ENGLISH 10—SPRING

Overview:

LITERATURE

· Night by Elie Wiesel (a memoir)

· Antigone by Sophocles (drama)

· epics and legends

· poetry

THE ESSAY—6 total

· the response to literature essay (a repeat from fall of 9^th grade)

· the business letter

· to write for assessment / on-demand writing—twice

· response essay

· division and classification essay

WRITING AND GRAMMAR

· punctuation: apostrophes, brackets, dashes, ellipsis, exclamation marks, hyphens, quotation marks, parentheses, question marks, slashes

· diction and syntax

· relative clauses

· CAHSEE prep (as needed)

READING, LITERATURE, AND LITERACY

· assonance/consonance

· couplet, quatrain, octave, sestet

· enjambment

· legend

· lyric poem

· myth

· narrative poem

· onomatopoeia

· parody

· poetic forms: haiku, sonnet, tanka, villanelle

· sensory language

· speaker

· dialogue, scene designs, soliloquies, asides, and character foils in dramatic literature

· word derivations

· connotation and denotation

PUNCTUATION

Apostrophes

Apostrophes to show possession or ownership:

· Jasper’s baseball

· the cat’s pajamas

Apostrophes to create contractions:

· couldn’t

· hadn’t

When an apostrophe is used to create a contraction, it is actually serving the function of replacing one or more missing letters. This “missing letter” function makes the apostrophe a handy device when you are trying to create dialect or slang speech:

· “Are you goin’ home after the show?”

Brackets

Brackets are used to provide explanatory information inside quotation marks. As part of learning how to quote well, brackets are an essential tool.

Here is a two-sentence passage:

· The voters seemed fickle. Throughout the election, the candidates found it difficult to determine what they wanted.

Now suppose that, in a paper you were writing, you wanted to quote the second sentence:

· “Throughout the election, the candidates found it difficult to determine what they wanted.”

Problem 1: Your reader does not know who “they” is. So you must tell your reader. Problem 2: Since these are quoted words that belong to another person, you have no authority to change the words. This is where brackets come in. Inside brackets, tell the reader who “they” is:

· “Throughout the election, the candidates found it difficult to determine what they [the voters] wanted.”

One more example:

· “The writer was never again able to recapture the magic of that first best-seller.”

The reader, of course, will wonder what writer is being referred to. Brackets are used to provide this information for the reader:

· “The writer [John Updike] was never again able to recapture the magic of that first best-seller.”

Dashes

The dash as strong comma:

The dash indicates a strong pause. At times, the dash is like a super comma. Here is a sentence with commas:

· The heffalump, which is a difficult animal to trap, lived in the Hundred Acre Wood.

This sentence is grammatically correct. But, to achieve a more dramatic pause at the spots where the commas now appear, dashes can be used:

· The heffalump—which is a difficult animal to trap—lived in the Hundred Acre Wood.

The dash as a colon:

You will recall (from last semester) that the colon is used to “general statement to the left, specific explanatory material to the right.” The dash can also fulfill this purpose. The colon provides a more formal, subdued effect; the dash provides a little more emphasis and pizzazz. Examples:

· [with a colon] The meeting was about to begin when Oscar realized what he had forgotten: his nametag.

· [with a colon] The meeting was about to begin when Oscar realized what he had forgotten—his pants.

The dash as an inverted colon:

During the previous semester, you learned the “Sentence – colon – list” pattern. This same pattern can be reversed; if it is reversed, the dash is used:

· [the standard pattern, with a colon] Winnie-the-Pooh invited these people to the party: Rabbit, Eeyore, Owl, and Piglet.

· [the reversal pattern, with a dash] Rabbit, Eeyore, Owl, and Piglet—each of these people were invited to the party by Winnie-the-Pooh.

How to make a dash in a word processing program: In Microsoft Word and other word processing program, the dash is created by typing a word, then a hyphen, then a hyphen, then a word, then the space bar. A dash and a hyphen are not the same thing:

· dash: —

· hyphen: -

Ellipses

Standard ellipsis:

Like brackets, the ellipsis is an important mark to use while quoting material. The ellipsis (ellipses is the plural form—this is the mark that many refer to as dot-dot-dot) indicates that a word or words have been removed.

Suppose you want to quote the following sentence in an essay you are writing:

· Robert Frost, who was also a New England Farmer, wrote highly symbolic poetry.

The part about Frost farming in New England is irrelevant to your point, so you decide to leave that phrase out of your quotation. You indicate with an ellipsis that some original material was left out.

