| A | B |
|---|
| aside | a short speech heard by audience but not characters in the play |
| comic relief | a humorous interlude intended to relieve dramatic tension |
| simile | a comparison between two unlike things using like or as |
| iambic pentameter | a meter in poetry consisting of five unrhymed lines-stressed and unstressed syllables |
| allusion | a reference in literature to another literary work |
| foreshadow | clue/hint about what is going to happen |
| tragedy | a drama ending in catastrophe; a play in which a character (s) of high birth or person that is better than most people goes through a terrible downfall because of a tragic flaw, usually pride |
| blank verse | poem written in unrhymed meter |
| catastrophe | scene in a tragedy which includes the death/moral destruction of the protagonist |
| foil | a character who contrasts or is very similar to the main character in a play |
| dramatic irony | the irony that comes from when the audience understands something the the character does not in a situation or speech |
| act | a play is typically divided into multiple parts called acts, generally between 2 and 5. |
| scene | acts are broken down into multiple scene |
| lines | each scenes dialogue counted out by lines |
| soliloquy | a lengthy speech a character gives to reveal to the audience what is going through their mind |
| monologue | a lengthy speech a character gives to other characters in a play (not to be confused with a soliloquy) |
| dialogue | conversations between characters in a play |
| stage direction | the italicized notes before each scene that lets the actors know their emotional state and where to go on the stage |
| epilogue | summing up the moral the moral of the story |
| prologue | a summary of background information that help you understand the play |
| groundlings | the peasants, poorer classes, who had to stand around stage with no covering from rain |
| script | the manuscript a play is contain in |
| props | device used in a play to carry out the action i.e. swords, daggers, etc |
| blocking | the preplanned movement on the stage |
