DRAMA

 DRAMA

            Play set forth a problem or a conflict. It has plot, dialogue, characters and delivers its whole message within few hours. “When a novel is written, it is finished, but when a play has been written the worst difficulties still lie ahead.” (Drama is intended for performance in public, novel is for reading in private)

Dramatist has to work with a number of collaborations: the audience, the actors, the producer, the scene painter, the dress maker, the musician and many others. The novelist can address the readers directly, but the dramatist doesn’t speak through his characters.

Origin of Drama:

Developed by Greeks in 5th century B.C, during festivals, to honor Dionysus, the god of wine and fertility. Greek verb “Dran” which means ‘to act’ or ‘to perform’. Famous Greek dramatists: Sophocles and Euripides. Chorus was common in Greek drama.

Elements of drama:

1. Literary elements: Plot, theme, dialogue etc.,
2. Technical elements: Scenery (set), Props (object that appears on stage), Lights, Sound(music), Makeup (costumes, wigs, and body paint)
3. Performance elements: Facial expressions, Gestures (body language), Vocal expression

Aristotle’s Six Elements of Drama

Aristotle (384-322 BC) was the first to write about the essential elements of drama more than 2,000 years ago, which are still influence us today. Aristotle says, “Plot is the most important element.”

1. Plot: Plot refers to basic storyline of the play.
2. Theme: Theme is the main idea or lesson of the play.
3. Characters: Characters are the people in the play.
4. Dialogue: the words spoken by the characters
5. Music/Rhythm: rhythm of the actors' voices.
6. Spectacle: everything that the audience sees the play: sets, costumes, special effects, etc.

Remember: PCT-DM-S (Police Constable in Telangana uses- Drill Marching Shoes)

              

Structure of the play: generally, a play has 5 acts.

1)     Exposition: (=To explain something)

In first act. It introduces a situation.

2)     Complication (Rising Action):  in 2^nd and 3rd acts, the problem grows and continues.

3)     Climax (=crisis):  in first part of 3^rd act, it takes a turn: good in comedy or worse in tragedy.

4)     Denouement (=falling Action): in last part of 3^rd act or 4^th act, Unravels the complication.

5)     Solution (in Comedy) or Catastrophe (in Tragedy): In 5^th act, decides the fate of the characters.

1)Tragedy:

Taken from the Greek word “tragus”, which means ‘goat song’. A serious play with unhappy ending and emotional appeal. Tragedy in its literary sense shows the downfall including death of a great man through some fault in his character. Ex. Hamlet’s indecision and Othello’s jealousy.  

In Greek Drama, it deals with fate of characters of high birth. In ancient Greek drama, the tragic actor put on a thick soled and high heeled boot called as Buskin or Cothurnus to make him appear tall and majestic.

Verse is used to be the medium for both Tragedy and Comedy. There are prose passages when a clown, a rustic or a madman is speaking. Ex: In ‘As you Like it’, main characters have long conversations in prose.

Three Unities: (classical or Aristotelian unities): Any piece of work must have to follow three unities of time, place and action. Aristotle mentioned only two, as the unity of Place is being implied in the first

i)    Unity of Time: The time taken to the event and its representation should be same. The action in a tragedy should occur over a period of no more than 24 hours. If events extending over years were shown in a few hours on the stage, they would have no semblance of reality for the logical Greek mind.

ii)   Unity of Action: The action must be confined to one single plot and must be logically connected. There is no subplot or episodes unconnected with the main theme.

iii) Unity of Place:  The play must be confined to one place (a single physical location). The scene couldn’t have been Athens in the first act, and Alexandria in the next.

 

The role of Chorus in Greek Tragedy:

     Chorus is constituted by a body of actors, whose business was to report what happended off the stage and to make such moral comments from time to time. Chorus in Greek theatre was pivotal in bridging the gap between the audience and the characters on stage, ensuring that the audience could follow and comprehend the unfolding events and themes of the play

 

The following terms of Greek Tragedy, are defined by Aristotle.

1)   Antagonist- Protagonist: The antagonist was the character against whom the protagonist struggled. Today the antagonist is usually the villain and the protagonist, the hero.

