Literary Term Assignment—Hamlet

A capable student of AP Literature has a command of the vocabulary necessary to discuss an author’s craft in poetry and prose. To assist you in developing and employing an appropriate vocabulary for literary analysis and criticism, you will be completing an ongoing personal literary term glossary during our reading of Hamlet.

As we read the play, you will recognize examples of the terms eligible for your glossary assignment and complete entries to be turned in at the end of each Act.

Potential Terms

alliteration

allusion

apostrophe

aside

assonance

antithesis

asyndeton

caesura

conceit

consonance

chiasmus

deus ex machina

dramatic irony

enjambment

extended metaphor

foreshadowing

hyperbole

imagery

juxtaposition

litotes

metaphor

motif

onomatopoeia

oxymoron

parallelism

paradox

personification

pun

rhetorical question

rhyme

simile

situational irony

symbol

synesthesia

tragic flaw

verbal irony

Guidelines and Grading

You will submit two entries per act of the play (ten total, deadlines given in advance)

  • Each submission of two entries will be worth 20 points in papers/projects category (100 total by the end of the play).

All entries must follow the correct format and be typed to be graded

  • Plagiarism will result in an irreversible zero for the full Literary Term Assignment (all 100 points, no exceptions).
  • No entries will be accepted late.

Format for Literary Term Entries

  1. Name of the literary devices you have selected and a definition (in your own words)
  1. Quotation, including appropriate MLA citation (Act scene line/lines)
  1. Discussion of function/effect: What is the author’s purpose in employing this resource of language at this point in the work? How does this particular device enhance what the writer is attempting to convey? You may wish to provide commentary on theme, character, setting or some other issue in explaining how this device functions in your example and the larger work.

Example

  1. Aside:An actor’s speech, directed to the audience, which is not supposed to be heard by other actors on stage.
  2. “Shall I hear more, or shall I speak at this?” (2.2.39-40)
  3. In Act 2, Romeo says this while watching Juliet at her window. He has just spoken his first soliloquy in which he raves about the power of Juliet’s beauty and Juliet has just called out Romeo’s name, not knowing he is there listening. The aside here indicates the nervousness mixed with excitement Romeo is feeling. Even though it appears Juliet is thinking about him the same way he is thinking about her, he is still unsure about whether now is a good time to make himself known to her. There are two things at stake if he does reveal himself: romantic rejection and his life itself. Considering that he ultimately does speak to her as soon as she says he should give up his name and take her instead, it seems that the former was a more compelling reason for the aside than the thought of losing his life. There is no more need to speak to himself now that he knows Juliet feels the same way about him that he does about her.