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ASPECTS OF DRAMA AND

DRAMATURGY
1. Dramatic Art
2. Dramatic Types
3. Dramatic Devices
DRAMATIC ART

 Drama presents fiction or fact


 Play has a plot, characters, dialogue, atmosphere
and outlook on life
 Good play is the product of imagination working
upon experience and observation
 Drama is a portrait, a version not a reproduction
 Directly or indirectly coloured by the artists
personality
 Dramatist’s criticism of life – verdict upon men
and manners
 Romance or realism
 Romance– lofty language, grandeur of
conception, realm of poetry
 Realism - Hamlet on the principles of realism in
drama
“Principle of realism in drama is to hold, as it
were, the mirror, up to nature”
DRAMA WRITERS/DRAMATISTS

 Shakespeare – combination of both realism


and romance, writing in accordance with the
taste of his times
 Ben Jonson – attempted to “show an image of
the times” (realism), employed a language that
men used.
HOW IS DRAMA DIFFERENT FROM A NOVEL?
 Drama is intended to be performed in public and not
read in private
 Full qualities and effects are revealed in presentation
on stage while novel is self-contained. Novels do not
need recourse to any external accessory.
 Play must deliver its entire message within a few
hours
 Author, actor and stage manager combine to produce
the total effect
 Other collaborators: audience, actor, producer, scene-
painter, dressmaker, musician, electrician etc.
 Dramatist speaks through his characters. Plays may
put forward author’s views on social, political issues.
STRUCTURE OF A PLAY

 EXPOSITION
 COMPLICATION (RISING ACTION)

 CLIMAX (CRISIS)

 DENOUEMENT (FALLING ACTION)

 SOLUTION OR CATASTROPHE
 Typical Elizabethan Drama was divided into 5
Acts
 EXPOSITION – Act I
 COMPLICATION (Rising Action) – Act II or III
 CLIMAX (CRISIS) – Act III
 DENOUEMENT (FALLING ACTION) – Act III/IV/V
 SOLUTION OR CATASTROPHE – Act V
 Soon replaced by 3 Acts
EXPOSITION – ACT I
COMPLICATION
(RISING ACTION) –
ACT II OR III

CLIMAX (CRISIS) –
ACT III
DENOUEMENT (FALLING ACTION) – ACT III/IV/V
SOLUTION OR CATASTROPHE – ACT V
DRAMATIC TYPES

 Tragedy
 Comedy
THE MURDER IN THE CATHEDRAL – T.S. ELIOT
TRAGEDY
 Aims at inspiring us with pity and awe
 Characters are subjected to an unhappy fate
 Greek drama deals with the fate of characters of high
birth and station, kings, princes etc. The fall of a king
or ruin of a great family
 Domestic Tragedy (18th century) uses the characters
and incidents of ordinary life as the subject of serious
drama
 Atmosphere of tragedy is somber and serious.
CONT…

 English literature – comic interludes (opposed


to tragedy)
 Intermingling: Tragedies may begin happily and
end unhappily or Comedies may begin
unhappily and end happily
 Entertain – give pleasure

 For Greeks – purpose of tragedy was to effect a


‘catharthis’ (purgation of emotions – pity/fear)
TWO MAIN TYPES OF TRAGEDY

 Classical Tragedy
 Romantic Tragedy
CLASSICAL TRAGEDY- BASED ON GREEK
CONVENTIONS
 3 UNITIES
 Unity of time – the time over which the plot is
spread be the same or approximately the same
 Unity of Action
 either purely tragic or purely comic (not a mixture of the
two)
 no sub-plot or episodes unconnected with the main
theme
 Incidents must be logically connected

Unity of Place
confined to one place
 Chorus
 Body of actors that reported what happened off the
stage; develop and comment on the action of the
play; make moral comments
 Canterbury’s women
 Comment on the action of Thomas Becket’s murder
 Voicing insights on, reflections and conclusions about
time, destiny, life and death
ROMANTIC TRAGEDY

 Not circumscribed by the 3 unities


 Does not employ chorus

 Not compelled to be didactic

 Can be written in whatever form the writer finds


best suited to his dramatic purpose
COMEDY

 Classical Comedy – Ben Jonson and the


Restoration playwrights
 Romantic – Shakespeare and the University
wits such as John Lyly, Robert Greene and
Thomas Nashe
 Comedy of humours (Ben Jonson), Restoration
comedy of intrigue, Comedy of Manners,
sentimental comedy
TRAGI-COMEDY

