Drama
-A Drama is one of the literary genres. It is a mode of fictional representation of a play through dialogues and performance.
-A drama is a composition in Verse or Prose which presents a story through diaglogues.
-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.
-The word drama comes from the Greek term dran meaning action
-The person who writes drama is known as dramatist
-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.
-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)
-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
-Miltons Samson Agonistes
-Byrons manfred
-Shelleys Prometheus unfound
-Hardys The Dynasts
-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
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
-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.
-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
Exposition : It introduces the circumstances from which the initial incident is to begin. It provides the essential information to understand the play.
Complication : This act leads the audience to the climax. It is common 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
Since drama presents us directly with some scenes which are based on peoples actions and interactions, characters play an important role in drama.
-Characters are the persons represented in a dramatic or narrative work
-Each character in a play has distinct moral, intellectual and emotional qualities
-These characters utter the dialogues and perform the actions
-A character may remain stable or unchanged from the beginning to end of a work or sometimes it may undergo a radical change.
-For example, the character Prospero in shakespeares The Tempest and the character micawber in Charles Dickens David Copperfield remain the same in outlook and disposition.
-The character Emma in Jane Austens Emma, Shakespeares 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.
Major Character : These characters usually have a lot to say and appear frequently throughout the play.
-for example, Hamlet is the major character in shakespeares famous tragedy Hamlet
-Miranda form shakespeares Tempest is an example for major characters.
Minor characters : These characters are not so important for the plot and therefore appear only for a short time.
-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
-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)
-A flat character is built on a single idea or quality that remains unchanged over the course of the narrative
-It can be summarized by a single phrase or sentence.
-A flat character can have only a few character traits and are generally types
-This character is static throughout the pay
Round character : (Also called Dynamic or multi-dimensional)
-These characters display several character traits which are usually conflicting and reasonably complex
-They tend to develop throughout the plot.
-This character is as difficult to describe with and adequacy as a person in real life.
Lets look at the different types of characters
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.
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.
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
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.
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.