Drama Vocabulary

Foil

• Two contrasting characters placed in the same play

Monologue

• Long speech by one character to another character on stage

Soliloquy

• A speech by a character alone on stage

Dramatic Irony

• Audience knows something the characters don’t

Aside

• One or two lines spoken to the audience

• Blank Verse: Unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter. Shakespeare wrote all of his plays in blank verse.– Typically the presence of a character speaking in

iambic pentameter indicates that the character is an aristocrat (upper class). Lower class characters speak in prose.

Example of Blank Verse ~ / ~ / ~ / ~ / ~ /But soft.|What light| through yon|der win|dow

breaks?~ / ~ / ~ / ~~ / ~ /It is| the east|, and Jul|iet is |the sun!

Elements of Shakespearean Comedy

• Love – Comedies typically end in a marriage, often multiple

• Mistaken identity – Many characters disguise themselves, crossdress, or misidentify other characters

Pun

• Play on words

Allusion

• Reference to something outside of the play; usually another work of literature

Oxymoron

• Two opposite words placed next to each other

Foreshadowing

• Hint of things to come

Malapropism

• Ludicrous misuse of words, especially when those words sound similar