Wordplay
This literary device is a play on words that uses multiple meanings for humor.
Answer: What is a pun?
Act I focuses on these types of wordplay used by Beatrice and Benedick.
Answer: What are puns and double entendres?
This type of conflict occurs when a character struggles with their own thoughts or emotions.
Answer: What is internal conflict?
This type of Shakespearean play usually ends with marriages and restored harmony.
Answer: What is a comedy?
A comparison using “like” or “as,” such as describing Hero as “as innocent as a flower,” is this literary device.
Answer: What is a simile?
This literary device occurs when a word or phrase has two meanings, often one humorous or suggestive.
Answer: What is a double entendre?
Act II focuses on this motif that represents hiding one’s true self.
Answer: What is the mask motif?
This type of conflict occurs between two characters, such as Claudio accusing Hero.
Answer: What is external conflict (man vs. man)?
This type of Shakespearean play usually ends in death or destruction.
Answer: What is a tragedy?
A direct comparison without using “like” or “as.”
Answer: What is a metaphor?
Dogberry’s habit of using incorrect words, such as saying “comprehended” instead of “apprehended,” is this literary device.
Answer: What is a malapropism?
Act III focuses on this element that develops the plot by introducing various struggles between two opposing forces.
Answer: What is conflict?
This character experiences internal conflict when deciding whether to challenge Claudio.
Answer: Who is Benedick?
This common element of Shakespearean comedy allows characters to hide their true identity and often leads to confusion before the final resolution.
Answer: What is disguise (or mistaken identity)?
Dogberry’s incorrect use of words, such as saying “comprehended” instead of “apprehended,” is this literary device.
Answer: What is a malapropism?
This literary device exaggerates a statement for dramatic effect, often used in the wedding scene accusations.
Answer: What is hyperbole?
In Act IV, the wedding scene uses figurative language and public accusations to develop this theme about how false information affects trust and relationships.
Answer: What is misinformation?
This character creates external conflict by deceiving Claudio and Don Pedro.
Answer: Who is Don John?
This key difference separates Shakespearean comedies from tragedies: comedies end in reconciliation, while tragedies end in this.
Answer: What is death or destruction?
An extreme exaggeration used for emphasis.
Answer: What is hyperbole?
This literary technique uses humor through foolish characters like Dogberry to relieve tension after serious scenes.
Answer: What is comic relief?
Act V focuses on this literary element that shows how people in the play change and reinforces various themes.
Answer: What is character development?
This theme develops through the conflict surrounding Hero’s accusation.
Answer: What is reputation?
A character like Dogberry, whose foolish behavior reveals truth and provides humor while moving the plot forward, represents this traditional role in Shakespearean comedy.
Answer: What is the fool?
A combination of contradictory or paradoxical words.
Answer: What is an oxymoron?