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Dramatic Irony

By TaRae, 13, Ashland, Montana, USA

In this paper I’m going to define Dramatic Irony and give examples of what it is. You should read this paper because you could identify dramatic irony in Romeo and Juliet act 4. Dramatic irony is common in any kind of plays. In the next paragraphs I’ll identify dramatic irony and give examples.

Dramatic Irony:
Dramatic irony is a series of contradictions between what characters do or say and what the audience or reader knows to be true. It’s something that other characters don’t realize presently, the characters don’t know an important event that will cause a problem later in the play.
Romeo and Juliet got married secretly. Lady Capulet and Capulet were trying to make Juliet marry Paris. Juliet faked her death to be with Romeo.
Capulet tried to get Juliet ready to marry Paris by decorating the whole wedding and he made sure that the wedding was perfect. In Scene 4 lines 1-30 Capulet got the best cooks and wanted the wedding to be perfect.

Capulet:
In scene 4, lines 1-30, Capulet tries to get Juliet to marry Paris. Capulet decorates the wedding to where it would be perfect. He wants Juliet to marry Paris because he was very wealthy and he had great fame.
Capulet had given Juliet her freedom as a child and he wanted her to hurry up and marry Paris before she got too old.
The audience, Friar and the nurse were the only people who knew about Romeo and Juliet’s marriage. Romeo and Juliet fell in love and they knew that they shouldn’t be able to get married. This makes it a dramatic irony because Juliet is already married to Romeo.

Juliet:
In scene 3, lines 14-58, Juliet faked her death by drinking potion because she didn’t want to marry Paris. She was already married to Romeo and couldn’t get married to Paris because she was no longer a virgin.
Juliet didn’t know what to do and she was scared, so she went to Friar and asked him what she should do. Friar told Juliet to take the potion and it wouldn’t kill her and Juliet drank the potion and said this is for you Romeo.
The audience and Friar are the only people who know Juliet faked her death. Friar gave Juliet a potion that only would make her sleep and make people think she was dead. I think Juliet didn’t want to be killed when Paris found out she was no longer a virgin. I also think that Juliet wanted to be with Romeo. This makes it a dramatic irony because everybody thinks Juliet is dead; but what will happen if they all find out that she isn’t?

Lady Capulet:
In scene 3, lines 1-13, Lady Capulet didn’t know about Juliet planning to drink the potion. That same night, Juliet asked Lady Capulet if the nurse could sleep with her. Lady Capulet didn’t suspect anything wrong.
Lady Capulet didn’t ask Juliet if she was ok with marrying Paris. Instead they insisted that Juliet would marry Paris on that Thursday.
The audience, Friar, the nurse and Romeo are the only people who know about Juliet not wanting to marry Paris. Lady Capulet doesn’t know about Romeo and Juliet’s love and was trying to marry off Juliet before she got too old. This makes it a dramatic irony because Lady Capulet doesn’t know about Juliet not being dead.

Paris:
In scene 1, lines 1-43, Paris thought that Juliet loved him and wanted to marry him. Juliet and Paris never got time to talk and Paris thought Juliet fell in love with him.
Paris wants Juliet to confess her love for Paris to Friar. Paris told Friar about how Juliet was sad and lonely, and then finally when they got married, she wouldn’t be sad and lonely any longer. Juliet came in and Paris told Juliet to tell Friar about her love for him and Juliet said that she’d rather say it to his back then to his face.
Paris doesn’t know anything about Juliet and about her not being a virgin anymore. Paris and Juliet never got to talk to each other. Juliet and Romeo are the only people who know about Juliet losing her virginity, so she couldn’t marry Paris even if she wanted to. This makes it a dramatic irony because Paris will not know that Juliet didn’t love him. (May 2003)

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Dramatic Irony In Romeo and Juliet

By DeShanda Harris, 14, Ashland, Montana, USA

Dramatic Irony is a series of contradictions between what character do or say and what the audience or reader know to be true. In my own definition Dramatic Irony is something that the character doesn’t know and that the audience only knows what’s going on. An example of Dramatic Irony is in Scene 5 lines 5-140 everybody think that Juliet is really dead when she isn't. Juliet is faking her death so she could be with Romeo. I’m going to be telling some more examples of Dramatic Irony so that way you will understand it better.

