Key Terms Macbeth Flashcards
Whats an Aside?
An aside is a dramatic device in which a character speaks to the audience. By convention the audience is to realise that the characters speech is unheard by the other characters on stage.
Whats a soliloquy?
An act of speaking ones thoughts alone when by oneself or regardless of any hearers, especially by a character in a play.
What is symbolism?
The practice of representing things with a symbolic meaning or character.
What is a motif?
A motif is a reoccurring pattern of elements or ideas within a literary work.
Whats meant by foreshadow?
Foreshadowing is an advance sign or warning of what is to come in the future.
Whats the resolution?
The part of a stories plot line in which the problem of the story is resolved or worked out.
Whats the climax?
The particular point in a narrative at which the conflict or tension hits the highest point.
Whats catharsis?
An emotional discharge through which one can achieve state of moral or spiritual renewal or achieve a state of liberation from anxiety and stress. The cleansing of emotions of the characters.
Whats hamartia?
A personal error in a protagonist’s personality that brings about their tragic downfall in a tragedy.
Whats peripeteia?
A sudden or unexpected reversal of circumstances or situation.
Whats Pentameter?
A literary device that can be defined as a line in verse or poetry that has five strong metrical feet or beats. There are different forms of pentameter: iamb, trochaic, dactylic and anapaestic.
Whats pathetic fallacy?
A literary device where in the author attributes human emotions and traits to nature or inanimate objects.
Who is the protagonist?
The central character or leading figure. Sometimes called a hero by the readers.
What is dramatic irony?
Irony that is inherent in speeches or a situation of a drama and is understood by the audience but not grasped by the characters in the play.