2)   Hamartia (To err):  It is an error of judgement leading to the downfall of a tragic hero or heroine.

3)   Peripeteia: Peripeteia is a sudden reversal, often in fortune of the protagonist. Peripeteia is, therefore, the turning point in Greek tragedy.

4)   Anagnorisis: Anagnorisis is the moment of recognition. The protagonist (see below, but, basically, main character) of a tragedy recognizes that his trouble is his own fault. In drama, the discovery or recognition that leads to the Peripetia or Reversal.

5)   Catharsis: the purification or purgation of the emotions (especially pity and fear) primarily through art.

6)   Catastrophe: Catastrophe is a final action that completes the unraveling of the plot in a play, (usually in a tragedy). It is a turning point in a story in which something terrible happens to the main character/s. Catastrophe is a synonym of denouement. In a tragedy, it could be the death of a protagonist or other characters.

Note: Comic relief is a Humorous speech or scene in a serious tragedy for alleviating tension. Ex: drunken Porter scene in Macbeth, Grave diggers scene in Hamlet, Fool in King Lear. 

Types of Tragedy:

Ø Classical Tragedy: Based on Greek conventions such as 3 unities and Chorus. Chorus report to the audience about the happenings of the stage and makes moral statements. Ex: Ben Jonson and Restoration playwrights.

Ø Romantic Tragedy: It is not circumscribed (=to restrict) by the 3 unities and it doesn’t employ chorus. There may be aplot ranging over long stretches of time, a mixure of tragic and comic or a subplot. Ex: Shakespeare and University wits.

Ø Horror Tragedy: by Webster and Ford: with scenes of cruelty and violence.

Ø Heroic Drama (Tragedy): 17^th century- developed during restoration age, term coined by Dryden in The Conquest of Granada (1660). The subject matter of this tragedies is mainly chivalrous - honour, love and war. The conflict between love and honour/duty is tried to be depicted in a romantic setting presenting grand heroic personalities with a superhuman ability. George Villiers, 2nd duke of Buckingham, satirized the heroic play in The Rehearsal (1671), its particular target being Dryden. Ex: Dryden’s The Indian Emperor, The Conquest of Granada by the Spaniards, Aurangzeb and All for Love; Thomas Otway’s Venice Preserved; Roger Boyle’s Black Prince etc.

Ø She- Tragedy: by Rowe: Women as central character.

Ø Domestic Tragedy: 18^th century- Portrayal of middle-class life, uses prose, not poetry.

Ø Revenge Tragedy: Based on revenge, blood shed modelled on Seneca, Popular in 16^th and 17^th centuries during late Romantic and Jacobean periods Ex: Thomas Kyd’s Spanish Tragedy, Webster’s Duches of Malfi, Shakepeare’s Hamlet etc.,

 

2)Comedy:

Taken from the Greek word “Komedia (Komedia=Revel song in Greek).”, which means "laughter-provoking". A play designed to cause laughter, representing characters and incidents of everyday life.

 

Types of Comedy:

Ø Comedy of humors: Ben Johnson made it popular. The four fluids of human body: Blood, Phlegm, Choler (Yellow Bile); and Melancholy (Black Bile) are to be in a balanced proportion. But this excess of any one of these fluids makes him abnormal. Ex: Every man in his humor,

Ø Comedy of Manners (Restoration Comedy): 17^th century- Dryden: situations of infidelity in love and marriage, satirical portrayal of behavior in a particular social group. Restoration comedy known for the relations of ladies and gentlemen in high society (known as High comedy). During closure of theatres people starved for enjoyment, demanded more in restoration, hence restoration comedy has sexual openness. Introduced the first professional actress on stage. Much Ado about Nothing by William Shakespeare can be considered the first comedy of manners in England. The masterpieces of the genre were the plays of William Wycherley (The Country Wife, 1675) and William Congreve (The Way of the World, 1700).

Ø Note: Jeremy Collier, in his anti-theatre pamphlet ‘A Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage (1698)’, attacks a number of playwrights: William Wycherley, John Dryden, William Congreve, John Vanbrugh, and Thomas D'Urfey of profanity, blasphemy, indecency, and undermining public morality through the sympathetic depiction of vice.