Nurse:
In scene 5 lines 5-15 the nurse doesn't know about the poison and Juliet’s faking her death. When the nurse first goes into juliet’s room she keeps on trying to wake up Juliet and then she starts crying because she thinks that juliet is dead. When the nurse thinks that she's dead she tells everybody else which makes them think that she really is dead. That is an Irony because only Romeo, Juliet and Friar knows that she really isn't dead and she is going to awaken pretty soon. When they bury Juliet, Romeo and Friar is going to go and get her and Romeo & Juliet can finally be together without anybody knowing about them.

Lady Capulet:
In scene 2 lines 15-45 Lady Capulet doesn't know that Juliet doesn’t really love Paris. Lady Capulet thinks that Juliet loves Paris. She is happy then ever because she wants Juliet to marry paris. That is a dramatic Irony because lady Capulet doesn't know that Juliet doesn't really love Paris. Juliet Really loves Romeo instead of Paris. Lady Capulet also doesn’t know that juliet is faking her death just so she could be with romeo because nobody likes the fact that Romeo & Juliet are together and she doesn’t know that Friar is helping them with their plan. It seems like Lady Capulet hates Romeo so much that she would like to kill him.

Capulet:
In Scene 2 lines 5-45 Capulet doesn't know that Romeo & Juliet is married so he wants Juliet to marry paris, but if she does she will get sentenced to death because that's against the law. That is an irony because He doesn't know Romeo & Juliet is married. He is tyring to make Juliet marry Paris.

Paris:
In scene 1 lines 20-125 Paris wants to marry Juliet because he can and he’s not the enemy or anything because he is rich and that’s what Juliet’s father wants. Paris loves Juliet and doesn't know that she's married already. This is an Irony because Paris doesn't know that Juliet is taken. Juliet is taken and doesn't want to marry Paris, but Paris just thinks that she doesn't want to admit it that she loves him.
(May 2003)

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Romeo and Juliet Act 4

By Channon, 14, Ashland, Montana, USA

This paper is going to be about things that some of the characters don’t know in the play. This is called a dramatic irony. You should read this because it might come in use to you. Dramatic Irony is things that another character doesn’t know, but the audience and a different character. In the next paragraphs I’ll tell you more.

Dramatic Irony:
Dramatic Irony is a series of contradictions between what characters do or and say and what the audience or reader knows to be true. It’s something that the audience knows that other characters know. This usually ends up starting a problem because then they find out the problem.
This is an example of what some of the characters don’t know. They don’t know about Romeo and Juliet’s marriage. Capulet and Lady Capulet are trying to make her marry Paris. Juliet fakes her death to be with Romeo instead of Paris.

Capulet:
In scene 4, lines 1-30, Capulet tries to marry Juliet and Paris. He wants her to marry him because he is rich and very wealthy.
Capulet wants Juliet to get married before she gets to old and marry somebody else. He also wants her to marry him because she gave Juliet her freedom as a child and he wants her to listen to him this one time.
The Capulet don’t know about her marriage to Romeo, that’s why he’s planning all these things. If he knew than Romeo would really be punished and Juliet probly would to because she never told anybody.

Juliet:
In scene 3, lines 14-58, Juliet takes the potion to be with Romeo. She takes it because she doesn’t want to marry Paris but then she doesn’t want to tell him because they might know something is wrong. Juliet is also already married to Romeo so she can’t marry him.
Juliet is scared because she don’t know what to do because she is no longer a virgin. Paris and them don’t know that because they don’t know about her and Romeo.
Friar and the audience are the only ones that know Juliet faked her death. So this is a dramatic irony because the audience knows something that other characters don’t.

