Shakespeare: Drama, Soliloquy, and Iambic Pentameter — Flashcards

Grade 10 · English · Flashcards

Master key Shakespearean drama terms and verse structure for Grade 10 English.

Flashcards

Soliloquy: Character alone on stage; private thoughts revealed to audience only — other characters cannot hear.
Aside: Brief remark directed at the audience, unheard by other characters; shorter than a soliloquy.
Iambic pentameter: 5 iambic feet per line = 10 syllables; pattern: da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM.
Iamb: Metrical foot: one unstressed syllable + one stressed (da-DUM). Five per line = iambic pentameter.
Blank verse: Unrhymed iambic pentameter — Shakespeare's primary mode for elevated dramatic speech.
Globe Theatre: Open-air London theater (1599) where most of Shakespeare's plays were originally performed; held ~3,000.
Prose vs. verse (Shakespeare): Nobles speak verse; lower-status/comic characters speak prose — a social register embedded in grammar.
Meter break: A deliberate disruption of iambic pentameter — signals emotional disruption, a lie, or unsaid subtext.
Elizabethan theater: Open-air, daylit, no realistic scenery — language had to create all atmosphere, weather, time, and setting.
Hamlet's 'To be or not to be': A soliloquy in which Hamlet privately weighs continued existence against death — not a public speech.
Shakespeare's word coinages: Shakespeare invented/popularized 1,700+ words: bedroom, lonely, generous, swagger, eyeball, obscene.
Tragic vs. comic plays: Tragedies end in death/loss (Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello); comedies end in marriage/resolution (Twelfth Night, MSND).