Ø Comedy of Menace: (Menace=danger/fear). Coined by David Compton. Fear of the characters become the source of the comedy.

Ø Genteel Comedy: Colly Cibber: ridiculing the affectations (wigs, shoes, ribbons, toilets) of 18^th century

Ø Sentimental Comedy: late 18^th century. presenting tears in place of laughter. Unlike Restoration comedy, it has middle class protagonists. Presenting tears in place of laughter. Melodramatic and distressing situations in place of intrigue. Pathetic heroines, serious lovers, honesty servants in place of rogues and gallants. Ex: Steele’s Conscious lovers

Comedy of Dialogue vs Comedy of Incident:

Comedy of Dialogue	Comedy of Incident:
Plot unfolds itself mainly through dialogue or narration. Action plays a secondary part. Ex: T W Robertson’s Caste (1860)- first play to use more natural speech and subjects.	Plot unfolds itself mainly thorugh action. Dialogue plays a secondary part

 

3)Tragic Comedy or Dramatic Romance:

It is half tragedy and half comedy, unknown to Greeks; we find it in English. It is a tale of Weal and Woe (happy and Sad). It is complete tragedy upto a certain part and a complete comedy there after. The Complication set fourth the tragedy (or Rising Action is tragedy), The Denoument turns into comedy (or Falling Action is comedy), and The Climax seperates these two. It is a play which has tragic elements but ends happily. Its general atmosphere is fantasy or supernatural, so it is also called Dramatic Romamce. Ex: Winter’s Tale, Cymbeline, The Tempest, Much Ado About Nothing.

Platus, the Latin comic dramatist attempted it in his ‘Amphituo’ which he called a ‘tragico-comedia’. It aroused in the reign of James-I in England under Italin and Spanish influences. Beamount and Flecher’s ‘A king and No Ling’ finally established it on the English stage. Shakespeare handled it so magnificently. It losted its with closing of theatres in 1642.

In the late 17th century, Shakespeare was severely criticized for his careless attitude towards the mixing of genres. It was Dryden who elevated Shakespeare to height for his natural genius. Dryden defended tragicomedy of Shakespeare as:  The English have perfected a new way of writing (tragi-comedy) not known to Ancients! "What pleases the Greek, would not satisfy an English audience".

 

Sydney said,” Neither right tragedies, nor right comedies”.

 

Tragedy vs Comedy

Tragedy	Comedy
For Greeks tragedy is for “Catharsis”;	Comedy is for “Correcting manners”.
Deals with the dark side of life	Deals with the light side of life
Aims at purgation (invoke pity and awe)	Aims at evoking laughter.
Begins happily and ends unhappily.	Begins unhappily, ends happily.
Atmosphere is sombre and serious	Atmosphere is mirthful and light.
Bad happens to good people.	Good happens to bad people.
Contains comic relief scenes	Contains tragic background

 

Farce vs Melodrama:

Farce: exaggerated form of comedy, employs absurd characters and situations to provides hearty laughter.  It employs absurd characters, situations and dialogues. It has strong farcial elements in it.

Ex: Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, Merry wives of Windsor.

It came into existence as a separate form of entertainment by the end of 17^th century with ‘The Rehearsal’ by Duke of Buckingham. It declined due to the rise of sentimental comedy in 18^th century, but recovered with the antisentimental movement of Goldsmith and Sheridan.

Ex: The Private Secretary- By Cheles Hawtrey, Charley’s Aunt-by Brandom Thomas – In Victorian Age

Arms and Man, You can never tell, Androcles and the Lion- by G B Shae- In Modern Age

Melodrama: Based on Tragedy (but Farce is based on Comedy). Originally a play with music and song interspersed. It’s a sentimental play, reliying on physical action, theatrical language and behavior and naïve sentiment. Its characters are mere puppets in an extravagant story of crime, revenge or retribution, the evils of drink or gambling, lost wills, missing heirs and in which villainy is foiled and virtue truimphant.

