World of drama
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The kind of play
The physical world of the play
The central theme
Characters defined
Plot
Sources
Style
Outstanding feature of the play
The kind of drama
• One has to recognize the importance of
‘placing’ a play in the generic sense.
• It is important to explain in the beginning
of any analysis that the play does belong
to the type known as…..(kind of drama,
example : Restoration Comedy etc)
The physical World of the Play
• It would be futile to enter immediately into
a discussion of the play without some brief
explanation of the physical world in which
it takes place.
• First of all explaining the location. It has
symbolic or historical significance
• By placing the play in time and space we
are clarifying the larger world with which
the playwright is concerned
The central Theme
• Every play has one dominating idea which
we call the theme
• This is the significance of any drama and
that dimension of the artist’s labor which
outlives entertainment value
Characters defined
• Part of any first general definition of a
drama should refer to the major characters
in a literal and informative manner
• That is, we should briefly note that the play
has a certain number of characters.
Plot
• We should present a brief synopsis of the
major action of the drama in question so
that the characters’ relationships will
become clarified by reference to the main
events of the play
Sources
• A less significant but nevertheless
essential part of any opening definition of
a drama is some sort of reference to the
source of the drama
• That is we should at least insert
parenthetically or in apposition the place
where the play story was probably
discovered
style
• A definition should at least some mention ,
however brief, of the basic style of the
play.
Outstanding feature of the
play
• If there is some one aspect of the entire
play. In either construction, meaning, or
style, it should be separately noticed and
emphasized accordingly. In many plays no
one aspect will be so dominant that it
needs to be especially noticed.