Dramatic Devices

Personification

An image where things/ideas etc. are given human feelings or attributes. Example: "Love, so gentle in his view, should be so tyrannous".

Antithesis

An opposition. Shakespeare often used antitheses (pl.) to express confusion and conflict. Example: "Not having that which, having, makes them short.

Verse

: Shakespeare moved between verse and prose in his plays. Verse is characterised by rhythm and metre. Shakespeare's verse is written in iambic pentametre. Sometimes the lines are rhymed - usually to indicate a particularly important point, or the end of a scene/act. Verse is usually reserved for the higher classes among the characters - or for people who speak about lofty topics such as love.

Dramatic irony

Dramatic irony occurs when a situation is understood by the audience, but not by the characters on stage. At the end of Romeo and Juliet, for instance, there is dramatic irony. Romeo thinks that Juliet is dead, but the audience knows that she is only in deep sleep. Romeo's suicide, thus, seems unnecessary and ironic. Read more about irony here.

Sonnet

A Shakespearian sonnet is a 14-line poem in iambic pentametre. It consists of three quatrains and a concluding couplet. The rhyme scheme is ABAB CDCD EEF GG. A sonnet is usually a love poem that is divided into three parts 1. Exposition/ problem, 2. Volta/ turning point, 3. Conclusion.

Hyperbole

Figure of speech based on exaggeration and exaggerated images.

Foil

A character that works as a contrast to another character may be termed a "foil". Foil, thus, is an important dramatic tool.

Simile

A comparison that uses "like" or "as". Example: "My bounty is as boundless as the sea, / My love as deep".

Groundling

A condescending term used to refer to the standing audience in the open courtyard. The groundlings' tickets were the cheapest around. They usually cost one penny.

Tragedy

A drama in which the main character suffers extremely as a result of his tragic flaw. Shakespeare's tragedies also have comic scenes. Sometimes these scenes are a kind of "comic relief", but in most cases they are in the plays because Shakespeare had to cater to a very varied audience.

Comedy

A drama that is light, humorous and satirical in tone and often ends happily.

Oxymoron

A form of antithesis where the opposing words are placed next to each other. It makes a very strong image. Example: "loving hate".

Soliloquy

A line in which a character talks to him-/herself and reveals his or her private thoughts. Convention dictates that other chacters on stage cannot hear the soliloquy, but usually the character is alone on stage.

Monologue

A line spoken by one person.

Carnival

A masquerade in which people dress up. Kings dress up as beggars - and peasants dress up as kings. In literature the Carnival Motif is when roles are inverted - often with a humorous effect. In Romeo and Juliet, for instance, the nurse dresses up as a Lady - and appears ludicrous because she does not know how to behave in that role.

Chiasmus

A rhetorical device in which the second part of a phrase is balanced against the first part - but is inversed.

Fool

A type-character often kept at court to entertain the nobles. There were "wise" fools, intelligent men hired for entertainment purposes, and natural fools - idiots kept for amusement. Shakespeare's fools are usually "wise".

Metaphor

Image consisting of two parts that are not directly connected. Example: "A dog of the house of Montague" (ie. a man of that house - dog is used as a metaphor for man to indicate some sort of resemblance between dogs and men.)

Clown

In Shakespeare's plays, the term "clown" is most often synonomous with "fool".

Bathos

Low comedy. Sexual jokes etc.

Metafiction

Metafiction is when fiction talks about fiction. When Shakespeare's characters talk about "the stage" etc., these lines are essentially metafictional. The puritans in London criticised the plays for being manipulative and illusionist. Metafictional lines were among Shakespeare's ways of showing the puritans that his plays were merely stories - and not "trickery" or "The Devil's work".

Repetition

Repetition was a favourite device of Shakespeare's. He used to repeat words or phrases to add drama and contrast to the plays. "Do you quarrel, sir?" / "Quarrel, sir? No, sir."

Prose

Shakespeare moved between verse and prose in his plays. Prose is characterised by run-on-lines of varied length, no rhyme and no metre. Shakespeare usually has the lower classes speak in prose. Prose is also used when the characters talk about the menial things in life.

Rhyming couplet

Shakespeare often used a rhyming couplet (two rhymed lines) to indicate something important in a play - or a shift on stage, for instance an important character entering the stage, a scene/act ending etc.

Prop

Shakespeare's plays made use of many props on stage. Among the props were swords, shields, crowns, blood bags, cut off limbs etc. Read about special effects here.

Pathos

Strong emotion. Often used as a comic device, because exaggerated emotions are often funny. In Shakespeare's works this comic device is most often employed in connection with lower class characters who accidentally make themselves appear hilarious.

Chorus

The character who speaks the prologue - and often the epilogue.

Prologue

The introduction to/ presentation of the play. Often given to the audience by the character "Chorus". Often in verse.

Stage direction

The kind of dramatic discourse that gives the director and/or actors information relating to the performance of the play. Eg. who is on stage? What does the character do? How is a line delivered? etc. Shakespeare's stage directions were fairly limited

Scene

The subdivision of an act. There was no marked division between the scenes in an Elisabethan performance.

Blank verse

Unrhymed iambic pentameter

Epilogue

Usually spoken by a main character at the end of a play, the epilogue concludes the play and is often an apology for the play - or a request for applause.

Foreshadowing

When characters on stage say something that hints at something that will happen later on. When Romeo leaves Juliet at her window at the end of Act 3, he says: "dry sorrow drinks our blood". This is a foreshadowing of their deaths at the end of the play.

Dialogue

When two or more characters talk with each other.

Catharsis

Why watch a tragedy that will make you cry? Aristotle defined catharsis as a relieving of emotional tension, or a purging of emotions such as pity or fear. Catharsis is a positive experience that is brought about when we watch something tragic. Through catharsis, we experience that our own problems are easily overcome compared to the ones we see on stage.

Conceit

With regards to literature, a conceit is a elaborate and fanciful figurative device which often incorporates metaphor, simile, hyperbole or oxymoron. A conceit is intended to surprise and delight by its wit and ingenuity. Sometimes a conceit is called an "extended metaphor".

Aside

a character speaks either only to another character (ie Aside to Iago), or to the audience; it is assumed that no one else on stage can hear the aside.

Pun

a play on words, for Shakespeare often bawdy in nature (how does "Family Guy" stay on the air?)

Deus ex machina

literally "god out of the machine," or when a seemingly hopeless or lost situation is resolved by something akin to a miracle or coincidence; poorly done will elicit cries of "OMG, you're kidding me," etc. (pirates in Hamlet)

Great Chain of Being

okay, not a device, but an Elizabethan concept that there was a finite and essential hierarchy of all things living- from God to the lowliest of creatures. Unnatural acts (ie the killing of a king in "Macbeth") would be mirrored by a disruption of this order, as in a disruption of nature (the king's horses bust out of their stalls and eat each other).

Comic relief

the use of comedic character or scene to lighten the seriousness of surrounding scenes (the Porter in Macbeth)