Lady Capulet:
In scene 3, lines 1-13, the Lady Capulet don’t know that Juliet is going to take that potion. She asks if she could sleep with her but she asks her to leave her alone for tonight because she don’t want anybody to know what she is doing. Lady Capulet doesn’t expect anything wrong.
Lady Capulet doesn’t know that Juliet doesn’t want to marry Paris. She tells her that they will be married on Thursday because she doesn’t know anything yet.
The audience, Friar and Romeo are the only ones that know about Juliet’s feeling towards Paris.

Paris:
In scene 1, lines 1-43, Paris thinks that Juliet loves him and wants to marry him. He thinks that they are going to be together and that its ok with her. They never really got time to talk or get to know each other but Paris don’t care because he thinks that hes in love with her.
Paris doesn’t know that she is already married and is no longer a virgin. He doesn’t know that she is married to Romeo, the person that he doesn’t like. He also doesn’t know anything about her because they never go time to talk to each other. The audience might know more about her more than Paris.
(May 2003)

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Dramatic Irony

By Kasey, 14, Ashland, Montana, USA

In this report I’m going to give you examples of dramatic irony in act four. This will teach you what dramatic irony is and how it is used in act four. There are a lot of different examples from act four in Romeo and Juliet. In the paragraphs below I’m going to tell you how it is used and what it is.

Dramatic Irony
Dramatic irony is a series of contradictions between what a character does or say and what the audience knows to be true. It’s when the people in the play think something different then the audience and the audience knows the truth.
All of the characters in the play except Friar think that she is dead, but the audience knows she isn’t. This is what the irony is, it’s when the audience knows the truth and the characters in the play think differently. That is a good example of dramatic irony and it is important in the act as well.

Paris
In scene 5 lines 56-59 Paris thought that she was dead and that she loved him. He thought that they were going to get married that morning, but he thought she was dead. At first Paris was going to see if she was ready to get married and then he found out that she was dead. He got sad and said that he will love her in death.
Paris thinks she was dead and that they loved each other, but she didn’t love him. Paris was sad because she was dead and he doesn’t really even know that she didn’t love him and didn’t want to marry him.
The audience knows that she isn’t dead, but he thinks that she is. He also thinks that she loved him and wanted to marry him. Juliet doesn’t love him and the audience knows that.

Nurse
In scene 5 1-16 the nurse doesn’t know that she took the potion and that Romeo is coming to get her. She knows about them being married, but she doesn’t tell Capulet and Lady Capulet their marriage. She thought that she was really dead, but doesn’t know the truth about what she did.
The nurse cried and was shocked when she found out about Juliet’s death. She really didn’t know the plan and was confused about why Juliet did it. Juliet didn’t tell the nurse about the plan and that surprised her.
The audience knows that she was not dead and they knew what the plan was. They knew that Romeo was going to come and take her. That’s what makes it dramatic irony.

Lady Capulet
Scene 5 lines 20-22 Lady Capulet doesn’t know about Romeo or that Juliet took the potion to fake her death to be with Romeo. She also thought that Juliet was in love with Paris and that Juliet wanted to marry him. Lady Capulet believed Juliet when she said that she was sorry and that she was going to marry Paris.
Lady Capulet was really sad and she still didn’t know about the two being married and still thinks that Juliet was in love with Paris. Lady Capulet said that she would kill herself to be with Juliet, but she doesn’t.
It is an example of dramatic irony because the audience knows about Romeo and that Juliet doesn’t love Paris. They know that Juliet was lying to them and that she hated Paris. She doesn’t know about it, but the audience does and that is what makes it dramatic irony.
Juliet
In scene 4 lines 55-58 Juliet takes the potion and she fakes her death to be with Romeo. She makes her family think that she is dead so that she won’t have to marry Paris. She does it because Romeo will come and get her when she is sleeping, then they will get to be together without worrying about people knowing or seeing them.
The potion that Friar gave Juliet is strong and she worries about what will happen if she really does die or if Romeo doesn’t come soon enough. She takes it anyway and falls asleep on her bed. She looks dead and her family gets really sad and they already started to plan the funeral for her.
The audience knows about what she did and the other characters in the play don’t know what is going on. Romeo doesn’t even know about the plan yet and the only one that knows is Friar. That’s what makes it dramatic irony.
There are a lot of different examples of dramatic irony in this report. Those are some examples of them in the paragraphs above. That is what dramatic irony is.
(May 2003)

