I Know This!
Sounds Familiar
Characters and Rhythm
Lost in Translation
Major Tragedy
100
An analogy or comparison implied by using an adverb such as like or as. AND A comparison or analogy stated in such a way as to imply that one object is another one, figuratively speaking.
What is Simile and Metaphor
100
A play on two words similar in sound but different in meaning. Originally, these were a common literary trope in serious literature, but after the eighteenth century, they have been primarily considered a low form of humor.
What is Pun
100
A character who serves to contrast or emphasize opposing traits in another character.
What is Foil
100
Thee Thou Thy
What is You (or Your)
100
The Montagues and Capulets have a longstanding, bloody feud. TITLE characters fall in love and secretly marry, even as the feud claims Tybalt and Mercutio. TITLE MALE is banished for Tybalt's death. TITLE FEMALE feigns her death via a drug as a ruse to escape to join TITLE MALE. Unaware of her plan, TITLE MALE returns, fins her "dead," and takes poison. She awakens, sees his dead body, and kills herself with his dagger. Their deaths force the two families to end their feud. This play is the inspiration for Leonard Bernsetin's "West Side Story."
What is Romeo and Juliet
200
Frequent use of words, places, characters, or objects that mean something beyond what they are on a literal level.
What is Symbolism
200
A casual reference in literature to a person, place, event, or another passage of literature, often without explicit identification. Used to establish a tone, create an implied association, contrast two objects or people, make an unusual juxtaposition of references, or bring the reader into a world of experience outside the limitations of the story itself.
What is Allusion
200
A long, uninterrupted speech (in a narrative or drama) that is spoken in the presence of other characters and is heard by other characters.
What is Monologue
200
Wilt
What is Will
200
TITLE is upset that, upon his father's apparently accidental death, his uncle Claudius usurped the throne and married his mother. HIs father's ghost appears, revealing that Claudius murdered him and seduced Gertrude; the ghost tells TITLE to seek revenge. Hamlet feigns madness to mask his purposes. He stages a play, "The Murder of Gonzaga," re-creating his father's murder and proving Claudius' guild by his recreation. When TITLE confronts the Queen, he kills Polonius, who had hidden in her room. TITLE survivesassassination when sent with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to England. Laertes joins Claudius in a plot to kill TITLE during a fencing match, either via a poisioned blade or drink. Ophelia, rejected by TITLE, goes mad upon the death of her father, and drowns in a stream. At the fencing match Gertrude unknowingly drinks from the poisoned cup and Laertes wounds TITLE. The blades get switched TITLE stabs Laertes fatally with the poisoned one. Gertrude now falls from her poison and dies. Laertes reveals the plot and TITLE kills Claudius. TITLE wills his kingdom to Fortinbras, Prince of Norway, and dies in Horatio's arms. TITLE is Shakespeare's longest play; the title role is Shakespeare's longest part.
What is Hamlet
300
Animals, ideas, and inanimate objects are given human character, traits, abilities, or reactions.
What is Personification
300
Repeating a consonant sound in close proximity to others, or beginning several words with the same vowel sound. AND Repeating identical or similar vowels (especially in stressed syllables) in nearby words. Used in final vowels of lines can often lead to half-rhyme.
What is Alliteration and Assonance
300
A speech, usually lengthy, in which a character, alone on stage, expresses his or her thoughts aloud. The soliloquy is a very useful dramatic device, as it allows the dramatist to convey a character's most intimate thoughts and feelings directly to the audience.
What is Soliloquy
300
'tis AND 'twere AND 'twill
What is It Is and It Were and It will
300
TITLE and Banquo meet three witches who foretell of TITLE's eventual ascendancy to the throne. This stirs TITLE's and his wife's ambition. TITLE murders DUncan when the King stays at TITLE's castle, Dunsinane. TITLE seizes the throne; now he becomes suspicious of everyone. First he has Banquo murderedl then Macduff's family. Lady TITLE consumed by guilt, sleepwalks at night trying to clean imaginary blood from her hand; she dies. Macduff leads an army against TITLE and kills him; Malcolm is proclaimed king. In theater legend, TITLE is considered an unlucky play to perform and is never referred to by name, but as "the Scottish play."
What is Macbeth
400
Exaggeration or overstatement.
What is Hyperbole
400
A comparison between two unlike things that continues throughout a series of sentences in a paragraph or lines in a poem.
What is Extended Metaphor
400
A unit or foot of poetry that consists of a lightly stressed syllable followed by a heavily stressed syllable. Examples: behold, restore, amuse, arise, awake, return, Noel, support, depict, destroy, inject, inscribe, insist, inspire, unwashed.
What is Iamb
400
Bade AND/OR Pray
What is Asked/Urged/Requested/Pleaded
400
TITLE plans to divide his kingdom among his daughters asking each to proclaim their love for him. Goneril and Regan flatter him; Cordelia refuses to do more than offer him the proper love and devotion. Outraged, TITLE denies Cordelia her portion and exiles her and her defender, the Earl of Kent. Edmund tricks Gloucester into exiling Edgar. Goneril and Regan strip away TITLE's remaining rights; he goes mad and is alone except for his Fool. Cordelia invades with a French army and finds the mad TITLE, but she is defeated by her sisters an Edmund. The victors fall out among themselves; Goneril kills Regan and commits suicide; Edmund's treachery is unmasked. TITLE enters, carrying Cordelia, whom Edmund had hanged. Then he dies as well.
What is King Lear
500
A common term of variable meaning that includes the "mental pictures" that readers experience with a passage of literature.
What is Imagery
500
The deliberate use of ambiguity in a phrase or image--especially involving sexual or humorous meanings.
What is Double Entendre
500
When poetry consists of five feet in each line. Each foot has a set number of syllables.
What is Pentameter
500
Whither AND Thither AND Hither
What is Where and There and Here
500
TITLE is a commander in the Venetian military and is sent to defend Cyprus against the Turks. Iago, passed over for promotion in favor of Cassio, plots to ruin his rival and TITLE. He tricks Cassio into drunkenness and arouses TITLE's jealousy, hinting that Cassio and Desdemona were lovers. As his jealousy consumes him, TITLE smothers the innocent Desdemona. TITLE then learns the truth and kills himself; Cassio brings Iago to justice.
What is Othello
M
e
n
u