ELEMENTS OF DRAMA

ACT
An act is a major section of a play. A play may be divided into many
acts. The opening act of the play introduces the characters and the
problems they face. The middle acts further complicate the problems,
and in the final act of the play, the problem is resolved.
ANTAGONIST
Antagonists oppose the resolution the protagonist is seeking, or the
resolution of the conflict in the story.
CHARACTERIZATION
Characterization is a literary device that is used step by step in
literature to highlight and explain the details about a character in a
story. It is in the initial stage where the writer introduces the character
with noticeable emergence and then following the introduction of the
character, the writer often talks about his behaviour; then as the story
progresses, the thought-process of the character. The next stage
involves the character expressing his opinions and ideas and getting
into conversations with the rest of the characters. The final part shows
how others in the story respond to the characters personality.
CLIMAX
A climax in a story is the point of the highest action just before the
plot is resolved. It generally takes place very late in the story, with the
subsequent denouement lasting only short time before the story's end.

COMPLICATION
An intensification of the conflict in a story or play. Complication
builds up, accumulates, and develops the primary or central conflict
in a literary work.
CONFLICT
In literature, a conflict is a literary element that involves a struggle
between two opposing forces usually a protagonist and an antagonist.
An internal or psychological conflict arises as soon as a character
experiences two opposite emotions or desires; usually virtue or vice,
or good and evil inside him. This disagreement causes a character to
suffer mental agony. Internal conflict develops a unique tension in a
storyline marked by a lack of action.
External conflict, on the other hand, is marked by a characteristic
involvement of an action wherein a character finds himself in struggle
with those outside forces that hamper his progress. The most common
type of an external conflict is where a protagonist fights back against
the antagonists tactics that impede his or her advancement.
DENOUEMENT
The final resolution or clarification of a dramatic or narrative plot.
EXPOSITION
An exposition is a literary device used to introduce important
information about a story's setting, the characters and the initial
conflict of the plot. In plays, the exposition is usually found in the
opening scenes and can be expressed through character dialogue,
flashbacks, thoughts or the narrator giving background.

MAIN PLOT vs SUB PLOT

The main plot is the full flow of your story---what happens from the
beginning to the end. The plot provides the main characters, their
goals and motivation and their conflicts the obstacles that keep
them from reaching their goal. The plot is where youll find the
storys theme or main idea.
Sub Plot is a secondary plot (or side story) that is unfolding in your
story. The subplot adds complications and puts obstacles in the way
of the main character and therefore becomes a story conflict.
Sometimes a subplot will mirror the struggle of a main character, and
though the character has wisdom for her friends issue, she cant
relate it to her own until something happens to help her see that she
has the same problem and now has the answer.
PERIPETEIA
Peripeteia is a sudden or unexpected reversal of circumstances or
situation especially in a literary work.
PROTAGONIST
A protagonist is the main character in a work of literature or movie. A
protagonist generally experiences some sort of change or
transformation in his or her character throughout the story. This is the
key defining characteristic of a protagonist.
SCENE
Scenes are the sections that make up the acts. You know when scenes
change because the set of characters on stage change or the set might
change to indicate that the characters are in a new place. Scenes tell
small pieces of the overall story.

FORMS OF DRAMA
COMEDY
Comedy is a type of drama or other art form the chief object of
which, according to modern notions, is to amuse. It is contrasted on
the one hand with tragedy and on the other with farce, burlesque, and
other forms of humorous amusement.
FARCE
A farce is a literary genre and the type of a comedy that makes the
use of highly exaggerated and funny situations aimed at entertaining
the audience. Farce is also a subcategory of dramatic comedy that is
different from other forms of comedy, as it only aims at making the
audience laugh.
HISTORIC DRAMA
The historical period drama is a film genre in which stories are based
upon historical events and famous people. Some historical dramas are
docudramas, which attempt an accurate portrayal of a historical event
or biography, to the degree that the available historical research will
allow.
MELODRAMA
A melodrama is a dramatic or literary work in which the plot, which
is typically sensational and designed to appeal strongly to the
emotions, takes precedence over detailed characterisation. Characters
are often simply drawn, and may appear stereotyped.

