2. Drama is a literary composition involving conflict,
action crisis and atmosphere designed to be acted
by players on a stage before an audience.
3. Definition of Drama
Drama is defined by Aristotle as “a criticism
of life, on a stage, with action, characters
and dialogue.” The Greek word for “deed” or
“action” is dram.
Drama is a composition in prose form that
presents a story entirely told in dialogue and
action and written with the intention of its
eventual performance before an audience.
4. Types of Drama
Tragedy Comedy
A type of drama in which the A type of drama in which the
characters experience
characters experience reversals
reversals of fortune, usually
of fortune, usually for the worse. for the better. Things work
Catastrophe and suffering await out happily in the end. May
be romantic - characterized
many of the characters, by a tone of tolerance and
especially the hero geniality - or satiric. Satiric
works offer a darker vision of
human nature, one that
ridicules human folly
5. TRAGICOMEDY
Tragicomedy is a play that does not adhere
strictly to the structure of tragedy. This is
usually serious play that also has some of the
qualities of comedy. It arouses thought even
with laughter.
6. Types of drama
Farce
Melodrama
A light dramatic work in
which highly improbable
A drama, such as a play,
plot situations,
exaggerated characters, film, or television program,
and often slapstick events characterized by
are used for humorous exaggerated emotions,
effect. It is the situation stereotypical characters,
here which provides the and interpersonal conflicts
humor, not the cleverness
of plot or lines, nor the
absurdities of the character
7. Types of Drama
Romantic Melodrama Satire Melodrama
An extended fictional A literary work in
prose narrative about which human vice or
improbable events folly is attacked
through irony,
involving characters derision, or wit. A
that are quite different literary mode based on
from ordinary people. criticism of people and
society through ridicule
8. Elements of Drama
PLOT
Plot is the form and structure of the action
and the arrangement of incidents of a story
or play. Plot is only that aspect of the story
which takes place on stage and which is
revealed to the audience through the
dramatic actions and dialogue of the
characters
9. Natural Plot Episodic Plot
Natural Plot is a Episodic Plot – each
chronological episode
sequence of events independently
arrangement where comprises a setting,
actions continuously
take place as an end climax, and
result of the resolution;
previous action therefore, a full story
in itself is formed.
10. CHARACTER
A character is a person, animal or entity in a story,
scene or play with specific, distinguishing attributes.
The hopes and struggles of characters provide the
principle material from which plots are made.
Drama/theatre concerns itself with characters in
action, and characters carry out the action of the
plot. The protagonist is the main character in the
plot who propels the action forward. The antagonist
is the chief opponent to the protagonist. Related
characters assist in the development of the plot and
central characters.
11. Three Major Characteristics of Drama
1. It has a direct, immediate impact
Advantages:
Simultaneous impressions occur
Performance can be more expressive than a reader’s
imagination
Disadvantages:
Limited to one viewpoint—objective (dramatic)
Writers try to overcome this by using the soliloquy
and the aside to accomplish what the omniscient
viewpoint achieves in the short story genre
12. 2. Drama effectively commands the spectator’s
attention
Advantage: The playwright’s power extends beyond
words alone
Disadvantage: The materials one can use on stage are
limited
3. The experience of watching a play is communal
•Advantage: Impact is intensified.
•Disadvantages: There is a need for brevity, swift
movement of plot, and intermissions
13. Setting identifies the time and place in
which the events occur. It consists of the
historical period, the moment, day and
season in which the incidents take place.
It also includes the sceneries in the
performance which are usually found in
the preliminary descriptions.
14. • Theme is considered as the unifying element
that defines the dramatized idea of the play. It
is the over-all sense or implication of the
action. It defines the problem, emphasizes the
ethical judgment and suggest attitude or
course of action that eliminates the crisis is an
acceptable way.
15. Style refers to the mode of expression or
presentation of the play which points out
the playwright’s position or viewpoint in
life.
16. A. Omniscient – a story told by the author, using the third
person; her/his knowledge, control, and prerogatives are
unlimited; authorial subjectivity.
B. Limited Omniscient – a story in which the author associates
with a major or minor character; this character serves as
the author’s spokesperson or mouthpiece.
C. First Person – the author identifies with or disappears in a
major or minor character; the story is told using the first
person “I”.
D. Objective or Dramatic – the opposite of the omniscient;
displays authorial objectivity; compared a roving sound
camera. Very little of the past or the future is given; the
story is set in the present.
17. Symbol
Symbol – a literary symbol means more than what it
is. It has layers of meanings. Whereas an image has
one meaning, a symbol has many.
A. Names used as symbols.
B. Use of objects as symbols.
C. Use of actions as symbols
18. Irony
Irony is a term with a range of meanings, all of them
involving some sort of discrepancy or incongruity. It should not be
confused with sarcasm which is simply language designed to cause
pain. Irony is used to suggest the difference between appearance
and reality, between expectation and fulfillment, the complexity of
experience, to furnish indirectly an evaluation of the author’s
material, and at the same time to achieve compression.
A. Verbal irony – the opposite is said from what is intended.
B. Dramatic irony – the contrast between what a character says
and what the reader knows to true.
C. Irony of situation – discrepancy between appearance and
reality, or between expectation and fulfillment, or between
what is and what would seem appropriate
19. Important Terms
Monologue – an extended speech by
one character.
Soliloquy – an extended speech by
one character, alone on stage.
Soliloquies are used to express the
private thoughts of one character.
Aside – a character’s direct address to
the audience, which is not heard by
the other characters.
20. Monologues, soliloquies, and asides
are dramatic techniques that provide
direct insight into motives, attitudes,
and overall tone.
These techniques function like a
fictional narrator.
