DRAMA

Drama as a genre combines the literary art of storytelling (and often poetry) with live
performance in a shared space. As a form of ritual as well as entertainment, drama has
served to unite communities and challenge social norms, to delight and disturb its
.audiences

Comedy: The term ‘comedy’ is customarily applied only to plays for the stage or to motion
pictures though the comic form at times also occurs in prose fiction and narrative poetry. In
the most common literary application, a comedy is a work in which the materials are
selected and managed primarily in order to interest, involve and amuse: the characters and
their discomfitures engage the reader’s pleasurable attention rather than one’s profound
concern, the reader is made to feel confident that no great disaster will occur and usually
the action turns out happily for the chief characters. As a form of drama, it is intended to
.amuse and ends happily

Within the very broad spectrum of dramatic comedy, the following types are frequently
distinguished

Romantic Comedy: It was developed on the model of contemporary prose romances such .1
as Thomas Lodge’s Rosalynde (1950), the source of Shakespeare’s As You Like It (1599). Such
comedy represents a love affair, the course of this love does not run smooth, yet overcomes
.all difficulties to end in a happy union as in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Satiric Comedy: ridicules political policies or philosophical doctrines or else attacks .2

deviations from the social order by making ridiculous the violators of its standards of morals
and manners. The early master of satiric comedy was the Greek Aristophanes c. 450-c.385
.B.C, whose plays mocked political, philosophical and literary matters of his age

The Comedy of manners: originated on the New Comedy of the Greek Menander, c 342- .3
292 B.C, and was developed by the Roman dramatists Plautus and Terence in the third and
second centuries B.C. Their plays dealt with the vicissitudes of young lovers and included
what became the stock characters of much later comedy, such as the clever servant, old and
stodgy parents and the wealthy rival. The English comedy of manners was exemplified by
Shakespeare’s in Love Labour’s Lost and Much Ado About Nothing. The following are a list of
some well-known examples of Shakespearean comedies: All’s Well That Ends Well, As You
Like It, The Comedy of Errors, Measure for Measure, The Merchant of Venice, The Merry
Wives of Windsor, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Taming of the Shrew, The Two
Gentlemen of Verona and The Winter’s Tale

Tragic Comedy: is a play that has a plot suitable to tragedy but which ends happily like a
comedy. The action, serious in theme and subject matter seems to lead to a tragic
catastrophe. However, an unexpected turn of events brings about a happy end. In English
dramatic history, tragicomedy usually designates the particular kind of play developed by
Beaumont and Fletcher about 1610. Their work" Philaster" is a typical example.
Characteristics of tragicomedy include: an improbable plot, love as the central interest, rapid
action, contrast of deep villainy and exalted virtue, the rescue of the hero and the heroine in
the nick of time, a penitent villain, the disguises, surprises, jealousy, treachery and intrigue.
.An example of Shakespeare’s tragic comedy Cymbeline and The Winter’s Tale
Tragedy: The term ‘tragedy’ is broadly applied to literary and especially to dramatic
representations of serious and important actions which eventuate in a disastrous conclusion
for the protagonist or chief character. Aristotle was of the view that a tragic hero will most
effectively evoke both our pity and terror if he is neither thoroughly good nor thoroughly evil
but a mixture of both and also that the tragic effect will be stronger if the hero is ‘better
.than we are’ in the sense that he is of higher than ordinary moral worth

:There are different kinds of Tragedies

Medieval tragedy: are stories of a person of high status who whether deservedly or not is .1
brought from prosperity to wretchedness by an unpredictable turn of the wheel of fortune.
The short narratives in ‘The Monk’s Tale’ of the Canterbury Tales ( late fourteenth century)
are in Chaucer’s own terms ‘tragedies’ of this kind. The Elizabethan era was the beginning
.and the pinnacle of dramatic tragedy in England

Senecan tragedy: was written to be recited rather than acted but to English playwrights .2
who thought that these tragedies had been intended for the stage, they provided the model
for an organized five act play with a complex plot and an elaborately formal style of
dialogue. Some of the early playwrights of this form of tragedy are the plays of Thomas
.Sackville and Thomas Norton

Revenge Tragedy or the Tragedy of Blood: This type of play derived from materials of .3
murder, revenge, ghosts, mutilations and carnage but while Senecan Tragedy had relegated
such matters to long reports of offstage actions by messengers, the Elizabethan writers
usually represented them on stage to satisfy the appetite of the contemporary audience for
.violence and horror. Hamlet is an example of horror plays of 1612-13 (by Shakespeare)

Bourgeois or domestic tragedy: Until the close of the seventeenth century almost all .4
tragedies were written in verse and has as protagonists’ men of high rank whose fate
affected the fortunes of a state. A few minor Elizabethan tragedies such as A Yorkshire
Tragedy had as the chief character a man of the lower class but it remained for eighteenth
century writers to popularize the bourgeois or domestic tragedy which was written in prose
and presented a protagonist from the middle and lower social ranks who suffers
commonplace or domestic disaster. George Lillo’s The London Merchant or The History of
George Barnwell (1731) are examples of this form of tragedy, Since that time most
successful tragedies have been in prose and represent middle-class or occasionally even
working class, heroes and heroines. Some well known Shakespearean tragedies are as
follows: well-known Shakespearean tragedies: Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear, Romeo and
Juliet, Othello, Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus, Troilus and Cressida, Timon
.of Athens

