Drama and its Elements

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.

A drama is ideally enacted in a theater, open or closed, and the performances are by actors, live, before an audience that either sits around or before the stage. A single drama is a collaborative effort. The cumulative efforts are pooled for the various modes of production, flow of the text and research in the form of literature adopted.

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. .
   
   
   
   Elements of Drama                           
   Plot                                                              
   Character                                                  
   Point of View                                               
   Language                                                      
   Tone                                                             
   Symbolism                                               
   Theme
    Structures of Play 
   Exposition 
   Complication 
   Crisis 
   Climax 
   Catastrophe 
   Resolution
   
   
    

   Drama Literary Terms

   
   

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   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.

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' -

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