Literary Elements

• Plot
  Plot is the sequence of events in a literary work. In most novels, dramas, short stories, and narrative poems, the plot involves both characters and a central conflict. The plot usually begins with an exposition that introduces the setting, the characters, and the basic situation. This is followed by the inciting incident, which introduces the central conflict. The conflict then increases during the development until it reaches a high point of interest or suspense, the climax. All the events leading up to the climax make up the rising action. The climax is followed by the falling action, which leads to the resolution, or end, of the central conflict. Any events that occur after the resolution make up the dénouement.
  
  
• Setting
  The setting of a literary work is the time and place of the action. Time can include not only the historical period - past present or future - but also a specific year, season, or time of day. Place may involve not only the geographical place - a region, country, state, or town - but also the social, economic, or cultural environment.
  
  
• Point of View
  Defines the author's choice of narrator, usually in the first person, third person omniscient, or third person limited.
  
  
• Characterization
  Characterization is the act of creating and developing a character. In direct characterization, the author directly states a character's traits. In indirect characterization, an author tells what a charater looks like, does, and says and how other characters react to him or her. It is up to the reader to draw conclusions about the character based on this indirect information.
  
  
• Theme
  The theme of a literary work is an insight about life or human nature that the writer presents to the reader.
  Go to the Themes page to explore the themes in ROMEO AND JULIET.

Literary Techniques

• Alliteration
  Alliteration is the repetition of initial consonant sounds. Writers use alliteration to give emphasis to words, to imitate sounds, and to create musical effects.
  
  
• Aside
  An aside is a short speech delivered by an actor in a play, expressing the character's thoughts. Traditionally, the aside is directed to the audience and is presumed to be inaudible to the other actors.
  
  
• Blank Verse
  Blank verse is poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter lines. This verse form was widely used by Elizabethan dramatists like William Shakespeare.
  
  
• Climax
  The climax of a story, novel or play is the high point of interest or suspense. The events that make up the rising action lead up to the climax. The events that make up the falling action follow the climax.
  
  
• Comic Relief
  Comic relief, is the inclusion of humorous scenes or characters in a serious drama. Writers use comic relief to ease the building emotional intensity.
  
  
• Conflict
  A conflict is a struggle between opposing forces. Characters in conflict form the basis of stories, novels, and plays.
  There are two kinds of conflict: external and internal. In an external conflict, the main character struggles against an outside force. An internal conflict involves a character in conflict with himself or herself.
  
  
• Couplet
  A couplet is a pair of rhyming lines, usually of the same length and meter. A couplet generally expresses a single idea.
  
  
• Figurative Language
  Figurative language is writing or speech not meant to be interpreted literally. Figurative language is often used to create vivid impressions by setting up comparisons between dissimilar things.
  Some frequently used figures of speech are metaphors, similes, and personifications.
  
  
• Foreshadowing
  Foreshadowing is the use in a literary work of clues that suggest events that have yet to occur. Use of this technique helps to create suspense, keeping readers wondering and speculating about what will happen next.
  
  
• Foil
  A foil is a character who is contrasted with another character.
  
  
• Imagery
  Language that appeals to one or more of the five senses.
  
  
• Irony
  Irony is the general name given to literary techniques that involve differences between appearance and reality, expectation and result, or meaning and intention. In verbal irony words are used to suggest the opposite of what is meant. In dramatic irony there is a contradiction between what a character thinks and what the reader or audience knows to be true. In irony of situation, an event occurs that directly contradicts the expectations of the characters, the reader or the audience.
  
  
• Meter
  The meter of a poem is its rhythmical pattern. This pattern is determined by the number and types of stresses, or beats, in each line. To describe the meter of a poem, you must scan its lines. Scanning involves marking the stressed and unstressed syllables.
  
  
• Metaphor
  A metaphor is a figure of speech in which one thing is spoken of as though it were something else. Unlike a simile, which compares two things using like or as, a metaphor states a comparison directly.
  
  
• Monologue
  A monologue is a speech by one character in a play, story, or poem. An example from Shakespeare's ROMEO AND JULIET is the speech in which the Prince of Verona commands the Capulets and Montagues to cease feuding (Act I, Scene i).
  
  
• Oxymoron
  An oxymoron is a phrase consisting of words that seem the opposite in meaning, such as "sweet sorrow".
  
  
• Personification
  Personification is a type of figurative language in which a nonhuman subject is given human characteristics.
  
  
• Pun
  A pun is a play on words based on different meanings of words that sound alike.
  
  
• Rhyme Scheme
  A rhyme scheme is a regular pattern of rhyming words in a poem. The rhyme scheme of a poem is indicated by using different letters of the alphabet for each new rhyme. In an aabb stanza, for example, line 1 rhymes with line 2 and line 3 rhymes with line 4.
  
  
• Simile
  A simile is a figure of speech in which like or as is used to make a comparison between two basically unlike ideas. "Claire is as flighty as Roger" is a comparison, not a simile. "Claire is as flighty as a sparrow" is a simile.
  
  
• Soliloquy
  A soliloquy is a long speech expressing the thoughts of a character alone or on stage. In ROMEO AND JULIET, Romeo gives a soliloquy after the servant has fled and Paris has died (Act V scene iii).
  
  
• Sonnet
  A sonnet is a fourteen-line lyric poem, usually written in rhymed iambic pentameter. The English, or Shakespearean, sonnet consists of three quatrains (four-line stanzas) and a couplet (two lines), usually rhyming abab cdcd efef gg. The couplet usually comments on the ideas contained in the preceding twelve lines.
  
  
• Tragedy
  A tragedy is a work of literature, especially a play, that results in a catastrophe for the main character. In ancient Greek drama, the main character was always a significant person, a king or a hero, and the cause of the tragedy was a tragic flaw, or weakness, in his or her character. In modern drama the main character can be an ordinary person, and the cause of the tragedy can be some evil in society itself. The purpose of tragedy is not only to arouse fear and pity in the audience, but also, in some cases, to convey a sense of the grandeur and nobility of the human spirit.