DRAMA

Drama is a literary composition involving conflict, action crisis and

atmosphere designed to be acted by players on a stage before an
audience. This definition may be applied to motion picture drama as
well as to the traditional stage.

Conflict

1. What did the leading character want?

2. What stood in his way? (People - environment-
personality, etc,)
3. What was the high point of tension or the crisis?
(This is where the leading character must make a crucial
decision that will effect the outcome of the play.)

Character analysis

1. Are the characters true to life or are they types

or caricatures?
2. How is the character revealed?
3. What is the driving force of each leading
character?
4. If a character changes, are the causes convincing
and true to life?

Character types

1. protagonist
2. antagonist
3. foils (foil characters)
Setting

1. Are the sets appropriate?

2. Are they attractive?
3. Are they authentic?

Critical standards useful for drama, novel, motion pictures:

1. What is the chief emphasis (ideas, character,

atmosphere)?
2. What was the purpose? (entertainment, humor,
excitement)?
3. Is it realistic or romantic?
4. Does it show life as it really is or distort life?
5. Does it present any problem of human relationship?
6. Does it glamorize life and present an artificial
happy ending?

Types of Drama:

1. Tragedy -- In general, tragedy involves the ruin of

the leading characters. To the Greeks, it meant the
destruction of some noble person through fate, To the
Elizabethans, it meant in the first place death and in the
second place the destruction of some noble person
through a flaw in his character. Today it may not involve
death so much as a dismal life, Modern tragedy often
shows the tragedy not of the strong and noble but of
the weak and mean,
2. Comedy -- is lighter drama in which the leading
characters overcome the difficulties which temporarily
beset them
3. Problem Play -- Drama of social criticism discusses
social, economic, or political problems by means of a play.
 4. Farce -- When comedy involves ridiculous or
hilarious complications without regard for human values,
it becomes farce.
5. Comedy of Manners -- Comedy which wittily
portrays fashionable life.
6. Fantasy -- A play sometimes, but not always, in
comic spirit in which the author gives free reign to his
fantasy, allowing things to happen without regard to
reality.
7. Melodrama -- Like farce, melodrama pays almost
no attention to human values, but its object is to give a
thrill instead of a laugh. Often good entertainment,
never any literary value.

Types of Drama of Historical Interest:

1. Medieval mystery plays -- dealt with Bible stories

and allegorical mysteries.
2. Chronicle plays -- dealt directly with historical
scenes and characters.
3. Masques -- were slight plays involving much singing
and dancing and costuming. They were usually allegorical.

More Literary Terms of Drama

1. Allusion - an indirect reference by casually mentioning something

that is generally familiar (In literature we find many allusions to
mythology, the Bible, history, etc.)

2. Aside - Lines whispered to the audience or to another character

on stage (not meant to be heard by all the characters on stage)
3. Catastrophe - the final event in a drama (a death in a tragedy or
a marriage in a comedy)

4. Comedy - A light play with a happy ending

5. Comic Relief - A bit of humor injected into a serious play to

relieve the heavy tension of tragic events

6. Crisis or Climax - the turning point in the plot (This occurs when
events develop either for or against the main character and a
crucial decision must be made.)

7. Dramatic Irony - occurs when the audience knows something

that the character on stage is not aware.

8. Foreshadow - Lines that give a hint or clue to future events (It

doesn't tell the future but hints at it.)

9. Irony -

• A method of expression in which the ordinary

meaning of the word is opposite to the thought in the
speaker's mind
• Events contrary to what would be naturally
expected

10. Metaphor - an implied comparison between two different things;

identifying a person or object as the thing to which it is being
compared.
Example: 'It is the East and Juliet is the sun.' - 'tossed on the sea
of life'

11. Metonymy - a figure of speech whereby the name of a thing is

substituted for the attribute which it suggests. Example: The pen
(power of literature or the written word) is mightier than the sword
(force).
12. Nemesis - agent of retribution (the person who punishes)

13. Personification - giving the quality of life to inanimate things

14. Poetic Justice - The operation of justice in a play with fair

distribution of rewards for good deeds and punishment for wrong
doing

15. Simile - an expressed comparison between two different things

using 'like' or 'as' - Example: 'eyes twinkle like stars' - 'as loud as
the roaring sea'

16. Soliloquy - A single character on stage thinking out loud (a way

of letting the audience know what is in the character's mind)

17. Tragedy - A serious play having an unhappy ending

18. Tragic Flaw - A character trait that leads one to his/her own
downfall or destruction