure of speech in which the natural word order is inverted. • • • How to sound instantly Shakespearean! I shall persuade you! Persuade you, I shall! I went to the store. To the store, I did go! It doesn’t matter to me, but the judge might think you are a liar. • It matters not to me, but to the judge a liar you may be!
Yoda-speak (aka Anastrophe) • "When 900 years old you reach, look as good you will not. " • "Ready are you? What know you of ready? For eight hundred years have I trained Jedi. My own counsel will I keep on who is to be trained. . . This one a long time have I watched. . . Never his mind on where he was. "
Iamb Re/BEL
6. Iambic Pentameter "But, /soft! what/ light through/yon der/win dow /breaks? A poetic meter in which each line consists of five iambs. An iamb is a poetic foot in which an unstressed syllable is followed by a stressed one.
7. Blank Verse • Poetry written in unrhymed, iambic pentameter. Shakespeare wrote primarily in Blank Verse. "But, soft! /what light/through yon/der window breaks?
8. Foil • A character in a story who contrasts with the main character, usually to highlight one of their attributes. • Cassius is conniving and manipulative in equal proportion to Brutus’ unsuspecting naiveté and Pollyannaish view of the world.
9. Metonymy A figure of speech in which a thing or concept is called not by its own name but rather by the name of something associated in meaning with it. • Examples: • “The business does not take plastic, you must pay with cash. ” • “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears. ” • “The pen is mightier than the sword.
10. Synecdoche A figure of speech in which part of something is used to represent the whole. • Examples: • Wow, nice wheels!” • “The captain shouted ‘all hands on deck. ’” • “The rancher boasted about how many head of cattle he owned. ”
11. Dramatic Irony Results when the audience knows more about the circumstances of the drama than one or more of the characters in the drama. This helps build suspense. Example: In Julius Caesar, Caesar does not know that people are plotting against him, but the audience does.
12. Hamartia A flaw or weakness in a character’s personality or make-up which ultimately brings about that character’s downfall. Also known as a “tragic flaw. ” Example: A lack of self-awareness, an inability to see himself, is Oedipus’ hamartia.
13. Hubris Excessive pride or egocentric behavior that often leads to a character’s downfall. Example: Some say hubris was Caesar’s hamartia.
14. Pun A play on words in which a humorous effect is produced by using a word that suggests two or more meanings or by exploiting similar sounding words having different meanings. • EXAMPLES: • The life of a patient of hypertension is always at steak. • Why do we still have troops in Germany? To keep the Russians in Czech. • A horse is a very stable animal. I am a cobbler, a mender of bad soles.
15. Parallelism • The repetition of syntactical order in successive phrases within a sentence to add balance and rhythm. • • Examples: Like father, like son. Easy come, easy go. “There is tears for his love; joy for his fortune; honour for his valour; and death for his ambition”
16. Antimetabole • The repetition of words in successive clauses, but in transposed order. • • Example: "I know what I like, and I like what I know“ “Dance to live, not live to dance. “Some people say I am bad at mathematics because it is not my favorite subject, but actuality, mathematics is not my favorite subject because I am bad at it. ”
17. Antithesis • Two sentences or phrases of contrasting meanings in close proximity to one another. • Examples: • “That's one small step for a man; one giant leap for mankind. “ –Neil Armstrong • “Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more. ”
18. Anaphora • The deliberate repetition of the first part of a sentence or phrase for rhetorical effect. • Example: • “As Caesar loved me, I weep for him; as he was fortunate, I rejoice at it; as he was valiant, I honour him: but, as he was ambitious, I slew him. ”
18. Logical Fallacy • An argument that, though it may be effective, has an essential flaw in its logic. • Either/Or: A claim in either-or terms, not acknowledging that…. • (A) Both claims could be true • (B) A grey areas exist between the two alternatives • (C) Other possibilities exist. Example: Either you support the conspirators who assassinated Caesar, or you are not a good Roman.
20. Aristotle's Rhetorical Strategies: Ethos, Pathos, Logos • Ethos: An appeal to character or morality. • Pathos: An appeal to the emotions • Logos: An appeal utilizing logic or reason.
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