Key Term Definitions

Question 1

What is the order of the Freytag Pyramid?

Answer 1

Exposition, Inciting Incident, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action, Denounement

Question 2

What is Hubris?

Answer 2

Excessive pride

Question 3

What is Hamartia?

Answer 3

A fatal flaw of a character or error in judgement.

Can be linked to Peripeteia.

Question 4

What is Catharsis?

Answer 4

The slow realisation of relief and feelings.

Question 5

What is Mimesis?

Answer 5

Drama that imitates life and reality.

Question 6

What is Peripeteia?

Answer 6

Reversal of fortune because of the hero’s error in judgement.

Question 7

What is Anagnorisis?

Answer 7

The recognition that the reversal was brought on by the hero’s own actions.

Question 8

What is a Closet Drama?

Answer 8

Plays that are meant to be heard rather than be performed.

Question 9

What do the Audience do?

Answer 9

They listen.

Question 10

What is the story of Hamlet based on?

Answer 10

The story of Amleth from Danish Mythology.

Question 11

What are Interrogatives?

Answer 11

Questions

Question 12

What are Imperatives?

Answer 12

Command words

Question 13

What is the background meaning of the character Horatio?

Answer 13

Orate = good speaker
Ratio = rational and sensible

Question 14

What is Enjambment?

Answer 14

Sentences that don’t finish with a full stop and continue on the next line.

Question 15

What is Purgatory and who believed in it?

Answer 15

Purgatory is where people purged or paid for their sins. Catholics believed in Purgatory but Protestants didn’t.

Question 16

What did Reginald Scot write in 1584?

Answer 16

He wrote Discoverie of Witchcraft. He thought ghosts to be melancholic imaginings.

Question 17

What did King James 1 write in 1597?

Answer 17

He wrote Daemonologie.

Question 18

What type of personality does Claudius have?

Answer 18

He has a Machiavellian personality. He is cunning, scheming and deceptive.

Question 19

What is Antithesis?

Answer 19

A contrast or opposition.

Question 20

What order does Claudius talks through in his first speech?

Answer 20

1. Death
2. Marriage
3. Fortinbras
4. Laertes
5. Hamlet

Question 21

What is a Shared line?

Answer 21

When a line of dialogue is completed by the next character. They share the same thought.

Question 22

What is Iambic Pentameter?

Answer 22

A pattern of dialogue.

Question 23

What is Stichomgthia?

Answer 23

Quick, alternating lines between characters that gives a sense of urgency.

Question 24

What is a Feminine ending?

Answer 24

A weak ending. 11 syllables.

Question 25

What is a Masculine ending?

Answer 25

A stressed ending

Question 26

What is a Malcontent?

Answer 26

The character type who is dissatisfied with their situation and believes they are owed or deserve something. Hamlet is a malcontent.

Question 27

What are the features of Elizabethan/Jacobean revenge tragedies (Seneca)?

Answer 27

Elaborate Language
Physical Violence
Supernatural
5 acts
Feigned madness

Question 28

What is Lethe?

Answer 28

The underworld and the river in Hades which caused forgetfulness (from Greek Mythology)

Question 29

What are the 4 Humours?

Answer 29

Sanguine - air
Phlegmatic - water
Melancholic - earth
Choleric - fire

Question 30

What are some Elizabethan causes for madness?

Answer 30

Rejected and excessive love.
Mischance
Overwork 
Trauma
Distressing events such as war, murders, thefts, plagues and massacres. State of world affairs.
Mental deterioration

Question 31

What is the difference between Prose and Verse?

Answer 31

Prose doesn’t have Iambic Pentameters but Verse does. Verse is more formal.