Shakespearean & Literary Allusions Vocabulary

destined to fail or end tragically

“The star-crossed merger was doomed from the start.”

Origin: From Romeo and Juliet, whose fate was written in the stars

jealousy personified

“The green-eyed monster destroyed their friendship.”

Origin: From Othello: `O, beware, my lord, of jealousy`

a debt collected without mercy

“The creditors demanded their pound of flesh.”

Origin: From The Merchant of Venice, Shylock's literal demand

a hopeless pursuit

“Searching for the missing file was a wild goose chase.”

Origin: From Romeo and Juliet, originally a type of horse race

a time of youth and inexperience

“In my salad days, I thought I knew everything.”

Origin: From Antony and Cleopatra: `My salad days, when I was green in judgment`

an imagined future of progress or dystopia

“AI promises a brave new world of automation.”

Origin: From The Tempest, later Huxley's dystopian novel title

nightmarishly complex and illogical

“The visa process was Kafkaesque.”

Origin: From Franz Kafka's surreal, bureaucratic nightmares

characterized by authoritarian control and propaganda

“The surveillance program had Orwellian implications.”

Origin: From George Orwell's 1984 and its totalitarian state

cunning and unscrupulous in politics

“His Machiavellian tactics alienated even allies.”

Origin: From Niccolò Machiavelli's The Prince on ruthless statecraft

exceedingly idealistic and impractical

“His quixotic campaign for reform inspired many.”

Origin: From Don Quixote, Cervantes's dreaming knight