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Character Analysis

By Maria, 14, Ashland, Montana, USA

Flat

A Flat character is a character who has only one or two personality traits. They are one demensional and can be described in one single phrase. They may be used to illustrate something positive, such as honesty, or something negative, such as betrayal. A Flat character also serves as a contrast to the main character. For example, if the main character is nice, then the flat character will be mean.
Prince is a Flat character because he is a mean, royal person who gets all mad about Montague and Capulets kids fighting in his town. He threatens them by saying, “If ever you disturb our streets again your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace.” By this he is saying if they are caught fighting again in his street, both Montague and Capulet shall die for their kids wrong doing. Prince is a mean person and Romeo is a nice person.
Tybalt is also a Flat character because he is a royal, spoiled, mean, little brat. He wants Romeo to be killed just because Romeo is a Montague and he is a Capulet. Romeo walks in and sees Juliet then falls madly in love with her. Tybalt hears him talking of her and notices Romeo is a Montague. Tybalt runs to his father, Capulet, and tells him Romeo, the Montague, is in his house so he should die. Capulet tells him not to do anything because Romeo is a nice guy and is showing no sign of hate towards the Capulets. Tybalt is like this through out the entire play, wanting to kill all who are not like him.
Round

A Round character is a character that has more demensions to their personality. They are complex, solid and mutifaceted like people in real life. Round characters are usually the main characters because they are required to show some sort of growth and development as the plot progresses. These characters go through a process of transformation which can have a noticeable difference in the character from the beginning of the story to the end of the story.
Romeo is a round character because he is one of the main characters. He has shown some growth for the beginning of the story to the end. For example, he was a sad, depressed boy, to a love struck happy young man who forgets all about the recent pastime. You can see the difference in this character because in the beginning of the story he was crying and hitting things. Now he is saying all kinds of mushy, romantic things to Juliet because he is madly in love with her. He also knows that he is falling madly in love with his enemy and can care less.
Juliet is also a Round character because she as well is a main character and she has grew very much from the beginning to the end. She was a good, smart young girl who was living her childhood, when she had to get married. She did not want love in the beginning and now she is also in love with Romeo. The difference is shown about this character because she was careless about love and marriage and now she is talking of love and care to Romeo. While not yet knowing that she may be falling in love with her enemy.

Dynamic
Dynamic is a character that changes over the course of the play, Prefebly the main character, they are often round characters because they will have more than one trait to their personality.
Montague is a Dynamic character because he does change over the course of the play. At first he starts out all mean and wanting to fight capulet. He has his sword out and ready to go in to battle, then he changes to the worried, loving father. When every body leaves he then talks about how worried he is about Romeo. This is why he is a dynamic character.
Capulet is also a dynamic character because like Montague he does change throughout the play. In the beginning of the play he is all ready to fight Montague in the middle of the street, then he changes to a nice, non-trouble making person. For example, he’s ready to fight and then he changes when Tybalt comes running and tells him to kill Romeo because he is in their house. Capulet just sits there and tells him “no” because romeo is a nice, respectful guy.

Static
Static is a character that never changes their personality. They are very predictable and are often the flat characters.These characters are basically the boring people of the play. These characters are also usually the mean and obnoxtious people.
Sampson is a static character because he never ever changed his personality in this whole play. He still wanted to fight and cause trouble. He was the person who wanted to go to the party to meet some women and then crash the party. Very predictable because in the beginning of the play he is the one who wanted to start the fight and cause all this trouble, so you would think that he is the one that wants to crash the party.
Gregory is a static character as well, he is very predictable and he can be described in one phrase. Gregory is also a big troublemaker. He may not want to start the fights all the time, but he does fight them. So basically Gregory is a follower and not exactly the leader.