· “Robert Frost … wrote highly symbolic poetry.”

As you see above, the standard method for creating an ellipsis is space dot dot dot space.

Ellipsis in MLA style:

If you are writing an essay and you are quoting material, you are probably using MLA style. In MLA style, different procedures are used for creating an ellipsis.

Let’s assume that the Robert Frost material is taken from a book and that the words we want to quote appear on page 122 of that book. In MLA style, we show omitted words by typing space dot space dot space dot space.

· “Robert Frost . . . wrote highly symbolic poetry” (122).

Ellipsis at the end of a sentence:

The method used to indicate words were removed from the middle of a sentence differs from the method used for removing words from the end of a sentence. Suppose we come across the sentence Robert Frost wrote highly symbolic poetry, and he produced some of the finest apples in New Hampshire. We want to quote the first half only. After the word “poetry” we type space dot space dot space dot quotation mark. There is no space to the right of the third “dot.”

· “Robert Frost wrote highly symbolic poetry . . .” (122).

Ellipsis and brackets:

At one time MLA style required brackets around an ellipsis, but now the brackets are no longer required. There are, however, two situations in which you might still place brackets around ellipses:

1. Your instructor asks you to.
2. The source author uses ellipses of his or her own, and you want to distinguish your own ellipses from the source author’s ellipses.

An ellipsis inside brackets looks like this:

• “Robert Frost [. . .] wrote highly symbolic poetry” (122).

End Marks

The three end marks are the period, the exclamation mark, and the question mark. For the most part, the three end marks align with the four sentence types.

· Declarative sentences end with periods. Declarative sentences are what we might think of as “normal” sentences—sentences that make a statement.

· Exclamatory sentences end with exclamation marks. Sentences like There’s a tornado on the horizon! are exclamatory.

· Interrogative sentences end with question marks. “Interrogative sentence” is the more formal term for what most people simply refer to as “questions.”

· Imperative sentences are commands and may end with either periods or exclamation marks: Turn the lights off! or Turn the lights off.

Some Notes:

· “Exclamatory” or “exclamative”—either is acceptable.

· “Exclamation mark” or “exclamation point”—either is acceptable.

· Exclamation marks show strong emotion, and should be used sparingly. And never use more than one to conclude a sentence.

Hyphens

Hyphens are commonly used to join words or word parts together. Some prefixes, for example, are joined to words with hyphens: self-preservation and ex-ballplayer are two examples.

Hyphens used to create compound adjectives:

Compound adjectives are two-or-more words that work together as if they were a single adjective. Some examples:

· the newspaper-delivery business

· the middle-class crisis

· a four-page report

The hyphenation of compound adjectives is governed by certain rules. One rule is that compound adjectives are hyphenated when appearing to the left of the noun, but not to the right of the noun.

· Thus “the middle-class crisis” is a “crisis of the middle class.”

Another rule is that hyphens do not follow –ly adverbs.

· Thus we may have a “public-awareness program” and a “publicly funded program.”

Quotation Marks

Quotation marks to enclose spoken words:

· “We’ll need to get a good night’s sleep,” said Elvira.

· “The rain in Spain,” declared Igor, “falls mainly on the plain.”

The words “said Elvira” and “declared Igor” are known as tag phrases. All other words in the examples are spoken and therefore enclosed within quotation marks.

Direct quotations need quotation marks, while indirect quotations do not. Examples:

· direct quotation: “We’ll need to get a good night’s sleep,” said Elvira.

· indirect quotation: Elvira said that we’ll need to get a good night’s sleep.

Quotation marks to enclose titles of shorter works:

· “The Monkey’s Paw,” a short story

· “Success Is Counted Sweetest,” a poem

Titles of longer works, however, are italicized:

· The Lord of the Flies, a novel

· Antigone, a play

Titles that would be italicized in other writing situations are underlined in MLA style:

· The Lord of the Flies, a novel

· Antigone, a play

Quotation marks to refer to words as words:

· Many people drink milk that comes from a cow.

· The word “cow” is a one-syllable word.

In the first example above, the word “cow” refers to the animal. We want our reader to picture a large bovine with four stomachs. But in the second example we are referring the word made by the letters “c-o-w.” In the second example the word “cow” has quotation marks around it because we are referring to the word itself, not to the object the word normally represents.

It is also permissible to let italics serve this same function:

· The word cow is a one-syllable word.

Quotation marks to say “this is their word, not mine.”

· The highlight of the “party” was the punch bowl.