Came into prominence in 18^th century, and popular in 19^th. Cheifly notable for their wonderful scenic devices in representation of shipwrecks, fires, floods, earthquakes and other calamities.

Ex: Kyd’s Spanish Tragedy, Webster’s Duchess of Malfi.

 

Masque: It was Italian origin, introduced in early 16^th century. Poetic-drama comprising songs, music, dance, elaborate costumes and scenic splendor. The number of characters is restricted to six. The best-known masque is Milton’s Comus.

antimasque (also spelled antemasque) is a comic or grotesque dance presented before or between the acts of a masque, a type of dramatic composition. This is the concept of Ben Jonson.

Closet Drama: Closet dramas are plays that have been written to be read, but not performed. Ex: John Milton ’s Samson Agonistes (1671), A.C. Swine Burn’s Atlanta in Calydon and Thomas Hardy ’s The Dynasts (three parts, 1903–08).

One act play: History of one act play dates back to the early Mystery and Miracle plays, which were brief. It is a full-length play in miniature, just as short story is not an abbreviated novel. Brevity is the soul of one act play, as artistic difficulties are greater in developing character, situations in a short time. Follows three unities.

Miracle Play:  Based on the lives of the saints. Example: St. Nicholas

Mystery Play: based on the biblical characters. Example: Second Shepherds play, Noah

Morality Play: personified characters to teach morals. Best Example: Everyman

Theatre of Absurd: A term invented by Martin Essilin, who wrote The Theatre of the Absurd (1961). It portrays not a series of connected incidents telling a story but a pattern of images presenting people as be- wildered creatures. It gives ample expressions often leading the observer (audience) baffled with meaningless and repetitious dialogues and incomprehensible behavior. The first true example of the theatre of the absurd was Eugene Ionesco’s The Bald Soprano (1950), but the most acclaimed play is Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot (1953). Another name of ‘Waiting for Godot’ is A Tragic Comedy in Two Acts.  Albert Camus’ “The Myth of Sisyphus” is one central expression of this philosophy.

Ex:  Arthur Adamov’s Ping-Pong(1955), Edward Albee’s The Zoo story (1959), Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot(1954), End Game(1958), Camus, Jean Genet’s The Maid(1954), Ionesco’s The Bald Soprano(1950), Harold Pinter’The Birthday Party(1957), The Care Taker(1959), Alfred Jarry’s ….,  and Boris Vain’s …..

Problem Play, Thesis Play, and Propaganda Play: Terms applied to the plays of Ibsen, Shaw, and Galsworthy.

Memory play: A memory play is a play in which a lead character narrates the events of the play, which are drawn from the character's memory. The term was coined by playwright Tennessee Williams, describing his work The Glass Menagerie. Ex:  Harold Pinter's plays Old Times, No Man's Land and Betrayal are memory plays, where "memory becomes a weapon"

Epic Theatre: originated from German dramatist Betrolt Brecht. Alienation effect is achieved by separating the audience emotionally from the play (anti aristotlean concept). It is based on Defamiliarization of Russian Formalism. Ex: Mother Courage play by Bretcht. (see criticism notes)

 

 

Dramatic Devices:

Soliloquy: Literally soliloquy means talking to himself aloud when a person is alone or is supposed to be alone. speech of a character who is alone on stage (not supposed to be heard to the other characters). Playwright uses this technique to convey the inner feelings, motives and intentions of the character. Nobody in actual life puts his private thoughts in speech when he is alone. Though it is unreal, audience accepts it as a convention (willing suspension of disbelief). Ex: Shakespeare’s Hamlet delivers his famous soliloquy: ‘To be, or not to be--that is the question’; Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus delivers long soliloquy at eleventh hour.; Othello’s – Put out the light speech.;

Aside: Character talks to the audience usually revealing something about what’s going on. It is usually a brief comment rather than a speech. It is aspeech in front of other characters, who were not supposed to hear it.  It is most common technique used in Telugu Serials. Ex: Shall I hear more, or shall I speak at this?" -Romeo and Juliet

Dramatic Monologue: It is a part drama, part poetry. It is a speech in Poetic form uttered to silent listener. Usually the psychology, temperament and character of the speaker revealed. Its main aim is Psycho-analysis or character study. It is drama, poetry and philosophy all rolled into one. Robert Browning is the chief exponent. Ex: Browning’s ‘My Last Duchess’ and ‘Andrea Del Sarto’.

