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| repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words or stressed syllables (i.e. “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers”) |
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| a literary reference to a well-known work of art, music, history or literature (i.e. “At lovers’ perjuries, they say Jove laughs.” (II.2), a reference to Jove [another name for Jupiter, Roman king of the gods]) |
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| non-rhyming poetry, usually written in iambic pentameter. Most of Shakespeare’s plays are written in this form, which is very close to normal speech rhythms and patterns. Often Shakespeare will deviate from this form in order to make a point about the character’s state of mind or for other emphasis, like a change in the mood. |
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| in a tragedy, a break in the seriousness for a moment of comedy or silliness |
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| a word or phrase with more than one meaning, usually when the second meaning is risqué |
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| when the audience or reader knows something that the characters in the story do not know |
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| a substitution of a more pleasant expression for one whose meaning may come across as rude or offensive (i.e. “He passed away,” rather than “He died.”) |
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| writing or speech that is not meant to be taken literally; often used to compare dissimilar objects; figurative language includes metaphor, simile, personification, hyperbole, etc. |
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| hints of events to occur later in a story |
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| a unit in poetry consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable |
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| a 10-syllable line divided into five iambic feet (one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable). This is the basic rhythm of Shakespeare’s verse. |
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| language that works to evoke images in your mind (i.e. “And with thy bloody and invisible hand / Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond / Which keeps me pale.”) |
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| a contradiction between what is expected and what actually is—or appearance versus reality; includes verbal irony, situational irony, and dramatic irony |
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| a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is replaced by another, often indicating a likeness or similarity between them (i.e. “Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player…”) |
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| when two opposite terms are used together (i.e. “O heavy lightness!”) |
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| attributing human characteristics to nonhuman objects |
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| normal speech rhythm; Shakespeare often wrote certain characters speaking either in all verse or all prose, indicating some personality trait of the character. If the character deviates from its normal form, be aware of a changing state of mind…often prose signals a character slipping into insanity! |
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| a play on words, especially those that sound alike, but have different meanings (i.e. “Ask for me tomorrow and you will find me a grave man”) |
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| two rhyming lines at the end of a speech, signaling that a character is leaving the stage or that the scene is ending |
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| a figure of speech comparing two unlike things that is most often introduced by like or as (i.e. “My love is like a red, red rose”) |
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