Literary+Techniques

Literary Techniques
The following is a substantive table of literary techniques that are employed in Shakespearean text. Each technique is accompanied with a definition. Over the course of the term you are to find references in //Othello// that employ these techniques and justify the effect they might have. To quickly find the technique you are looking for, you can click on the following links: Alliteration; Antithesis; Assonance; Caesura; Couplet; Dramatic Irony; Enjambment; Hyperbole; Iambic Pentameter; Imagery; Metaphor; Onomatopoeia; Oxymoron; Personification; Prose; Pun; Repetition; Rhyme; Simile; Verse.

**Alliteration**: The repetition of the same, or similar, consonant sounds, usually on the first syllable of words
 * //IAGO (II.3.329-330) "she's __fr__amed as __fr__uitful / As the __fr__ee elements".// Framed, fruitful and free are all positive qualities, through affiliating them together via allieration Iago shows they are all synonymous with Desdemona

**Antithesis**: The contrast of ideas or words in a balanced or parallel construction
 * Reference / Quote / Effect

**Assonance**: The repetition of vowel symbols in neighbouring syllables
 * Reference / Quote / Effect

**Caesura**: The break or pause in the middle of a line of verse, marked by punctuation
 * Reference / Quote / Effect

**Couplet**: A pair of verse lines that usually rhyme
 * Reference / Quote / Effect

**Dramatic Irony**: This is when the audience of a play knows crucial information that the characters on stage do not know.
 * Reference / Quote / Effect

**Enjambment**: When a sentence runs from one line of verse to the next, with no punctuation or pause.
 * Reference / Quote / Effect

**Hyperbole**: A description which exaggerates, by using extremes of language
 * Reference / Quote / Effect

**Iambic Pentameter**: A line of verse that includes ten syllables where every second beat is accented or stressed
 * Reference / Quote / Effect

**Imagery:** Figurative or vivid language which is used to invoke imaginative or emotional responses. NB: This is a very general term, and includes more specific examples like metaphor, similes and symbols
 * Reference / Quote / Effect

**Metaphor**: A substitution of an object or idea for another by stating one is the other, usually to show that they share one specific quality or feature
 * Reference / Quote / Effect

**Onomatopoeia**: A word that sounds like what it is describing
 * Reference / Quote / Effect

**Oxymoron**: A word or phrase made up of two opposites
 * **Reference / Quote / Effect**

**Personification**: A description of an object as if it were a person by giving it human characteristics
 * Reference / Quote / Effect

**Prose**: Ordinary speech or writing written in full sentences and divided into paragraphs. Prose doesn't have a set rhyme or meter, and is therefore an alternative to verse
 * Reference / Quote / Effect

**Pun**: A play on words that look or sound similar, but have different related meanings, to create new humorous or clever ones.
 * Reference / Quote / Effect

**Repetition**: The use of the same word of phrase more than once to emphasise meaning
 * Reference / Quote / Effect

**Rhyme**: When to or more words or phrases contain an identical or similar sound, particularly noticable at the end of a line
 * Reference / Quote / Effect

**Simile**: A comparison between to objects or ideas using 'like' or 'as', usually to show that they are sharing similar characteristics
 * Reference / Quote / Effect

**Verse**: A body of writing divided from other lines into a separate group. Shakespeare uses a type of verse called 'blank verse', which is a line of iambic pentameter that ends on an unrhymed or 'blank' syllable and gives the words a rhythm similar to a heartbeat. It is often used to express serious and sincere emotions.
 * Reference / Quote / Effect

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