Drama

What to say about drama

• Drama has one characteristic peculiar to itself
- it is written primarily to be performed, not
read.
• It is a presentation of action a. through actors
(the impact is direct and immediate), b. on a
stage (a captive audience), and c. before an
audience (suggesting a communal
experience)..
 Forms of drama
Tragedy
In classic tragedy and the modern problem play, tragedy is a play in which
a central character faces, and is finally defeated by, some overwhelming
threat or disaster. The hero or heroine is an active participant in the event
through a tragic flaw, a shortcoming of the protagonist, i.e., pride,
rashness, indecision.
Comedy
• The essential difference between tragedy and comedy is in the depiction
of human nature: tragedy shows greatness in human nature and human
freedom whereas comedy shows human weakness and human limitation.
The norms of comedy are primarily social; the protagonist is always in a
group or emphasizes commonness.
• The purpose of comedy is to make us laugh and at the same time, help to
illuminate human nature and human weaknesses. Conventionally
comedies have a happy ending.
 Forms of drama
• Melodrama - arouses pity and fear through
cruder means. Good and evil are clearly depicted
in white and black motifs. Plot is emphasized
over character development.
• Farce - aimed at arousing explosive laughter
using crude means. Conflicts are violent, practical
jokes are common, and the wit is coarse.
Psychologically farce may boost the reader's
spirit and purge hostility and aggression.
 Point of view
• Of the four major points of view, the dramatist is
limited to only one - the objective or dramatic.
• The playwright cannot directly comment on the action
or the character and cannot directly enter the minds of
characters and tell us what is going on there.
• But there are ways to get around this limitation
through the use of 1. soliloquy (a character speaking
directly to the audience), 2. chorus ( a group on stage
commenting on characters and actions), and 3. one
character commenting on another.
• ASIDES, remarks made to the audience but not heard
by those on the stage, are common.
 Plot and Theme
• Plot
The plot is usually structured with acts and scenes.
Early dramatists conceived of a play as having unity. Whatever occurred at
the end of a play must be caused by something that existed in its
beginning. This concept of plot gave rise to the technique of
foreshadowing-a means by which dramatists hint the presence of
something that will later play a significant part in the outcome of the plot.
Foreshadowing (Dramatic thesis) is part of standard plotting technique an
almost all drama, both on stage, in film and on television. If, at the
opening of segment in a television series, a character makes mention of
an umbrella for no apparent reason, it means that the umbrella is
destined to play a apart in the outcome of events before the half hour or
hour is up.
The failure to foreshadow causes a deus ex machina effect. This Latin term
means “god by machine,” and comes from the Greek playwrights`
occasional use of a machine to lower a god onto the stage to resolve
difficult and sticky plots.
• Open conflict plays: rely on the suspense of a struggle in
which the hero, through perhaps fight a against all odds, is
not doomed.

• Dramatic thesis: foreshadowing, in the form of ominous

hints or symbolic incidents, conditions the audience to
expect certain logical developments.

• Coincidence: sudden reversal of fortune; plays depict

climatic ironies or misunderstandings.
• Dramatic irony: the fulfilment of a plan, action, or
expectation in a surprising way, often opposite of what was
intended.
 Tone
• Tone
As in fiction, tone of voice in drama is inflected
in dialog to reveal the characters personality.
The burden of tonal characterisation in drama
rests entirely with dialog since the characters
are on stage and must talk for themselves.
 Mood
• Mood is partly a function of physical setting and
partly of descriptive language.
• If you are reading a play rather than seeing it
performed, you must take into account the
descriptions of setting as given by playwright .
These, in part, imply the mood the scene is
written to be played in.
• If you are seeing a play, the stage setting, lighting
and space of dialog will operate to evoke the
desired mood
 Character
• Characterisation in drama is achieved by what
a character does or says and by what other
characters say about him.
• Dramatic characters vary widely in
individuality. Some are used symbolically to
stand for an idea and have no unique identity
outside of the concepts they represent.
Others are sharply drawn and uniquely
constituted as separate personalities.
• The use of characters to stand for ideas is a
technique both of serious and satiric drama,
although it is more widely found in the
second. Early morality plays of the Middle
Ages used characters in serious drama to
symbolically personify the war between the
forces of good and evil in biblical stories. The
technique has survived even today in serious
drama.
 Stagecraft
• Stagecraft
The stage creates its effects in spite of, and in
part because of, definite physical limitations.
Setting and action tend to be suggestive
rather than panoramic or colossal. Both
setting and action may be little more than
hints for the spectator to fill out.