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A reference to a work of literature, an actual even, a person, a place, or known information that the writer or speaker expects his/her audience to recognize.

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Allusion

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An original model or type after which other similar things are patterned (the hero, the outcast, star-crossed lovers).

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Archetypes

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A character briefly speaks his or her thoughts (1 or 2 lines) to the audience, and the audience is to realize that the character is unheard by the other characters on stage.

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Aside

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The most intense, emotional moment in a play when the audience (reader) realized how the conflict will end in the final act.

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Climax

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A conversation between two or more characters.

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Dialogue

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When there is contradiction between what the characters of the play know, and what the audience knows.

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Dramatic Irony

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A character who undergoes a permanent change in outlook or attitude during the story.

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Dynamic Character

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A metaphor introduced and then further developed throughout all or part of a literary work.

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Extended Metaphor

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A character who may not be fully described or defined but is useful in carrying out some narrative purpose of the author. A "one sided" character (minor character).

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Flat Character

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One character who contrasts sharply with another character.

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Foil Character

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The use of hints or clues in a passage to suggest action that is to come later in the story.

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Foreshadowing

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An obvious exaggeration or overstatement used for effect or to make a point.

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Hyperbole

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A comparison made between two unlike things.

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Metaphor

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A long speech presented by a single character expressing their thoughts and feelings to other characters.

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Monologue

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A recurring element that has symbolic significance in a story. Through its repetition, it can help produce and/or enhance other literary devices such as theme, mood, and/or foreshadowing.

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Motif

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A figure of speech in which opposite or contradictory terms appear side by side for effect.

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Oxymoron

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An author gives human characteristics to nonhuman things (animals, natural forces, objects, ideas, etc.).

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Personification

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The use of a word in such a way as to suggest two or more of its meanings or the meaning of another word similar in sound.

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Pun

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A question to which the answer is obvious and not meant to be answered aloud.

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Rhetorical Question

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A character presented in-depth from many angles (major character).

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Round Character

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A comparison made between two unlike things using the words like or as.

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Simile

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A discrepancy between what is expected to happen, and what actually occurs.

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Situational Irony

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A character is alone on stage speaking his or her thoughts and feelings, thereby also sharing them with the audience.

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Soliloquy

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A character who undergoes little or no inner change; a character who does not grow or develop.

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Static Character

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A drama, often in verse, in which the main character is brought to ruin or suffers extreme sorrow, especially as a consequence of a tragic flaw, moral weakness, or inability to cope with unfavorable circumstances.

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Tragedy

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The weakness in the hero/heroine that leads to his/her downfall.

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Tragic Flaw

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The intended meaning of a statement differs from the meaning that the words appear to express.

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Verbal Irony

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"the winds...hissed him in scorn."

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Personification

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"...Adding to clouds more clouds with his deep sighs."

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Hyperbole

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"But to himself so secret and so close,/ so far from sounding and discovering,/ As is the bud bit with an envious worm / Ere he can spread his sweet leaves to the air/or dedicate his beauty to the sun."

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Simile

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"...O heavy lightness! serious vanity! / ...Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health!"

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Oxymoron

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"Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs / ...a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes... a sea nourished with lovers' tears...a madness...a gall...a sweet."

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Metaphor

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"She hath Dian's wit / And, in strong proof of chastity well armed."

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Allusion

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"When well-appareled April on the heel of limping winter treads..."

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Personification

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"...Ne'er saw her match since first the world begun."

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Hyperbole

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"You have dancing shoes/With nimble soles; I have a soul of lead so stakes me to the ground I cannot move."

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Pun

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"Borrow Cupid's wings and soar with them above common bound."

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Allusion

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"Is love a tender thing? It is too rough, too boisterous."

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Rhetorical Question

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Romeo: "I dreamt a dream to-night." Mercutio: "And so did I." Romeo: "Well, what was yours?" Mercutio: "That dreamers often lie." Romeo: "In bed asleep, while they do dream things true."

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Pun

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"I talk of dreams/Which are the children of an idle brain..."

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Metaphor

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"...the wind who woos/even now the frozen bosom of the North/ And, being angered, puffs away from thence/Turning his face o the dew-dropping South."

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Personification

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"...I fear, too early; for my mind misgives/some consequence, yet hanging in the stars/shall bitterly begin his fearful date/With this night's revels and expire the term/Of a despised life, clos'd in my breast,/By some vile forfeit of untimely death."

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Foreshadowing

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"It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night/Like a rich jewel in an Ehthiop's ear..."