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Summary of a Midsummer's Night's Dream

By Jessica, 13, Ashland, Montana, USA

1-15: In the beginning, a faerie casts a spell on Lysander and Demetrious to make them fall in love with Helena. Before, they were both in love With Hermia. Hermia wakes up and starts looking for Lysander, and, when she finds him, she asks him why he left. He said “Why should I stay when I love Helena”.

16-68: Hermia asks Helena, “Why do the men love you instead of me?” Helena thinks that all three of them are playing a mean trick on her. Hermia says that she’s not scolding Helena, but Helena seems to be scolding her.

69-118: Lysander and Demetrius are telling Helena how much they love her. They want Hermia to leave so they can be alone with Helena, and Hermia is getting mad.

116-153: Helena wants to leave because she doesn’t like any of them. Hermia goes with her because she thinks Helena will come back and steal Lysander and Demetrius.

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Character Analysis in Romeo and Juliet

By Tristin, 14, Busby, Montana, USA

Round Character

One who has more dimensions to his/her personality complex. They are solid, this means they are not like fake. They are multifaceted like people in real life. They are like Real people, they have a lot of emotions after things happen in the story to them. This kind of character can be a main character.
Benvolio is an example of this kind of character. He isn’t a main character. He is caring and companionate. He also knows how to fight and take care of him self when he needs it. He gets mad and scornful at Romeo. He’s like a dad to Romeo.
Capulate is another round character. He loves his daughter Juliet. When Paris comes to ask Capulate if he can marry Juliet he refuses. He says that she’s to young and that she has to love him to like do that. Now that’s surprising, back then you didn’t turn down any old rich guy coming to marry your daughter. It was tradition to accept a rich guy’s wish to marry your daughter.

Flat Character

A character that has only one or two character traits. They are one dimensional and can be described in a single phrase. Flat characters are usually added for comic relief in play s are in a story. They can be just plain. Often in horror movies they are the victims who just scream and run. I think that there is not a lot to this character.
Tybalt is an example of this kind of character. His characteristics are mean and just a plain ol’ a**! He wants to pick a fight with everyone. He does this in the first act in scene one and in the last scene. I don’t like Tybalt.
Juliet’s nurse. Her main purpose in this play is to raise her with out no questions asked. Lately she has been a little bit to nosey. She’s all like “hey Juliet I loved you as if you were my child who died when it was very young.” I think that the Nurse is a very caring woman who don’t really needs to be.

Dynamic Character

A dynamic character is one who changes over the course of the book. The main characters of a book are usually dynamic. The character is like a very dramatic character. The dynamic character is like a real person. I think that every book in history has to have at least one dynamic character.
Romeo is an example of a dynamic character. He is whiney over a lustful crush on Roslyn. At the end, he actually cares for a young woman not just try to sleep with her. He is in love not lust, with Juliet. He dies for her and that’s a huge improvement on his little spoiled “oh no she won’t let me sleep with her” thing, he actually cared for Juliet.
Juliet is another example of a dynamic character. The way she was acting was very girlish. She acted like little miss Cheer leader. At the end she was in love and was a young woman. I thiunk that both of these characters did a huge improvement in the end.

Dramatic foil

A character who brings out the personalities of another character in a play. This character is used in many, many plays. This kind of character is used for comic relief. This is a dull character. The character has only maybe one, two or the maximum of about ten lines in a play. It isn’t really a character who is in it. It could be a little skinny peasant on a street.
Tybalt is an example of a dramatic foil. He is always looking for a fight. HE is mean and grumpy in the play. He brings out the character in Benvolio. Benvolio can take up for himself. Tybalt is a great example of a dramatic foil.
Benvolio is another example. He gets Romeo to come out and change a lot of his actions and things. Well he does a good job of it. He should get a award for it. I think that he is like special. He is a great character.

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