| Alliteration | repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words |
| Antagonist | the character of force that opposes the main character |
| Aside | an actor’s speech, directed to the audience, that is not supposed to be heard by other actors on stage |
| Blank Verse | a poem with no rhyme but does have iambic pentameter |
| Characterization | a description |
| Round | A complex and fully developed character |
| Flat | A character in the story who is known for a single or dominant trait |
| Static | Characters who remain the same throughout the story |
| Dynamic | A character that changes in a story, especially as a result of an event or problem |
| Climax | a decisive moment that is of maximum intensity or is a major turning point in a plot |
| Comic Relief | an amusing scene, incident, or speech introduced into serious or tragic elements, as in a play, in order to provide temporary relief from tension, or to intensify the dramatic action |
| Confidant | a character in a story that the lead character confides in and trusts |
| Internal Conflict | mental struggle arising from opposing demands or impulses |
| External Conflict | struggle between a person and an outside force |
| Couplet | a pair of successive lines of verse, especially a pair that rhyme and are of the same length |
| Diction | style of speaking or writing as dependent upon choice of words |
| Dynamic Character | a literary or dramatic character who undergoes an important inner change, as a change in personality or attitude |
| Exposition | The part of the story where the characters, setting, and situation are introduced |
| Figurative Language | language that contains or uses figures of speech, especially metaphors |
| Foil | A foil is another character in a story who contrasts with the main character, usually to highlight one of their attributes |
| Foreshadowing | When the author gives the reader clues about an event in the future |
| Iambic Pentameter | a common meter in poetry consisting of an unrhymed line with five feet or accents, each foot containing an unaccented syllable and an accented syllable |
| Imagery | Appeals to the senses and uses figurative language |
| Situational Irony | Inconsistency in what’s expected and what actually happens |
| Dramatic Irony | Inconsistency between what a character believes or says and what the reader knows to be true |
| Verbal Irony | When a person says one thing and means the other |
| Metaphor | a comparison without using the words like or as |
| Meter | The rhythmical pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in verse |
| Monologue | a speech delivered by one person, or a long one-sided conversation |
| Mood | The way a story makes you feel |
| Motif | A central or recurring image or action in a literary work that is shared by other works and may serve an overall theme |
| Oxymoron | A figure of speech that brings together contradictory words for effect, such as “jumbo shrimp” and “deafening silence.” |
| Personification | Giving non-living things human characteristics |
| Protagonist | The good guy or the main character of the story |
| Pun | Wordplay that uses homonyms (two different words that are spelled identically) to deliver two or more meanings at the same time |
| Repetition | Using sound, syllables, words, or phrases over and over |
| Rhyme Scheme | Repetition of syllables at the end of a line of poetry |
| Simile | a comparison using “like” or “as” |
| Soliloquy | an act of speaking one’s thoughts aloud when by oneself or regardless of any hearers, especially by a character in a play |
| Sonnet | A 14-line poem with a variable rhyme scheme |
| Stanza | A grouping of lines |
| Subplot | a subordinate plot in a play, novel, or similar work. |
| Symbol/Symbolism | An object that stands for something other than itself |
| Theme | the overall lesson the author is trying to teach |
| Tone | A writer’s attitude toward the subject or audience |
| Tragedy | an event causing great suffering, destruction, and distress, such as a serious accident, crime, or natural catastrophe |
| Word Play | the witty exploitation of the meanings and ambiguities of words, especially in puns |
| Irony | When reality is different than what appears to be true |
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet Vocabulary
October 20, 2019