Note:

Soliloquy: not supposed to be heard to the other characters. It is addressed to audience.

Dramatic Monologue can be heard. It is addressed to a passive listener.

Irony: It is form of contrast. Irony is a literary device where the chosen words are intentionally used to indicate a meaning other than the literal one.

1.   Verbal Irony: speaker says something that's the opposite to what they mean. Ex: If it is a very cold day, a person using verbal irony may say: “Isn’t it warm today!”

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.”- opening line of ‘Pride and Prejudice’ by Jane Austen

The sentence is ironic because its speaker claims to believe that all wealthy single men must be looking for wives, but the book then goes on to describe just the opposite: it's about eligible young women looking to marry wealthy single men.

Understatement, Hyperbole are forms of Verbal Irony. (Ex: I have million doubts!)

2.   Dramatic irony: audience has more information than character(s) in a story.  what is being said or done on the stage has one meaning to characters and other or spectators. (Old people at TV, shouts to warn characters about the disguise/something bad going to happen).

Ex: Othello’s trust of the treacherous Iago in the play Othello)

Ex: If a person were to say “I am glad that I wasn’t in that car accident” only to be involved in a car accident moments later is a dramatic irony.

“A Little water clears us of this deed. How easy is it then.” “Here’s the smell of the blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.” - (Lady Macbeth in Macbeth)

3.   Situational irony is when the outcome of a situation is totally different from what people expect. Ex: If a fire station were to burnt down, (this would be situational irony as this is the building which is meant to protect from fire.)

Ex: A police station that gets robbed

Ex: Banning a book about banned books (this happened with Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451)

Expectation and Surprise: plot construction follows two methods:

Expectation: All relevant facts disclosed at once and Surprise: A few facts are held back.

Generally, comedies employ expectation. Tragedies employ surprise. Too much of expectation leads to dullness and too much of surprise leads to melodrama. Shakespeare used both in moderation. Ex: Othello is based on expectation; Macbeth on surprise.

 

Other terms related to drama:

Act & scene: major division in the action of the play. Acts are further sub divided into scenes. Generally, a play has 5 acts. In modern drama, 3 acts and 1 act play are common.

 

Prologue and Epilogue:

Prologue implies an independent preliminary piece of writing, included in the front matter of the book. It is found at the beginning of the literary work. It indicates Introduction or Preview.

Epilogue refers to the brief winding up a section of the book, which acts as the closure to the literary work.  It is found at the end of the literary work. It indicates Conclusion or Afterword.

Stage Directions: Stage directions appear at the beginning of the play, before a scene or attached to a line of dialogue. The place, time of action, design of the set etc. are indicated by stage directions. They help the producer to present the play as exactly as the author intends.

Setting: It is the time and location(scene) or physical location in narrative. Derived from Opsis (Greek) or Décor (French) which means scene or spectacle

Confidant: Minor role in drama, friend of protagonist. (Confidante is fiend of heroine). Hero/heroine confess inner feelings, thoughts/problems by a soliloquy or aside. Ex: Horatio is friend of Hamlet; Charmian is maid to Cleopatra.

Protagonist: Chief or leading character in a play: hero.; Antagonist is the opposing one, i.e., villain.

Foil: A person or situation, placed side by side of another, as a constrast.  Ex: Laertes is foil of Hamlet.

Hubris: means “excessive pride” or “overconfidence” of protagonist to disregard a divine warning or violate law as their tragic flaw, or hamartia resulting in their ultimate downfall. In Greek tragedy, hubris leads to conflict, if not punishment or death.

Ex:

Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus believes he can control a demon, makes a pact with the devil.

Sophocles' Ajax exhibits hubris by thinking he does not need the help of Zeus.

Sophocles' Oedipus exhibits hubris when he refuses to accept his fate.