Shakespeare Terms

2. humor added that lessens the seriousness of a plot.
3. who does not change much in the course of a story.
8. a story to be acted for an audience.
9. a combination of contradictory terms.
10. an unusually long speech in which a character who is on stage alone expresses his or her thoughts aloud.
14. a short introduction at the beginning of a play that gives a brief overview of the plot.
17. fourteen-line lyric poem that is usually written in iambic pentameter and that has one of several rhyme schemes.
18. words that are spoken by a character in a play to the audience or to another character but that are not supposed to be overheard by the others onstage.
19. who changes as a result of the story’s events.

1. event or detail that is inappropriate for the time period.
2. two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme; couplets often signal the exit of a character or end of a scene.
4. a group who says things at the same time.
5. a play on the multiple meanings of a word, or on two words that sound alike but have different meanings.
6. a speech by one character in a play.
7. a play, novel, or other narrative that depicts serious and important events in which the main character comes to an unhappy end.
11. the audience or reader knows something important that a character in a play or story does not know.
12. direct, unadorned form of language, written or spoken, in ordinary use.
13. poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter
15. a writer or speaker says one thing, but really means something completely different.
16. character who is used as a contrast to another character; writer sets off/intensifies the qualities of 2 characters this way.