Drama Glossary

Mock-Heroic Definition

Mock-Heroic is a literary and theatrical style in which trivial or absurd subjects are treated with the elevated seriousness and grandeur usually reserved for epic or classical heroes. By exaggerating tone and form, it creates comic contrast between lofty language or music and the silliness of the actual situation. For example, in Princess Ida, Gilbert & Sullivan use mock-heroic style in Ida’s Shakespearean speeches and her brothers’ bombastic trio “We Are Warriors Three.”

Musicals, plays and operas associated with the term "Mock-Heroic"