Notes for The Comedy of Errors test

Use the note cards provided. You cannot complete these on your device because I am taking them up to grade. Write the literary term and definition on the front of the
card. You do not need to include the example if I have given one. Find an example from the text and write it on the backside of the note card. Remember to include the
Act, Scene and Line. Example: Courtesan: Sir I must have that diamond from you. (Act V, Scene i, line 404)

Simile a comparison of two different things or ideas through the use of the words like or as
Metaphor a comparison of two unlike things not using like or as
Personification writing that gives animals, inanimate objects or abstract ideas human
characteristics
Oxymoron a form of paradox that combines a pair of opposite terms into a single unusual
expression
Hyperbole a deliberate, extravagant and often outrageous exaggeration; may be used for
either serious or comic effect

Parallelism the arrangement and repetition of words, phrases, or sentence structures (usually in a series of
three). Parallelism adds rhythm and emotional impact.

Allusion a reference to a literary, mythological, or historical person, place, or thing.

Polysyndeton - the use of several conjunctions in close succession, especially where some might be

omitted (as in "he ran and jumped and laughed for joy").
Asyndeton - is a figure of speech in which one or several conjunctions are omitted from a series of
related clause. Examples are veni, vidi, vici (English translation) "I came, I saw, I conquered".
Ellipses - a series of dots that usually indicate an unfinished thought or, at the end of a sentence, a trailing
off into silence
Assonance - repetition of vowel sounds to create internal rhyming within phrases or sentences. Example:
in the phrase "Do you like blue?", ("o"/"ou"/"ue" sound) is repeated within the sentence and is
assonant.
Consonance - the same consonant two or more times in short succession, as in "pitter patter" or in "all
mammals named Sam are clammy".
Anaphora - repeating a sequence of words at the beginnings of neighboring clauses for emphasis.
Example: Mad world! Mad kings! Mad composition! William Shakespeare, King John, II i
Anadiplosis - the repetition of the last word of a preceding clause. The word is used at the end of a

sentence and then used again at the beginning of the next sentence. Example: "Fear leads to anger.
Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering." Yoda, Star Wars

Epistrophe - the repetition of the same word or words at the end of successive phrases, clauses or

sentences. Example: "There is no Southern problem. There is no Northern problem. There is only an
American problem." Lyndon B. Johnson in "We Shall Overcome"

Diacope - repetition of a word or phrase with one or two intervening words. Example: "Put out the

light, and then put out the light." (Shakespeare, Othello, V ii)

Characters in the play - There is a list of all characters in the book on the page right before the play
begins. Study the important lines and who said them that I went over while we read. Your notes and
Page 215 will be helpful for this. Also, be familiar with all the sections I paraphrased for you while we
read.