MODERN DRAMA
Modern drama is defined as theatrical plays written in the 19th and
20th centuries by playwrights such as Oscar Wilde, Tennessee
Williams, Henrik Ibsen, Gerhart Hauptmann, Edmond Rostand,
George Bernard Shaw, William Butler Yeats, Leo Tolstoy, Samuel
Beckett, Tony Kushner and others.
ROMANCE
The plot usually revolves around an obstacle which prevents deep and
true romantic love between two people. Music is often employed to
indicate the emotional mood, creating an atmosphere of greater
insulation for the couple. The conclusion of a romantic
drama typically does not indicate whether a marriage will occur.
SATIRE
Satire, artistic form, chiefly literary and dramatic, in which human or
individual vices, follies, abuses, or shortcomings are held up to
censure by means of ridicule, derision, burlesque, irony, parody,
caricature, or other methods, sometimes with an intent to inspire
social reform.
THEATRE of the ABSURD
Theatre of the Absurd refers to a literary movement in drama popular
throughout European countries from the 1940s to approximately
1989.Absurdist playwrights adhered to the theories of FrenchAlgerian philosopher Albert Camus, in particular his essay The Myth
of Sisyphus, published in 1942.

TRAGEDY
A drama or literary work in which the main character is brought to
ruin or suffers extreme sorrow, especially as a consequence of
a tragic flaw, moral weakness, or inability to cope with unfavourable
circumstances.
TRAGIC-COMEDY
Tragicomedy is a literary genre that blends aspects of both tragic and
comic forms. Most often seen in dramatic literature, the term can
variously describe either a tragic play which contains enough comic
elements to lighten the overall mood or a serious play with a happy
ending.

LITERARY DEVICES
DRAMATIC/TRAGIC IRONY
Tragic irony is also known as dramatic irony. It is used by authors to
allow the reader, or audience, to know more about a situation than the
characters. Thus, tragic irony creates incongruity between what a
character does or says and what the reader knows to be true. Often
this occurrence is very tragic, leading to the downfall of the character,
while the audience helplessly looks on.
IMAGERY
As a literary device, imagery consists of descriptive language that can
function as a way for the reader to better imagine the world of the
piece of literature and also add symbolism to the
work. Imagery draws on the five senses, namely the details of taste,
touch, sight, smell, and sound.
MOTIF
A motif is a narrative element with symbolic meaning that repeats
throughout a work of literature. Motifs may come in the form of
reoccurring imagery, language, structure, or contrasts. In drama,
motifs may also take the form of repeated music, visual components,
or physical movements. The development of motifs in a work of
literature often contributes to mood and/or theme.

SYMBOLISM
When used as a literary device, symbolism means to imbue objects
with a certain meaning that is different from their original meaning or
function. Other literary devices, such as metaphor, allegory,
and allusion, aid in the development of symbolism. Authors use
symbolism to tie certain things that may initially seem unimportant to
more universal themes. The symbols then represent these grander
ideas or qualities.

FEATURES OF DRAMA
ASIDE
An aside is a dramatic device in which a character speaks to the
audience. By convention the audience is to realize that the character's
speech is unheard by the other characters on stage.
CHORUS
The chorus in Classical Greek drama was a group of actors who
described and commented upon the main action of a play with song,
dance, and recitation.
DIALOGUE
A dialogue is a literary technique in which writers employ two or
more characters to be engaged in conversation with each other. In
literature, it is a conversational passage or a spoken or written
exchange of conversation in a group or between two persons directed
towards a particular subject.
MONOLOGUE
A dramatic monologue is a long excerpt in a play, poem or story that
reveals a character's thoughts and feelings.
SOLILOQUY
A soliloquy is a popular literary device often used in drama to reveal
the innermost thoughts of a character. It is a great technique used to
convey the progress of action of the play by means of expressing a
characters thoughts about a certain character or past, present or
upcoming event while talking to himself without acknowledging the
presence of any other person.

Introduction
Drama is a specific mode of fiction represented in performance. It
comes in many forms such as comedies and histories. Drama has
many elements such as scenes, acts and characterizations, features
such as monologue and includes many features which enhance the
work and leads to the entertainment of the reader or viewer.