Stage directions are written instructions in a play’s script that guide the actors, director, and production team. These directions explain how characters should move, speak, gesture, and react, and they also describe lighting, sound effects, props, and the overall setting. They are not spoken aloud during the performance. Instead, they help the audience experience the…

Definition:A dialogue is a conversation between two or more characters in a literary, dramatic, or narrative work. It is used to reveal character traits, advance the plot, develop conflict, or convey information in a natural and engaging way. Example:From Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird: Scout: “Do you defend n******, Atticus?”Atticus: “Of course I do.…

Definition:A soliloquy is a long speech delivered by a character alone on stage, revealing their innermost thoughts, feelings, and motivations. Unlike an aside, a soliloquy is not meant for other characters to hear—it’s spoken as if the character is thinking aloud. It allows the audience to understand the character’s private emotions and conflicts. Example:From William…

Definition:An aside is a short comment or speech that a character delivers directly to the audience (or sometimes to themselves) while other characters on stage cannot hear it. It reveals the speaker’s inner thoughts, feelings, or intentions and helps the audience understand their true motives. Example:In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Hamlet says quietly to the audience:…

💬 Paronomasia – Definition: Paronomasia is a literary device that refers to a pun — a play on words that exploits the multiple meanings of a term or similar-sounding words for humorous or rhetorical effect. It comes from the Greek paronomazein, meaning “to call with a slight change of name.” 💡 Example: ✨ Key Point:…

🗣️ Monologue – Definition: A monologue is a speech delivered by a single character in a play, film, or literary work, usually expressing their thoughts, feelings, or intentions aloud, often while other characters are present but silent, or when the speaker is alone. Monologues can be used to: 💡 Example: From Shakespeare’s Hamlet (“To be,…

🧠 Logopoeia – Definition: Logopoeia (from Greek logos, “word,” and poiein, “to make”) is a type of poetic expression that plays with the meanings, sounds, and associations of words to create intellectual or witty effects. The term was coined by Ezra Pound, who described it as “the dance of the intellect among words.”It relies not…

🏛️ Isosephy – Definition: Isosephy (from the Greek ἰσοψηφία, meaning “equal in numerical value”) is a Greek literary and numerological device in which letters of words are assigned numerical values, and two or more words or phrases are compared or linked because their total numerical values are the same. It’s the Greek equivalent of “gematria”…

✅ Definition: A hapax legomenon is a word or expression that appears only once in a specific context — this could be an entire language, a single text, or an author’s body of work. These rare words are especially interesting in linguistics, literature, and biblical studies, because they can be tricky to interpret without other…

Exergasia (also spelled exergasis) is a rhetorical device in which a single idea is repeated and developed through different words, phrases, or examples, to emphasize or clarify it. In other words, it’s when a writer or speaker restates the same thought in various ways to drive the point home. ✅ Definition: Exergasia is a rhetorical…