In this example, the writer actually saying this: “Others may have called this a party, but it was not my idea of a party.”

In a similar vein, quotation marks can be employed to indicate sarcasm, but this use of quotation marks is usually best avoided:

· Norman decided he would “help” us with another of his “great ideas.”

Punctuating with quotation marks:

In general, punctuation marks—like commas and periods—get placed inside quotation marks.

· “To begin with,” explained Edwin, “I was nowhere near your house on Sunday.”

Semicolons and colons, however, get placed outside quotation marks:

· Einstein named his theory the “theory of relativity”; Darwin named his theory the “theory of evolution.”

Another situation in which punctuation is placed outside quotation marks is when the punctuation refers to words not contained within the quotation marks, like the question mark in this example:

· Are you telling me you’ve never heard of phrase “theory of relativity”?

Single quotation marks inside double quotation marks:

An example:

“Tomorrow,” said Kelvin, “I need to study Poe’s ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ for an upcoming quiz.”

Parentheses

Parentheses to enclose words used as an aside:

Sometimes you wish to include words that relate to a sentence but that are not an integral part of that sentence. Such words can be in the form of an aside, commentary, explanation, or an interrupter.

· For breakfast the waitress (boy, did she ever earn the tip she got) brought Don twelve different menu items.

In constructions such as the previous example, we may choose between parentheses and dashes. Parentheses “tone down” the material contained within, as if you are whispering those words to someone close at hand. Dashes to the opposite: words within dashes are emphasized and called attention to rather than toned down. Here are the two versions of the same sentence:

· For breakfast the waitress (boy, did she ever earn the tip she got) brought Don twelve different menu items.

· For breakfast the waitress—boy, did she ever earn the tip she got—brought Don twelve different menu items.

Parentheses to enclose numbers used to list items:

Any list can be written as a numbered list by adding numbers inside parentheses to the beginning of each item:

· without numbers: Don ate waffles with strawberry compote, a spinach and mushroom omelette topped with hollandaise sauce, and two orders of the stuffed French toast combo.

· with numbers: Don ate (1) waffles with strawberry compote, (2) a spinach and mushroom omelette topped with hollandaise sauce, and (3) two orders of the stuffed French toast combo.

Punctuating with parentheses:

The placement of a period inside or outside of parentheses depends on whether the parentheses contain an entire sentence or just part of a sentence:

· inside the parentheses: Don at two orders of the stuffed French toast combo (the most expensive item on the menu).

· inside the parentheses: Don at two orders of the stuffed French toast combo. (This happens to be the most expensive item on the menu.)

Slashes

This (/) is a slash. “Slash” is a more informal name for the more formal “virgule.”

A slash is used in place of a hyphen to join two concepts:

· Theresa considered herself a member of the Environmental/Progressive Movement.

In this example elements of the Environmental Movement and elements the Progressive Movement have been blended together to form a new entity known as the “Environmental/Progressive Movement.” Notice that no spaces are placed on either side of the slash.

Another example:

· Roger decided to take the class on a pass/fail basis.

It is sometimes said that the slash means “either/or,” but such usage can lead to problems. A better rule is this: If you mean “and,” write “and”; if you mean “or, write “or.” Usages such as “and/or” and “he/she” are best avoided.

A slash is used to show a line break in quoted lines of poetry:

Suppose we are writing an essay in MLA style and we want to quote from the poem “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.” We might devise a sentence something like this:

· While in the middle of his journey, the speaker finds himself “Between the woods and frozen lake / The darkest evening of the year” (36).

Note that, in this case, we type a space on each side of the slash. We also maintain the poem’s original capitalization and punctuation.

Diction

Diction is word choice. When comparing the diction of one writer (or speaker) to another, we might say that one writer uses more formal diction and another uses more informal. We cannot say that one level of diction is better than another without considering the audience. Correct diction is whatever level of diction is appropriate for the audience being addressed.

At a job interview, for example, we would want to raise our level of diction. Saying “If I decide to work here, are you going to hook me up with some mass bank, bro?” is an example of improper diction.

Syntax

“Syntax” refers to word order and the rules that govern the production of English. For example, we would not say “Never fish a hook without” because the rules of syntax say that the object of the preposition (“fish”) must follow the preposition (“without”). The rules of syntax also tell us that “Man bites dog” and “Dog bites man” are not the same statements.

Most writers of English innately understand the rules of syntax; therefore, the study of syntax is more likely to be useful when lesser-used structures are studied. An example:

· A griffin sat on the nest.

