Drama and Shakespeare

Drama

 A form of literature known as a play.

 A serious type of play that concerns the
character versus society.
 Drama is a type of literary work intended
to be performed for an audience.
 3 Important Elements in Drama

 1. Story - there has to be one

 2. Performance - must be acted out.
 3. Audience - people who experience the
story
 What does an audience need?

 * To use imagination * - Very important

 Must have scenery or setting
 They must understand a story line
 Characters or actors to perform the story
 Props are important for the modern audience
 Costumes – simple or extravagant
 The movements of the characters
 Drama Terms
 Allegory - a story in which people, things, and actions
represent an idea or a generalization about life. Often
have a moral or teach a lesson.
 Allusion - a reference in literature to a familiar person,
place, or thing.
 Anecdote - a short summary of an interesting or
humorous, incident or event.
 Aside - words spoken so that the audience can hear but
other characters cannot. The audience learns about the
character’s thoughts and emotions.
 Drama Terms cont.
 Character sketch - a short piece of writing that
reveals or shows something important about a
person or fictional character.
 Comedy - literature with a love story at its core.
In comedy, human errors or problems may
appear humorous.
 Conflict - the struggle in a story that triggers the
action. There must be action in drama.
 Drama Terms cont.
 Denouement - the final solution or
outcome of a play or story.
 Dialogue - is the conversation carried on
by the characters in a literary work.
 Deus ex machina – a person or thing that
suddenly appears providing a solution to
a difficult problem. Usually lowered to the
stage by a crane/lift.
 Drama Terms cont.
 Didactic literature – instructs or presents a moral
or religious statement.
 Dramatic monologue – where a character speaks
about him/herself as if another person were
present. Reveals something about the character
 Elizabethan – refers to the prose and poetry
created during the reign of Elizabeth I (1558 –
1603)
 Drama Terms cont.
 Epitaph – a
short
poem/verse
written in
memory of
someone
 Drama Terms cont.
 Empathy - putting yourself into someone else’s
place and imagining how that person must feel.
 Epithet – a word or phrase used to characterize
a character. (ie. Ms. Know-it-all)
 Expressionism - dramatic form which explores
the ultimate nature of human experience.
 Drama Terms cont.

 Farce – literature based on a highly

humorous and highly improbable plot.
 Flashback – going back to an earlier time
to make something more clear to the
audience.
 Foreshadowing – giving hints of what is to
come later in a story.
 Drama Terms cont.
 Diction - is an author’s choice of words based on
their correctness, clearness, or effectiveness.
 Archaic - words that are old-fashioned and no longer
sound natural when used.
 Colloquialism - an expression that is usually accepted in
informal situations and certain locations.
 Jargon - (technical diction) a specialized language used
by a specific group, such as those who use computers or
those in the medical profession
 Drama Terms cont.
 Profanity - language that shows disrespect for someone
or something regarded as holy or sacred.
 Slang - language used by a particular group of people
among themselves; it is also language that is used in
fiction to lend color and feeling.
 Trite - Expressions that lack depth or originality
(overworked)
 Vulgarity - is language that is generally considered
common, crude, gross, and , at times, offensive. It is
often used to add realism to literature.
 Drama Terms cont.

 Hubris – “excessive pride” (GK) often

viewed as the flaw that leads to the
downfall of the tragic hero.
 Impressionism – the recording of events
or situations as they have been impressed
upon the mind as feelings, emotions, and
vague thoughts.
 Drama Terms cont.
 Irony – using a word or phrase to mean the
exact opposite of its literal or normal meaning
 Dramatic – the reader or the audience sees a
character’s mistakes, but the character doesn’t
 Verbal – the writer says one thing and means another
 Situation – there is a great difference between the
purpose of a particular action and the result.
 Drama Terms cont.
 Local Color - the use of details that are
common in a region of the country.
 Melodrama - an exaggerated form of
drama; heavy use of romance, suspense,
and emotion.
 Miracle Play – early play form (cycle play)
– dramatizing Christian history in episodes
used during the medieval period.
 Drama Terms cont.

 Morality play – an allegorical drama (15C)

which made a moral or religious point.
 Myth – traditional story that attempts to
explain a natural phenomenon or a certain
belief of society
 Narrator - the person who is telling the
story.
 Drama Terms cont.
 Parable – short, descriptive story that illustrates
a particular belief or moral.
 Paradox – a statement that seems contrary to
common sense yet may in fact be true. “The
coach considered it a good loss.”
 Parody – form of literature that mocks a
particular purpose. A comic effect is intended.
 Drama Terms cont.

 Pathos - a Greek root meaning suffering

or passion. Describes the part in a play
that is intended to elicit pity or sorrow
from the audience.
 Poetic justice - a term that describes a
character “getting what he deserves” in
the end, especially if what he deserves is
punishment.
 Drama Terms cont.
 Pun – a word or phrase that is used in such a
way as to suggest more than one possible
meaning.
 Quest – features a main character who is
seeking to find something or achieve a goal. The
person must encounter and overcome a series of
obstacles. They return with new wisdom as a
result of their journey.
 Drama Terms cont.
 Realism - literature that attempts to represent
life as it really is.
 Resolution - same as denouement
 Romance – a form of literature that presents life
the way we would like it to be – great
adventure, love, and excitement
 Romanticism – a literary movement with an
emphasis on the imagination and emotions
 Drama Terms cont.

