Literary Terms

A drama that ends in catastrophe for the main character and often several other important characters [usually death].

ROMEO & JULIET

Usually someone who is nobly born and has one or more fatal flaws that leads to his or her downfall.

Romeo Montague→

A humorous scene, incident, or speech that relieves the overall emotional intensity.Mercutio…Romeo, Bon jour! There’s a French salutation to your French Slop. You gave us the counterfeit fairly last night.

A character whose personality or attitudes are in sharp contrast to those of another character in the same work.

Tybalt Romeo

Devices that theater audiences accept as realistic even though they do not reflect the way real-

life people behave.

A speech that a character gives when he or she is alone on stage.Juliet…O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?Deny they father and refuse thy name! Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, And I’ll no longer be a Capulet.

A character’s remark that others on stage are not supposed to hear.Like telling a secret out loud.

A form of poetry that uses unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter-lines that ideally have five unstressed syllables followed by five stressed syllables. Unstressed/Stressed

Romeo…But, soft, what light through yon-der win-dow breaks?

It is the east, and Jul-iet is the sun.A-rise, fair sun, and kill the en-vious moon, Who is al-read-y sick and pale with griefThat thou her maid art far more fair than she.This passage is also an example of a soliloquy.