This sentence follows the customary English order of subject to the left and verb to the right of the subject. The rules of syntax tell us that the normal subject-verb order can be reversed when a prepositional phrase is moved to the beginning of a sentence. Thus, syntax allows both of the sentences; the second version is a more stylistic version of the first.

· A griffin sat on the nest.

· On the nest sat a griffin.

Relative Clauses

Relative clauses begin with relative pronouns. Five key relative pronouns are who, that, which, whose, and whom.

· “Whose” is possessive, as in “Melvin is the man whose keys are lost.” The possessive relative pronoun “whose” shows that the man owns the keys.

· “Whom” is an objective relative pronoun. It is used as the object of a preposition in sentences such as “Melvin is the man to whom I owe my life.” “Whom” is the object of the preposition “to.”

· “Whom” is also used in constructions such as “Melvin is the man whom Thurston admires more than all others.” (Though “whom” doesn’t appear to be objective, it is objective because the same concept could be stated as “Thurston admires whom.”

The other three relative pronouns—who, that, and which—are used more frequently and should receive more attention.

WHO:

“Who” is used with people. Consider this sentence: “The bowling champion, who wore a personalized bowling shirt, accepted the trophy.” In this sentence:

· “who” is the relative pronoun

· “who wore a personalized bowling shirt” is the relative clause

Note that relative clauses of this type follow nouns. The clause follows the noun “champion” (or “the bowling champion”) and the relative pronoun “who” refers to the antecedent “champion.”

THAT:

“That” is used with things. Consider this sentence: “The trophy that sits on the champ’s mantle is for being the world’s best bowler.” In this sentence:

· “that” is the relative pronoun

· “that sits on the champ’s mantle” is the relative clause

The clause follows the noun “trophy” and the relative pronoun “that” refers to the antecedent “trophy.”

WHICH:

“Which” is used with things. Consider this sentence: “The trophy. which sits on the champ’s mantle, is for being the world’s best bowler.” In this sentence:

· “which” is the relative pronoun

· “which sits on the champ’s mantle” is the relative clause

The clause follows the noun “trophy” and the relative pronoun “that” refers to the antecedent “trophy.”

Restrictive and nonrestrictive clauses:

Nonrestrictive clauses receive commas; restrictive clauses receive no commas. They “restrict” the number of people or things the noun can refer to.

· The bowling champion who wore a personalized bowling shirt accepted the trophy.

In this sentence, the number of bowling champions is “restricted” to one: just the one wearing the personalized bowling shirt.

· The trophy that sits on the champ’s mantle is for being the world’s best bowler.

In this sentence, the number of trophies is “restricted” to one: just the one sitting on the champ’s mantle.

Punctuating relative clauses:

As we have seen, relative clauses can be punctuated with commas or without—depending on whether the clause is nonrestrictive or restrictive. The relative pronoun “who” can be used in either fashion:

· nonrestrictive: The bowling champion, who wore a personalized bowling shirt, accepted the trophy.

· restrictive: The bowling champion who wore a personalized bowling shirt accepted the trophy.

In the case of “which” and “that,” “which” is the nonrestrictive pronoun and should always receive commas; “that” is the restrictive pronoun and should never receive commas.

· nonrestrictive: The trophy, which sits on the champ’s mantle, is for being the world’s best bowler.

· restrictive: The trophy that sits on the champ’s mantle is for being the world’s best bowler.

Connotation and Denotation

The denotation of a word is the dictionary definition of that word. The connotation of a word is the social meaning we add to a word.

Consider the words “slender” and “skinny.” Both words have the same denotation, but “slender” has a more positive connotation and “skinny” has a more negative connotation.

While writing, we should be aware of our word choices. If we are trying to achieve a certain effect in our writing, we should choose those words that provide the appropriate connotation.

While reading, we should be aware of the subtle ways in which writers may try to lead us to certain conclusion. One way this is done is through intentionally choosing words for their positive or negative connotations.

Word Derivations

The phrase “word derivation” can refer to a couple different concepts.

“Word derivation” referring to a word’s source language:

One meaning of “word derivation” is “the language a word comes from.” For example, the word “solstice” (which refers to the first day of summer or the first day of winter) is derived from the Latin word solstitium. In its original form, “sol” refers to “the sun” and “stitium” means “stoppage.” So on the first day of summer and the first day of winter we have a “sun stoppage”—the solstice.

“Word derivation” referring to changing a word’s form.