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Simile

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"What light through yonder window breaks?/It is the East..."

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Rhetorical Question

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"...and Juliet is the sun!"

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Metaphor

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"Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,/Who is already sick and pale with grief..."

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Personification

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"The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars..."

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Hyperbole

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"O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?/Deny thy father and refuse thy name!"

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Rhetorical Question

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"Alack, there lies more peril in thine eye/Than twenty of their swords!"

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Hyperbole

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"At lover's perjuries,/They say Jove laughs."

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Allusion

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"This bud of love.../May prove a beauteous flower when next we meet."

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Metaphor

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"My bounty is as boundless as the sea..."

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Simile

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"Love goes toward love as schoolboys from their books;/But love from love, towards school with heavy looks."

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Simile

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"Else would I tear the cave where Echo lies..."

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Allusion

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Juliet: "What o'clock to-morrow/Shall I send to thee?" Romeo: "By the hour of nine." Juliet: "I will not fail. Tis twenty years 'til then."

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Hyperbole

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"Parting is such sweet sorrow..."

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Oxymoron

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"The grey-eyed morn smiles on the frowning night..."

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Personification

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"These violent delights have violent ends/And in their triumph die..."

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Foreshadowing/Oxymoron

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"Thy head is as full of quarrels as an egg is full of meat."

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Simile

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"Ask for me to-morrow and you shall find/me a grave man."

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Pun

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"This day's black fate on more days doth depend;/This but begins the woe that others must end.

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Foreshadowing

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"Come, civil night,/Thou sober-suited matron,all in black/...hood my unmann'd blood, bating in my cheeks/With thy black mantle."

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Personification

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"Beautiful tyrant! Fiend angelical! Dove-feathered raven! Wolvish-ravening lamb!"

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Oxymoron

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"But wherefore, villain, didst thou kill my cousin?/That villain cousin would have kill'd my husband."

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Rhetorical Question

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"That banished,'that one word 'banished,'/Hath slain ten thousand Tybalts."

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Hyperbole

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"For exile hath more terror in his look,/Much more than death..."

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Personification

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"Thy wit...like powder in a skilless soldier's flask,/Is set afire by thine own ignorance..."

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Simile

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"A pack of blessing light upon thy back;/Happiness courts thee in her best array."

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Personification

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"With twenty hundred thousand times more joy/Than thou went'st forth in lamentation."

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Hyperbole

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"...and jocund day/Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops."

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Personification

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"Tis but the pale reflex of Cynthia's brow."

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Allusion

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"O God I have an ill-divining soul!/Methinks I see thee, now thou are below,/ As one dead in the bottom of a tomb,/Either my eyesight fails, or thou look'st pale."

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Foreshadowing

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"What, wilt thou wash him from his grave with tears?/An if thou couldst, thou couldst not make him live.

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Rhetorical Question

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"For Venus smiles not in a house of tears."

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Personification/Allusion

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"The roses in thy lips and cheeks shall fade..."

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Metaphor

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"For I have need of many orisons/To move the heavens to smile upon my state,"

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Hyperbole/Personification

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"Nurse!--What should she do here?/To whose foul mouth no healthsome air breathes in,"

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Rhetorical Question

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"Death lies on her like an untimely frost/Upon the sweetest flower of all the field."

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Simile

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"See, there she lies,/Flower as she was..."

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Simile

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"Death is my son-in-law, Death is my heir;/My daughter he has wedded."

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Personification

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"Is it even so? Then I defy you, stars!"

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Rhetorical Question

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"That the life-weary taker may fall dead,/And that the trunk may by discharged of breath/As violently as hasty powder fired/Doth hurry from the fatal cannon's womb."

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Simile/Personification

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"There is thy gold--worse poison to men's should,/Doing more murder in this loathsome world,/Than these poor compounds that thou mayst not sell."

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Metaphor/Personification

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"The sun for sorrow will not show his head."

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Personification

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"Thou detestable maw, thou womb of death,/Gorged with the dearest morsel of the earth,/Thus I enforce they rotten jaws open,/ And in despite I'll cram thee with more food."

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Metaphor/Personification/Oxymoron

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"O, what more favor can I do to thee/Than with that hand that cut thy youth in twain/To sunder his that was thine enemy?/Forgive me, cousin."

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Rhetorical Question

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"Here, here will I remain/With worms that are thy chambermaids."

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Metaphor

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"Shall I not then be stifled in the vault,/To whose fould mouth no healthsome air breathes in,"

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Personification

Romeo and Juliet Figurative Language Test – Flashcards

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