 Sarcasm - the use of praise to mock

someone or something.
 Satire - literary tone used to ridicule or
make fun of a human weakness.
 Setting - time and place of a story
 Drama Terms cont.
 Soliloquy – a speech delivered by a
character when he or she is alone on
stage
 Stereotype - a pattern or form that does
not change.
 Script - is the piece of writing that an
actor reads from and memorizes lines.
The original writing from the author.
 Drama Terms cont.
 Tragic hero – a
character who
experiences an inner
struggle due to a
character flaw and it
ends in defeat for the
hero.
 Drama Terms cont.

 Total effect - is the general impression a

literary work leaves on the reader.
 Tragedy - a literary work in which the hero
is destroyed by some character flaw and
by forces beyond his or her control.
 Playwright/Dramatist - is the writer of a
play
 Drama Terms cont.

 Sequence - is the order of events in which

something happens during the story.
 Fade in - where the lights slowly come up
and the scene is before the audience.
 Fade out - usually at the end of a scene
the lights usually dim and the acting space
goes dark.
 Drama Terms cont.
 Proscenium Arch - a
border which framed
the space on which a
play’s action took
place. A room with
one wall removed. A
19th Century type of
stage.
 Drama Terms cont.
 Theatre in the Round
- an open stage,
where the actors are
very close in distance
to the audience.
Audience on three
sides of the stage.
 Drama Terms cont.

 Act – a main division of a drama.

Shakespeare’s consist of five acts with
each act subdivided into scenes.
 Scene – a small unit of a play in which
there is no shift of locale or time
 Rhetoric – the art of persuasion, used by
speakers to add emotion to their words.
 Drama Terms cont.

 Stage directions - locations on the stage

that tell actors where to position
themselves. – See handout
 Epiphany – a sudden perception that
causes a character to change or act in a
certain way. (An “AH HA” moment.)
 Drama Terms cont.

Malapropism – a type of pun, or play on

words, that results when two words
become jumbled in the speaker’s mind.
Naturalism – extreme form of realism –
author shows the relationship between
character and the environment
 Drama Terms cont.
 Oxymoron – a combination of
contradictory terms such as “tough love”.
 Pathetic Fallacy – a form of personification
giving human traits to nature – howling
wind
 Slapstick – a form of low comedy that
often includes exaggerated, sometimes
violent action.
 Shakespeare’s Language

 Hoodwinked – tricked
 All the world’s a stage – we are all actors
 Neither rhyme nor reason
 In my heart of hearts
 Eat out of house and home
 Dead as a doornail
 The be-all and the end-all
 Shakespeare’s Language

 Knock! Knock! Who’s there?

 Full of sound and fury
 What the dickens
 Laughing-stock
 Wear my heart on my sleeve
 Pomp and circumstance
 Green-eyed monster
 Shakespeare’s Language

 Wild-goose chase
 A fool’s paradise
 To not budge an inch
 An eye-sore
 Melted into thin air
 Laugh yourself into stitches
 William Shakespeare

 Born April 23, 1564 in Stratford-upon-

Avon
 Parents John (glovemaker) and Mary
 Married November 28, 1582 to Anne
Hathaway (she was 8 years senior and 3
months pregnant)
 Shakespeare con’t.

 First child – Susanna May 1583

 Second child – Twins Hamnet and Judith –
in 1585.
 In his 20s he travels to London and
becomes involved in the theatre (acting
and writing)
 Shakespeare con’t.

 Plays written by 1592

 The Comedy of Errors - C
 Taming of the Shrew - C
 Henry VI parts I, II, III - H
 Titus Andronicus - T
 Shakespeare con’t.

 1594 Founds The Lord Chamberlain’s Men

acting company – he is a shareholder
 Perform at the following:
 The Theatre
 The Curtain
 The Globe
 Shakespeare con’t.
 Plays between 1592 – 1599
 Midsummer Night’s Dream - C
 Romeo and Juliet - T
 Richard II - H
 Much Ado About Nothing - C
 Henry V - H
 Julius Caesar - T
 As You Like It - C
 Shakespeare con’t.

 Tragedy strikes in 1596 – Hamnet dies

 Tragedy strikes in 1601 – Will’s father dies
 Name change – 1603 – Queen Elizabeth
dies King James I renames the company
“The King’s Men”
 Shakespeare con’t.
 Plays written between 1600 – 1608
 Twelfth Night *
 King Lear*
 Hamlet*
 All’s Well That Ends Well
 Measure for Measure
 Othello*
 Macbeth *
 Anthony and Cleopatra
 Shakespeare con’t.

 King’s Men move to an indoor theatre –

The Blackfriars
 Plays written between 1608 – 1611
 Pericles
 Cymbeline
 The Winter’s Tale*
 The Tempest*
 Shakespeare con’t.

 Semi – Retirement 1611 – It is assumed

that he returns to Stratford; however, he
continues to collaborate with a new
playwright
 March 25, 1616 draws up his last will –
leave his wife their “second best bed”
money to some friends for memorial rings
and does not mention any of the scripts.
 Shakespeare con’t.

 Curtain Call – April 23, 1616 buried in Holy

Trinity Church
 “Good Friend For Jesus Sake Forbeare,
To Digg The Dust Encloased Heare.
Bleste Be Ye Man Yt Spares These Stones
And Curst Be He Yt Moves My Bones.”