Drama Understanding a Play

Plot Mountain in Drama Exposition: Opening moments Location (symbols and metaphors) Meeting of characters What happened before the curtain rose What is happening now

Puts forces on crash course to meet each other Rising Action: We get involved Puts forces on crash course to meet each other Protagonist/Antagonist-journey towards each other Dramatic situation: Usually describes the protagonist’s motivation and the forces that oppose its realization

Basic meeting of protagonist/antagonist Climax: Basic meeting of protagonist/antagonist Tension reaches its greatest height Does NOT HAVE to be dramatic Dramatic question about to be answered

Events that occur as a result of the climax Falling Action: Events that occur as a result of the climax We know the action will end soon Recognizable in tragedies: the protagonist’s fortunes proceed downhill to an inexorable end

Resolution/Denouement: Final moments of the play All the action is tied up Characters may be enriched and wiser

Characters Protagonist: The leading character(s) Usually a good force and the one the audience roots for Antagonist: The character that comes in conflict with the main character Does not always have to be “bad” or a person

Foreshadowing Always a type of foreshadowing in a play Can take place as early as the exposition Always be looking for clues while reading

The primary unresolved issue in a drama as it unfolds Dramatic Question(s) The primary unresolved issue in a drama as it unfolds The result of artful plotting, raising suspense and expectation in a play’s action as it moves toward its outcome

Subplot Double plot A secondary arrangement of incidents Involves someone besides the protagonist Usually occur in Shakespeare’s plays

Stage Business Nonverbal action that engages the attention of an audience Can be as small as a doorknob turning, creating SUSPENSE

Unities 3 formal qualities recommended by Italian Renaissance literary critics to unify a plot in order to give it a cohesive and complete integrity Action: Single series of interrelated actions—must be entirely serious or funny Time: play takes place within 24 hours Place: play takes place in a single location

Closet Drama A play designed to be read aloud rather than performed Do you think Trifles fits this definition?

Ex.: classical Greek theater or the Elizabethan theater Conventions Customary methods of presenting an action, usual and recognizable devices that an audience is willing to accept Ex.: classical Greek theater or the Elizabethan theater

Soliloquy A dramatic monologue in which we seem to overhear the character’s innermost thoughts uttered aloud

Theme The general point or truth about human beings that may be drawn from the play

COMEDY An important difference between comedy and tragedy lies in the attitude toward human failing that is expected of us. Comedies present situations differently so there is a clear line between humor and tragedy.

Comedy Originated in festivities to celebrate spring Ritual performances in praise of Dionysus Whatever makes us laugh (broad definition) Can be an entire play or only a part in the play (comic character or a comic situation)

Tends to be critical of people, their manners, and their morals Satiric Comedy Human weakness or folly is ridiculed from a vantage point of supposedly enlightening superiority Tends to be critical of people, their manners, and their morals

High Comedy Relies more on wit and wordplay than on physical action for its humor Points out the pretension and hypocrisy of human behavior Avoids jokes about physical appearance

Epigram Brief and witty statement that memorably expresses some truth, large or small “There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.”

A witty satire set in elite or fashionable society Comedy of Manners A type of High Comedy A witty satire set in elite or fashionable society Popular in the Restoration Period (period after 1660 when Charles II reopened the London playhouses after being closed by the Puritans for being “immoral”)

Low Comedy Opposite extreme of humor Places great emphasis on physical action and visual gags Verbal jokes do not require much intellect to appreciate Revels in making fun of whatever will get a good laugh Satirizes human failings Drunkenness, stupidity, lust, senility, trickery, insult, clumsiness

Burlesque A type of Low Comedy A humorous parody or travesty of another play or kind of play Usually makes fun of serious situations “Scary Movie(s)” Anyone?

Farce Another type of Low Comedy Features exaggerated character types in ludicrous and improbable situations, provoking laughter about sexual mix-ups, crude verbal jokes, horseplay, etc. Descendant of commedia dell’arte

commedia dell’arte Developed by guilds of professional Italian actors in the mid-sixteenth century Playing stock characters, masked commedia players improvised dialogue around a given scenario (brief outline marking entrances of characters and the main course of action)

Features pratfalls, pie throwing, fisticuffs, and other violent action Slapstick Comedy Type of farce Features pratfalls, pie throwing, fisticuffs, and other violent action “The Three Stooges”

A Midsummer Night’s Dream Romantic Comedy Plot focuses on one or more pairs of young lovers who overcome difficulties to achieve a happy ending (usually marriage) A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Ends sorrowfully and disastrously—outcome seems inevitable TRAGEDY A play that portrays a serious conflict between human beings and some superior, overwhelming force Ends sorrowfully and disastrously—outcome seems inevitable

Tragedy Protagonist undergoes a reversal of fortune, from good to bad, ending in catastrophe

Tragic Flaw A fatal weakness or moral flaw in the protagonist that brings him or her to a bad end.

Tragedy Conventional Structure Prologue: Preparatory Scene Ex. Oedipus asking the suppliants why they have come and the priest telling about the plague ravaging Thebes

The song for the entrance of the chorus Episodes: Parados: The song for the entrance of the chorus Episodes: Action of play (like a scene or act) Separated by danced choral songs or odes

The chorus usually has the final lines. Exodos: The last scene in which the characters and chorus concluded the action and departed The chorus usually has the final lines.

Aristotle’s Concept of Tragedy Protagonist—the hero or chief character is a person of “high estate” (royalty) Tragic hero is fallible Downfall is a result of hamartiathe hero’s error or transgression or his flaw or weakness of character Hubris extreme pride, leading to overconfidence

Aristotle Cont… 5. Purgation (or katharsis) final effect of the playwright’s skillful use of plotting, character, and poetry to elicit pity and fear from the audience refers to the feeling of emotional release or calm the spectator feels as the end of tragedy  Taught the audience compassion for the vulnerabilities of others and schooled in justice and other civic virtues

Reversal reversal in fortune Aristotle Cont… Recognition the discovery of some fact not known before or some person’s true identity Reversal reversal in fortune  Usually occurs when a certain result is expected and instead its opposite effect is produced