06.
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Drama
n A Drama is one of the literary genres.
It is a mode of fictional representation
of a play through dialogues and
performance.
n A drama is a composition in Verse or
Prose which presents a story through
diaglogues.
n It is the form of composition designed
for performance in the theatre, in
which actors take the roles of the
characters, perform the indicated
action and utter the written dialogues.
n The word drama comes from the Greek
term dran meaning action
n The person who writes drama is known
as dramatist
n A poetic drama is a variant of drama in
which the dialogues are written in
verse. which is usually in blank verse
or herwic couplets.
n A closet drama is a drama that was
meant to be read, but not performed.
This from is associated with the
Romantic period (especially with the
writers Robert browing and Go the)
n In closet dramas, The dramatist writers
the dialogues, indicates the settings,
and state directions, But it is not
played in the theatre. It is intended to
read for example
n Milton's Samson Agonistes
n Byron's manfred
n Shelley's Prometheus unfound
n Hardy's The Dynasts
n Now lets study the different literary
forms of drama mentioned in the
syllabus.
1. Structure, 2. Characters
3. Dialogues, 4. Soliloquy
5. Tragedy, k 6. Comedy
7. Tragic - comedy
n Structure : The way plays are written
in a special style of writting is called
dramatic structure. This style is
different from the way story, novel or
poem is written
n The structure of a drama contains a
plot. plot refers to the pattern of events
in a play It provides an organic unity to
the play. Conventionally, a plot is
designed with a story.
n The German playwright Gustov
introduced an analysis of the plot. He
described the plot of five act as
pyramidical shape, consisting of rising
action, climax, and falling action,
Theme of the play passes through five
stages. They are
n Exposition : It introduces the
circumstances from which the initial
incident is to begin. It provides the
essential information to understand the
play.
n Complication : This act leads the
audience to the climax. It is common
Ch. Srinivas
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A poetic drama is a..?
n
n
n
for complications to arise, or for the
protagonist to encounter obstacles.
The climax : It is also called crisis.
Here the story reaches a point at which
the balance begins to one side. It is the
turning point. It happens at the middle
of the play.
Falling Action : The opposite of
Rising action. Here the story is coming
to an end, and any unknown details are
revealed. The falling action is also
called denouement
Resolution : Here the action ends in
success or failure for the protagonist,
the conflicts are settled the
misunderstanding is cleared away
climax
Characters
n Since drama presents us directly with
some scenes which are based on
people's actions and interactions,
'characters' play an important role in
drama.
n Characters are the persons represented
in a dramatic or narrative work
n Each character in a play has distinct
moral, intellectual and emotional
qualities
n These characters utter the dialogues
and perform the actions
n A character may remain stable or
unchanged from the beginning to end
of a work or sometimes it may undergo
a radical change.
n For example, the character 'Prospero'
in shakespeare's 'The Tempest' and the
character 'micawber' in Charles
Dicken's David Copperfield remain the
same in outlook and disposition.
n The character 'Emma' in Jane Austen's
'Emma', Shakespeare's King Lear
changes as the result of the crisis
The characters in plays can generally
be divided into major character and
minor characters, depending on how
important they are to the plot. In order
to decide whether a character is major
or minor, we should consider the
amount of time, speech and presence
on stage a character is allocated.
n Major Character : These characters
usually have a lot to say and appear
frequently throughout the play.
n for example, Hamlet is the major
character in shakespeare's famous
tragedy Hamlet
n 'Miranda' form shakespeare's Tempest
is an example for major characters.
n Minor characters : These characters
are not so important for the plot and
therefore appear only for a short time.
n For example, Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern are the minor characters
in the play Hamlet marcellus from the
Hamlet is also a minor character.
Flat and Round characters
n E.M forster in his Aspects of the Novel
(1927) classified the characters into
flat and round characters. According to
him, we can describe them as follows
1. Flat character (Also called type or two
dimensional)
n A flat character is built on a single idea
or quality that remains unchanged over
the course of the narrative
n It can be summarized by a single
phrase or sentence.
n A flat character can have only a few
character traits and are generally types
n This character is static throughout the
pay
n Round character : (Also called
Dynamic or multi-dimensional)
n These characters display several
character traits which are usually
n
conflicting and reasonably complex
They tend to develop throughout the
plot.
n This character is as difficult to describe
with and adequacy as a person in real
life.
Let's look at the different types of
characters
n Protagonist: In Greek drama 'The
hero' is called the protagonist. It is the
main character usually the one who
sets the action in motion.
eg: 'Hamlets' is the protagonist in the
play 'Hamlet'.
n Antagonist: The character that stands
as rival to the protagonist is called the
antagonist (He is simply called a
villain).
eg: Claudius is the major antagonist in
the play 'Hamlet'.
n Foil: A 'Foil' is a character who
exhibits opposite traits or same traits in
a greater or lesser degree, with those of
another character. eg: The character
'Iago' is a foil to the hero 'othello' in the
play 'othello'
n Cofidant: It is someone whom the
central character confides. The
confidant listens what the protagonist
says and gives input to him. Confidant
is the trusted person or closest friend to
the protagonist.
eg: In the play 'Hamlet', Horatio is the
confidant to prince Hamlet.
n Stock character: These are the
characters who appear recurrently in
comedies. They are sterotypical in
nature and they show a collection of
traits and mannerisms supposedly
shared by all members of a group.
eg: A comic, a servant, a fool, a coward,
a wicked with etc.
n