• Soliloquy – in drama, a soliloquy is a speech in which a character speaks his or her thoughts aloud. Generally the character is on the stage alone, not speaking to other characters and perhaps not even consciously addressing the audience.

RomeoAct II, Scene 2, Lines 1-25

“He jests at scars that never felt a wound.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 griefThat thou her maid art far more fair than she.Be not her maid, since she is envious;Her vestal livery is but sick and green, And none but fools do wear it; cast it off.It is my lady; O, it is my love!O that she knew she were!She speaks, yet she says nothing. What of that?Her eye discourses; I will answer it.I am too bold; ’tis not to me she speaks…”

• Motif – recurring structures, contrasts, and literary devices that can help develop and inform a text’s major themes. When an idea or a thing is repeated throughout a text, and it is used in a symbolic manner, it is a motif.

Light/DarkDay/Night

“Away from the light steals home my heavy son,And private in his chamber pens himself,Shuts up his windows, locks fair daylight outAnd makes himself an artificial night.”

“Give me a torch. I am not for this ambling;Being but heavy, I will bear the light.”

”O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!”