keywords and flashcards

• allegory


  a story, character, place with a hidden meaning
• dichotomy


  division between two things
• double entendre


  words or phrases that have a double meaning and is deliberately ambiguous
• epitome


  embodiment of a concept
• epizeuxis


  repetition of words in succession within the same sentence
• euphemism 


  substitution of a harmless term for one that is explicit
• motif


  an element that reoccurs such as a word, phrase, idea, image, action, character, symbol
• oxymoron


  two opposing terms are placed next to each other
• parable


  story used to teach a moral/spiritual lesson, typically told in the bible
• antithesis


  opposite
• paradox


  a statement that contradicts itself but is still true
• anagnorisis 


  a moment in the play where a character makes a critical discovery, such as macbeths sudden awareness of his situation
• catharsis


  letting out suppressed emotion
• hubris


  exaggerated self pride
• peripeteia 


  a sudden reversal of fortune/changes to circumstances
• code of chivalry


  moral, religious and social code of medieval knights
• nihilism


  believing life is pointless
• vice


  behaviour trait that’s immoral
• virtue


  behaviour trait thats moral
• notion


  belief
• perils


  danger
• androgyny 


  possession of both masculine and feminine characteristics
• despot


  tyrant
• capricious


  mercurial
• feasible


  possible
• cryptic


  mysterious 'cryptic prophecies’
• infernal


  relating to hell (infernal prophecies)
• alleviate


  make less severe
• crux


  focal point
• heresies 


  going against god ‘supernatural heresies’
• proxy


  Representing something else (lady Macbeth proxy of the witches)
• heresies 


  going against God. ‘supernatural heresies’
• moral integrity


  honest + firm in moral principles
• pagan ritual of invocation


  interacting with supernatural spirits
• proleptic irony


  a character not knowing what will happen
• vicissitude 


  change of circumstance that’s unfortunate
• perfidious 


  deceitful and untrustworthy
• depravity


  moral corruption/wickedness
• pagan


  a person holding different beliefs, not christianity/islam
• Machiavellian


  cunning, scheming (a person who schemes in a machiavellian way)