General and contextual terms

Catalyst: person or thing that triggers an event.

Didactic: intending to teach, or morally instruct, the audience about a certain subject.

Discordant: being contrary or at odds with the general mood or atmosphere.

Divine right of kings: a doctrine which states that the reigning monarch is subject to no other authority than that of God. In some cases, the monarch is likened to a divine being themselves.

Elizabethan period: refers to the historical epoch coinciding with the reign of Elizabeth I, stretching from 1558–1603.

Façade: a misleading outward appearance which masks someone’s true nature.

Fatalism: the belief that all events are predestined and therefore inevitable.

Great Chain of Being: the hierarchical system that ranks all elements of life and matter. Starting with God, followed by angels, fallen angels, stars, moons, kings, nobles, commoners, and so on. Thought to have been decreed by God.

Hamartia: a fatal flaw that turns out to be a character’s downfall.

Homosociality: same-sex relationships that are not romantic or sexual in nature, for example a friendship or a mentorship.

Hubris: excessive arrogance and pride in oneself.

Introspection: the act of closely examining one’s own thoughts and motivations.

Jacobean period: refers to the historical period coinciding with the reign of James I, the historical period stretching from 1603–1625.

Liminal: occupying a (literal or metaphorical) boundary or a threshold.

Machiavellian: conniving and unscrupulous, especially in politics.

Metamorphosis: the act of transformation, especially in mythology.

Milieu: one’s social environment.

Misrule: the disruption of social order, often associated with festivals such as twelfth night.

Moral censoriousness: using one’s own morals to be severely critical of others.

Nihilism: the rejection of all religious and moral values on the basis that life is meaningless.

Petrarchan love: a type of love which parallels the sonnets of the Italian poet Petrarch. It usually involves melodramatic suffering on the part of a rejected male lover.

Renaissance man: a person who is knowledgeable and talented in many areas, often with complex philosophical views.

Rota fortunae: Latin for ‘wheel of fortune’, the rota fortunae is a key symbol of the capricious nature of fate. While many of Shakespeare’s characters are influenced by fate, he does not wholly reject the idea of free will.

Shakespearean genres:

• Comedy: a play with happy themes, in which a group of characters generally seek to solve some complication. These usually end happily with one or more marriages.
• History: a play based on actual historical events and characters, although typically not entirely historically accurate.
• Tragedy: a darker play with a tragic end. These typically begin with a noble hero in a structured society, and follow said hero’s fall from grace, alienation from friends and family, and death.