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Shakespearean Tragedy Vocabulary

+Tragedy

A drama that always ends in a catastrophe, most often death, for the main character (and often several other important characters).

There are no happy endings in tragedies.

The main character is known as the tragic hero, and is usually someone born into royalty with a major influence or popularity in the society.

Tragic hero always has one fatal flaw or weakness that leads to his downfall.

Often supernatural characters such as ghosts or witches who have more knowledge than our characters.

+The Shakespearean Drama

Act I

Act 2Act 3

Act 4

Act 5

Initial action

Crisis

+Plot in Shakespeare Exposition: Describes the mood and conditions existing in the

story.

Initial exciting force: what “gets things going.” This is where the initial action begins and the conflict appears.

Rising Action: A series of events which lead up to the crisis of the play. These events get more intense as you near the crisis. The rising action is usually in more than one act.

The crisis (which is usually referred to as the climax) represents the turning point. From here, the Shakespearean hero moves towards his tragic end.

Catastrophic climax concerns the necessary consequences which will cause the heroes death or downfall.

The resolution is the final outcome of play.

Although the main character dies, all Shakespearean tragedies do not END in chaos. Peace must be restored.

+Comic Relief

A humorous scene, incident or speech to give viewers a break from the dramatic intensity.

By providing happiness, Shakespeare creates a contrast to the very sad and tragic events that happen in the play.

This also gives viewers the time to think about tragic events, and create a sense of reality, in that bad things usually happen over time and not all at once for days/months on end.

+Allusion A reference to pop culture within a piece of writing that the

reader is expected to know.

An allusion can be:

-a famous person (celebrity or president

- a classic novel or movie/character

- a religious reference

-reference to Greek mythology

Shakespeare most often alludes to Greek and Roman mythology, and the Bible.

Examples: “He was a real Romeo with the ladies”

“Chocolate was her Achilles’ heel.”

“When she lost her job, she acted like a Scrooge and refused to by anything.”

“I was surprised his nose was not growing like Pinocchios.”

+Foil

A character who exists to be the opposite of your main character in terms of personality, actions and traits.

Meant to be a contrast and show another way that a character can act.

By having people who do opposites things, it highlights their decisions and thoughts.

Examples:

Hunger Games- Peta and Gale

Harry Potter- Voldemort and Dumbledore

Twilight- Jacob and Edward

+Soliloquy

A speech that a character gives when he/she is alone on stage. The purpose is to let the audience know the thoughts of the character.

Although people rarely stand in their room and talk to themselves, it is an accepted form of reality in theatre and is very common in Shakespeare’s works.

Example:

But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?

It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.

Arise fair sun, and kill the envious moon,

Who is already sick and pale with grief,

That tho her maid art far more fair than she

+Aside

An aside is a comment made by a character to either the audience or another character, but is not meant to be heard by everyone.

An example might be talking under ones breath

Because a stage is small but the audience needs to hear, scenes may show characters who cannot hear each other even though they are close or all on stage.

Shown in writing with brackets or parenthesis.