Shakespearean Tragedy Flashcards

Grade 12 · English · Flashcards

12 flashcards covering key terms, characters, and concepts in Shakespeare's great tragedies.

Flashcards

Hamartia: The fatal flaw or error in the tragic hero that precipitates their downfall.
Catharsis: The purging of pity and fear felt by the audience at the conclusion of a tragedy (Aristotle).
Hubris: Excessive pride or arrogance; a common form of hamartia in tragic heroes.
Anagnorisis: The tragic hero's moment of critical self-discovery or recognition of the truth.
Nemesis: The inevitable punishment or downfall that follows hubris or moral transgression.
Soliloquy: A dramatic speech in which a character voices their thoughts aloud to the audience while alone onstage.
Aside: A brief remark made by a character to the audience that other characters onstage cannot hear.
Foil: A character whose contrasting traits highlight the qualities of another, usually the protagonist.
Tragic hero: A noble, admirable protagonist whose flaws and circumstances lead them to inevitable destruction.
Great Chain of Being: Elizabethan cosmological hierarchy from God down through angels, humans, and nature; disrupting it causes chaos.
Peripeteia: The reversal of fortune experienced by the tragic hero — the turning point from success to catastrophe.
Dramatic irony: When the audience knows something critical that the character does not, heightening tension and pathos.