Michaelmas Term Literary Elements

Michaelmas Term Literary Elements

Genre

Jacobean Drama

Language

English

Setting and Context

London, early 1600s

Narrator and Point of View

The point of view is third person, but leans towards being on the side of Richard Easy.

Tone and Mood

Entertaining for the audience; Duplicitous and scheming

Protagonist and Antagonist

Richard Easy is the protagonist, Quomodo the protagonist

Major Conflict

There is conflict between Susan and Thomasine, and Quomodo, as they want Susan to marry Rearage, and he demands that she marry Andrew Lethe.

Climax

Quomodo has unwittingly signed a memorandum that declares Easy owes him nothing and Easy presents this in front of the judge when Quomodo confronts him about the land that he claims belongs to him.

Foreshadowing

The faked death of Quomodo foreshadows Thomasine's new found freedom and her intention to marry the man of her dreams rather than the tyrant she was previously married to.

Understatement

Sim says his father is a dishonest knave, which is an understatement as he is a man who has made his fortune out of swindling people.

Allusions

No specific allusions in this play

Imagery

The key imagery arises in the opening scene of the play, when Michaelmas Term changes from his white cloak of the country (the good side) to his black cloak of the city (the bad side). This imagery tells the play's audience that the folk from the country are to be trusted but city folk are more duplicitous.

Paradox

Lethe believes Thomasine is attracted to him. She actually despises him. His arrogant character will not allow him to believe that this could be possible.

Parallelism

There is a parallel between Thomasine wanting to marry Easy for his honesty and gentlemanly demeanor, and her wanting her daughter to marry Rearage for the same reasons.

Personification

No specific examples

Use of Dramatic Devices

There is a brief soliloquy by Lethe, when he is alone on stage and is wondering aloud how why Thomasine dislikes him so much and what he can do to change this.

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