Many words have derivations. Derivations can be formed by adding suffixes to words. Often a word’s derivation is a different part of speech than the original word. For example, the word “love” is a noun. By adding the suffix “ly,” we create the adjective “lovely.”

Some derivations are the same part of speech as the original word. For example, by adding the suffix “-er” we can create the noun “love” from the noun “lover.”

CAHSEE Preparation

As of January 2009, information on what skills are tested by the CAHSEE (the exit exam) and how many questions are asked per skill can be found at this URL:

http://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/tg/hs/documents/bplangarts03.pdf

LITERARY TERMS

assonance/consonance—Terms that refer to repeated sounds, usually in poetry.

· “Assonance” is the occurrence of repeated internal vowel sounds. The long “a” sound in “strike” and “grind” are an example of assonance, as are the short “a” sounds in “hat” and “man.” In the following line, assonance exists in the long “e” sounds of “machine,” “beast,” and “knees”:

o The setting sun was licking the hard bright machine like some great invisible beast on its knees.

· “Consonance” is the occurrence of repeated consonant sounds within words. For example, Poe’s line “And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain” contains consonance in the “s” sounds of “uncertain” and “rustling.” The line “All mammals named Sam are clammy” contains consonance in the “m” sounds of “mammals,” “named,” “Sam,” and “clammy.

o Do not confuse consonance with alliteration. Both consonance and alliteration are created by the repetition of consonant sounds. The difference is that alliteration is found in repeated consonant sounds at the beginning of words, while consonance is found in repeated consonant sounds within or at the end of words. To return to the Poe line, “silken” and “sad” provide an example of alliteration, while “uncertain” and “rustling” provide an example of consonance.

couplet, quatrain, sestet, octave—Terms that refer to line groupings in poetry.

· A couplet is a pair of rhymed lines.

· A quatrain is a set of four lines, often rhymed ABAB.

· A sestet is a set of six rhymed lines.

· An octave is a set of eight rhymed lines.

enjambment—Enjambment refers to lines of poetry that, instead of stopping at the end of the line, continue on into the next line. Enjambment is the opposite of end stop. The poem “Pot Roast” makes a good example of enjambment:

I gaze upon the roast,

that is sliced and laid out

on my plate

and over it

I spoon the juices

of carrot and onion.

Note that the reader need not stop at the ends of any of the lines. The poem is one sentence long, so the entire poem can be read in the same way that any prose sentence would be read.

legend—Legends are stories that have sprung up around one central and usually heroic person. The legends associated with King Arthur and with Robin Hood are two good examples of legends. With legends, it is not the case that one authoritative version of the story or stories exists; instead, many story tellers and story creators have added to the body of legend over time.

lyric poem—A lyric poem is a poem that expresses personal emotion. Today many people use the term to refer to “the words to a song,” but the term actually had its roots in Greek poetry. Poems that were intended to be accompanied by a stringed lyre were known as lyric poems. Here is a short lyric poem by Raymond Carver:

And did you get what

you wanted from this life, even so?

I did.

And what did you want?

To call myself beloved, to feel myself

beloved on the earth.

myth—A myth is a story that frequently contains supernatural beings, ancestors, or heroes. In the pre-scientific world of ancient peoples, myths were often used to explain events in the world that today are explained through science. One common use of myth was to explain the creation of the world or the creation of things that are in the world. For example, the Sahaptin people tell the story of “Coyote and the Columbia,” which tells how the Columbia River was formed.

narrative poem—A narrative poem is a poem that tells a story. A narrative poem can be a long epic like the Iliad or the Odyssey. A narrative poem can also be a shorter poem; “The Raven” can be considered a narrative poem, for it tells the story of the speaker, his lost love, and his visitation by the raven.

onomatopoeia—An onomatopoeic word is a word that names a sound; the sound it names is similar to the sound of the word itself. Therefore, the word the sound of a “zip” is represented by the word “zip”; the “woof” sound a dog makes is represented by the word “woof”; and so on.

parody—A parody is a work that makes fun of the original work in the same form as the original. For example, there is an annual Bad Hemingway Contest in which writers write humorous pieces in the style of Ernest Hemingway. The winner of the contest is flown to Harry’s Bar and American Grill in Venice, Italy, a favorite hangout of Hemingway’s.

haiku, tanka, sonnet, villanelle—Each of these is a poetic form:

· A haiku is a form based on traditional Japanese poetry. In the English version, a haiku is a three-line poem of 7–5–7 syllables. Because the form is so short, the poem’s philosophic view or expression of emotion is often implied rather than stated outright. A reference to one of the four seasons is usually implied as well.

