| Foil (definition) | A character who provides a strong contrast to another character. |
| Foil (example) | Horatio acts as a foil to Hamlet |
| dramatic irony (definition) | a plot device in which the audience’s or reader’s knowledge of events or individuals surpasses that of the characters. |
| aside (definition) | A character’s remark, either to the audience or to another character, that others on stage are not supposed to hear. |
| aside (example) | HAMLET: “a little more than kin and less than kind” |
| oxymoron (definition) | A figure of speech consisting of two apparently contradictory terms |
| oxymoron (example) | KING CLAUDIUS: “with mirth in funeral, and with dirge in marriage” |
| imagery (definition) | use of vivid, concrete, sensory details |
| metaphor (example) | HAMLET: “Seem to me all the uses of this world! / Fie on ‘t, ah fie! ‘Tis an unweeded garden /That grows to seed.” |
| simile (example) | HAMLET: “what a piece of work is man!…how like an angel” |
| allusion (definition) | A reference to another work of literature, person, or event |
| allusion (example) | HAMLET: “What’s Hecuba to him, or he toHecuba” |
| soliloquy (definition) | A dramatic or literary form of talking in which a character talks to himself or reveals his thoughts without addressing a listener |
| soliloquy (example) | HAMLET: “To be or not to be, that is the question / whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer / The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune / Or to take arms against a sea of troubles …” |
| Imagery (example) | HORATIO: “Such was the very armor he had on / When he the ambitious Norway combated. / So frowned he once when, in an angry parle, He smote the sledded Polacks on the ice.” |
| Simile (definition) | A comparison between two dissimilar things using the words like, as, than, or resembles. |
| Pun (definition) | A joke exploiting the different possible meanings of a word or the fact that there are words that sound alike but have different meanings. |
| Prose (definition) | Written or spoken language in its ordinary form, without rhythm. |
| Monologue (definition) | When a character delivers a long speech to another character onstage. |
| Metaphor (definition) | A comparison between two dissimilar things WITHOUT using the words like, as, than, or resembles |
| Verbal Irony (definition) | A figure of speech in which what is said is the opposite of what is meant. |
| Situational Irony (definition) | The outcome of a situation is the opposite of what was expected. |
| Iambic Pentameter (definition) | A type of meter in poetry that has five feet (unstressed/stressed) and 10 syllables. (heart beat) |
| Iambic Pentameter (example) | PLAYER KING: “I do believe you think what now you speak, / But what we do determine oft we break. / Purpose is but the slave to memory, / Of violent birth, but poor validity…” |
| Dramatic Irony (example) | Hamlet pretends to be insane, but we, the audience, know that he is pretending to be insane: “I am but mad north, north west.” |
| Pun (example) | HAMLET speaking about (dead) POLONIUS: “Indeed this counsellor/ Is now most still, most secret and most grave, /Who was in life a foolish prating knave” (3.4.213-215) |
| Verbal Irony (example) | HAMLET: What man dost thou dig it for?GRAVEDIGGER For no man, sir.HAMLET What woman then?GRAVEDIGGE For none, neither.HAMLET Who is to be buried in ‘t?GRAVEDIGGE One that was a woman, sir, but, resther soul, she’s dead. |
| Situational Irony (example) | Polonius is hiding behind a curtain when Hamlet mistakenly kills him. Hamlet believes that he has killed King Claudius. |
| Monologue (example) | CLAUDIUS: “‘Tis sweet and commendable in your nature, Hamlet, / To give these mourning duties to your father. / But you msut know your father lost a father, ….” (the lines continue for 28 more lines) |
Hamlet Literary Devices and Examples 1718
August 29, 2019