:One Act play

In the history of drama, there have been many short, unified dramatic works which may
properly be called one-act plays but the term is usually reserved for those written since the
late nineteenth century. It is defined as a drama consisting of one act; the dramatic
equivalent of the short story. Before 1890, one act plays were used chiefly in vaudeville
programs or as curtain raisers for the important play of the evening.Often a group of two or
three one-act plays are produced in a single theatrical presentation. M"Master Harold"...and
.the Boys (1982) are examples of this kind

Epic theatre

Epic theatre is a term that the German playwright Bertolt Brecht, in the 1920’s, applied to
his plays. By the words ‘epic’ Brecht signified primarily his attempt to emulate on stage, the
objectivity of narration as in Homeric epic. Brecht aimed to subvert the sympathy of the
audience with the actors and the identification of the actor with his role that were features
of the theatre of bourgeois realism. His hope was to encourage his audience to criticize and
oppose rather than passively to accept the social conditions and modes of behavior that the
plays represent. He wished to block their emotional responses and to hinder their tendency
to empathize with the characters and become caught up in the action. To this end, he used
“alienating,” or “distancing,” effects to cause the audience to think objectively about the
play, to reflect on its argument, to understand it, and to draw conclusions. Some well -
known works of Bertolt Brecht are Mother Courage and Her Children (1939), The Life of
Galileo (1939), The Good Person of Setzuan (1942) and The Caucasian Chalk Circle (1945).
.Moreover, these plays have achieved the status of modern classics

:Dramatic Techniques

Devices Dramatic Techniques

.Dramatic Irony: occurs when the reader knows information that the characters do not •

It is used to refer to a situation where the audience, such as that of a movie or play, knows
more about what’s going on on-screen or stage than the characters do. The technique is also
used to heighten the audience’s emotions, they might be aware of something critical to the
plot of a story, be able to see it playing out in the background, but no one on stage has any
idea. The most commonly cited example of this kind of irony is in Shakespeare‘s Romeo and
Juliet. At the end of the play, the readers/listeners/viewers know that Juliet isn’t dead, but
sleeping. Romeo, though, has no idea. He commits suicide believing his true love has died
.while the viewers look on, knowing the truth

Situational Irony: occurs when something happens that is entirely different from what is •
expected. Situational irony can be further divided into three different parts: Cosmic,
Historical, and Socratic irony. Cosmic in other words mean fate, and often the act of gods.
Historical is concerned with real events that only seem ironic when they are seen in
retrospect. Socratic irony, was used by the philosopher Socrates in order to push his
conversational opponents into more ridiculous arguments. One example is Samuel Taylor
Coleridge‘s ‘Rhime of the Ancient Mariner‘ situational irony presents itself in the ninth
:stanza of Part II of the poem. The lines read

,Water, water, everywhere ‘

;And all the boards did shrink

,Water, water, everywhere

’Nor any drop to drink

Verbal Irony )3(

It is the most common form of irony. It occurs when a speaker says something that is in
.direct conflict with what they actually believe or mean

Soliloquy: A dramatic convention in which a character in a play, alone on stage, speaks his •
or her thoughts aloud. The audience is provided with information about the characters’
.motives, plans, and state of mind

So soliloquy is the act of talking to oneself whether silently or aloud. In drama it denotes the
convention by which a character, alone on the stage, utters his or her thoughts aloud.
Playwrights have used this device as a convenient way to convey information about a
character’s motives and state of mind or for purposes of exposition and sometimes in order
to guide the judgements and responses of the audience. The best known of all dramatic
.’soliloquies is Hamlet’s speech which begins ‘To be or not to be

:Monologue •

Monologue is a literary device featuring a “speech” made by a single character in a work of

literature or dramatic work (for theatre or film). Monologues allow a character to address
other characters present in the scene and/or the reader/audience. Monologue originates
from the Greek roots for “alone” and “speak.” This literary device is purposeful and effective
in storytelling as it provides the reader/audience details about a character and the plot. In
addition, monologue is a useful method for writers to share the internal thoughts of a
character as well as their backstory to enhance the reader’s understanding of the character’s
motivations and importance to the narrative. Monologue is an effective literary device,
particularly in terms of developing a character and contributing to the reader’s
understanding of that character. In addition, a well-written monologue can be a powerful
method for a writer to deliver their thoughts, ideas, and beliefs regarding an important
subject through one of their characters, as well as enhancing the reader’s enjoyment of the
.narrative’s plot

:Aside

Aside is a stage device in which a character expresses to the audience his or her thought or
intention in a short speech which by convention is inaudible to the other characters on the
stage. An aside reveals secrets that the character cannot share with others; it can also be a
way for one of the characters to pass judgment on a main plot event. Soliloquys are long
speeches. And while an aside assists the audience in knowing things they would have no
.other way of finding out, they do not shed any new light on the characters who speak them