· A tanka is similar to a haiku, except that it is five lines long with a syllable count of 5–7–5–7–7.

· A sonnet is fourteen lines of rhymed iambic pentameter. The two major sonnet forms are the English or Shakespearian and the Italian or Petrarchan.

o The English or Shakespearian sonnet consists of three quatrains and a concluding couplet. The common rhyme scheme is ABAB CDCE EFEF GG.

o The Italian or Petrarchan sonnet consists of an octave and a sestet. Traditionally, the octave states the problem and the sestet then answers or resolves the problem stated in the octave.

· A villanelle is a 19-line poem consisting of five tercets (3-line stanzas) and a concluding quatrain. A villanelle has only two rhymes total, but what really distinguishes the villanelle from other poetic forms is the frequency with which lines are repeated. Lines 1, 6, 12, and 18 are identical lines; additionally, lines 3, 9, 15, and 19 are identical lines. Needless to say, the key to composing a high-quality villanelle is the phrasing of the two key lines that ultimately fill 8 of the poems 19 lines.

sensory language—Sensory language is language that appeals to any of the five senses. Sensory language is likely to appeal to the sense of sight; the other senses are sound, taste, smell, and touch. Here is the first stanza of a poem:

The wind from out of the west is blowing
The homeward-wandering cows are lowing,
Dark grow the pine woods, dark and drear, —
The woods that bring the sunset near.

These four lines contain this sensory language: You can see the cows and the woods; you can hear the wind and the cows; you can feel the wind.

The concept of “imagery” is synonymous with sensory language; for example, the second line presents us with an image of cows lowing.

speaker—The speaker in a poem or story is the person whose voice we hear delivering the words of the poem or story. The term “speaker” allows us to discuss this person without having to assume that the voice we hear must belong to the writer. For example, here are the first two lines of “Lucinda Matlock” by Edgar Lee Masters:

I went to the dances at Chandlerville.

And played snap-out at Winchester.

In this case, the speaker is not the poet, Edgar Lee Masters, but a fictional persona named Lucinda Matlock. In this case we know the speakers name, but in many cases the speaker’s name is not given. In such cases, the term “speaker” becomes a handy one for referring to the person who is “delivering” the poem.

dialogue, scene design, soliloquy, aside, foil—Each of these terms relates to drama:

· “Dialogue” refers to the words spoken by the characters in the play.

· “Scene design” refers to the playwrights description of how the stage should appear, or to the actual backdrops and furniture that appear on the stage. For example, here is the opening description (scene design) from An Enemy of the People by Henrik Ibsen:

(SCENE.—DR. STOCKMANN’S sitting-room. It is evening. The room is plainly but neatly appointed and furnished. In the right-hand wall are two doors; the farther leads out to the hall, the nearer to the doctor’s study. In the lefthand wall, opposite the door leading to the hall, is a door leading to the other rooms occupied by the family. In the middle of the same wall stands the stove, and, further forward, a couch with a looking-glass hanging over it and an oval table in front of it. On the table, a lighted lamp, with a lampshade. At the back of the room, an open door leads to the dining-room.

· “Soliloquy” refers to one character speaking his or her thoughts out loud; it is as if the audience is given the opportunity to overhear a character’s internal thoughts. One of the most famous soliloquy’s is the Hamlet soliloquy, which begins “To be or not to be, that is the question.”

· An “aside” is a line meant to be overheard by the audience but not meant to be heard by other characters on stage. Imagine three people in a room. If person 1 wants to say something mean about person 3, person 1 might whisper to person 2 from behind his or her hand. This is similar to an aside.

In the opening scene of Romeo and Juliet, we find Sampson and Gregory of the house of Capulet. Sampson bites his thumb at two passing Montagues, who then ask Sampson if he is biting his thumb. In an aside to Gregory, Sampson says: Is the law of our side, if I say ay?

· A “foil” is a character in literature who is the opposite of a more major character. For example, Dr. Watson may be seen as a foil to Sherlock Holmes. A foil usually serves a purpose, and that is to provide a contrast to the main character. This contrast allows the reader or audience to better understand the main character. For example, in Hamlet, Hamlet suffers from an inability to take action. Another character, Laertes, is ready to take action at a moment’s notice. Thus, we more fully understand Hamlet by being able to contrast him to Laertes, the foil.

The term “foil” refers to the practice of placing polished foil underneath a gemstone so as to make it shine more brightly.