Understanding Shakespeare Literary Terms & Definitions

1. Understanding ShakespeareLiterary Terms & Definitions

2. Understanding ShakespeareTerms & Definitions

3. BARDOLOGY Understanding Shakespeare Terms & Definitions

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 4. Apostrophe • A literary device in which someone directly addresses an inanimate object or someone who is either dead or simply not there.

8. 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!

9. 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."

10. Iamb Re/BEL

11. 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.

12. 7. Blank Verse • Poetry written in unrhymed, iambic pentameter. Shakespeare wrote primarily in Blank Verse. "But, soft! /what light/through yon/der window breaks?

13. 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 andPollyannaishview of the world.

14. 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. • “The White House issued a press release today.”

15. 10. Synecdoche • Examples: • Wow, nice wheels!” • “The captain shouted ‘all hands on deck.’” • “The rancher boasted about how many head of cattle he owned.” A figure of speech in which part of something is used to represent the whole.

16. 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.

17. 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.

18. 13. Hubris Excessive pride or egocentric behavior that often leads to a character’s downfall. Example: Some say hubris was Caesar’s hamartia.

19. 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.

20. 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”

21. 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.”

22. 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.”

23. 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 wasvaliant, I honour him: but, as he was ambitious, Islew him.”

24. 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.

25. 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.