English terms

• Pun: a play on words that sound similar or exactly the same
• Farce: a type of comedy that focuses on ridiculous situations, misunderstandings, witty repartee, and slapstick
• Allusion: brief reference to literature or history
• Monologue: a speech given by a character directed to another character or characters
• Theme: a general statement about life, people, society, religion, etc. revealed through characters, plot, symbols, imagery, etc.
• Sarcasm: a form of verbal irony in which apparent praise is actually harshly or bitterly critical
• Slapstick: A comic genre that uses physical humor and slapstick to create a humorous effect.
• Dramatic Irony:  the audience or other characters know something one or more characters do not know
• Aside: a dramatic convention when a character on stage directs his/her comments to another character or the audience and it is understood that other characters on stage do not hear him/her
• Soliloquy:  a dramatic convention by the means of which a character 

  alone on stage shares his/her thoughts with the audience
• Metaphor: a comparison of two essentially unlike things not using like or as
• Symbol:  something that represents itself and an abstract idea
• simile: a comparison of two essentially unlike things using like or as
• Chain of being: the Elizabethan belief in the hierarchical order of the world from God down to the devil
• Stock characters: characters who embody stereotypes, such as “dumb blonde,” “mean stepmother,” old buffoon (Pantalone), “star-crossed lover,” etc.