 Half tragedy and half comedy


 Complication – tragedy, Denouement – comedy

 Shakespeare’s Cymbeline, Winter’s Tale, The


Tempest
 Philip Sidney, John Milton, Joseph Addison –
one of the most monstrous inventions,
unnatural, in artistic
 John Dryden – “we have invented, increased,
and perfected a more pleasant way of writing”
FARCE – LATIN WORD “TO STUFF”

 Exaggerated form of comedy; no attempt is


made at fidelity to real life
 Aim is to provoke hearty laughter

 Employs absurd characters, situations and


dialogue
 Realm of nonsense; characters are free from
everyday cares and restraints
 Eg: The Importance of Being Ernest – Oscar
Wilde
 Petrov-Vodkin's painting of a theatre audience
enjoying a farce
MELODRAMA (TRAGEDY)
 Came into prominence in 18th C
 Debased form of tragedy

 Crudely sensational

 Stories of crime, revenge or retribution, evils of


drinking or gambling, lost wills, missing heirs
etc. in which villainy is foiled and virtue
triumphant
 Depicted horror upon horror

 Wonderful scenic devices

 Eg: The Duchess of Malfi – John Webster


THE MASQUE

 Italian origin, introduced in England in the 16th


Cen
 Dramatic form of entertainment

 Medley of music, elaborate scenic effects,


dancing, elaborate costumes woven around
fairy tale myth or allegory
 Developed into a modern type of ballet with
additional attraction of speech and song
 Characters are dieties of classical mythology,
nymphs and personified abstractions like Love,
Delight, Harmony etc.
 Dance

 Elaborate costumes and scenery


 Costume for a knight
in a court masque
THE ONE-ACT PLAY

 Its history dates far back to the early Mystery


and Miracle plays
 “Curtain Raiser” – a one act piece, usually of a
diff nature, that preceded a full length play
 The one-act play in relation to drama as the
short story is to the novel.
 A form by itself with laws of its own

 Imposes severe restrictions on the playwright

 Brevity in plot, characterisation and dialogue


MYSTERY/MIRACLE PLAYS

 Earliest formally developed plays in medieval


Europe
 By 15th Cent, mystery plays reached the height
of their popularity
 Lost their popularity with the emergence of
professional theatre
 Plays that focused on representation of Bible
stories.
MORALITY PLAYS (INTERLUDES)

 Popular in the 15th and 16th century


 Allegory in which the protagonist is met by different
personifications of various moral attributes who try
to prompt him to choose a Godly life over an evil
one
 More secular in approach as compared to mystery
plays
 Eg: Everyman: God, Death, Everyman, Good-deeds,
Angel, Knowledge, Beauty, Strength, Discretion
DRAMATIC MONOLOGUE

 Not strictly a dramatic art form/type but more


of a poetic form
 Presented as a speech addressed to a silent
listener; person who speaks is made to reveal
himself and the motives that impelled him at
some crisis in his life or throughout its course
 Author is intent on revealing the inner man

 Aim is character study or “psycho analysis”


 Part drama and part poetry
 Speech in poetic medium with a dominant
dramatic note
 Study in character (which is one of the main
functions of drama)
 Differs from drama in its complete lack of
action and interchange of speech.
 Comparison can be made with the soliloquy yet
differs because in soliloquy - passive listener
whose reaction is being hinted at by the
speaker; not supposed to be heard unlike DM
 Lucrezia de' Medici, by Bronzino, generally believed to
be My Last Duchess written by Robert Browning
ROBERT BROWNING – CHIEF EXPONENT
My Last Duchess – Duke of Ferrara
That's my last Duchess painted on the wall,
Looking as if she were alive. I call
That piece a wonder, now: Fra Pandolf's hands
Worked busily a day, and there she stands.
Will't please you sit and look at her? I said
Fra Pandolf by design, for never read
Strangers like you that pictured countenance,
The depth and passion of its earnest glance,
But to myself they turned (since none puts by
The curtain I have drawn for you, but I)
And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst,
How such a glance came there; so, not the first
Are you to turn and ask thus. Sir, ’twas not
Her husband’s presence only, called that spot
Of joy into the Duchess’ cheek: perhaps
Frà Pandolf chanced to say “Her mantle laps
Over my lady’s wrist too much,” or “Paint
Must never hope to reproduce the faint
Half-flush that dies along her throat”:
such stuff
Was courtesy, she thought, and cause enough
For calling up that spot of joy. She had
A heart—how shall I say?—too soon made glad,
Too easily impressed; she liked whate’er
She looked on, and her looks went everywhere.
DRAMATIC DEVICES

 Dramatic Irony
 Soliloquy and Aside

 Expectation and Surprise

 Stage Directions
DRAMATIC IRONY
 Form of contrast; what is being said or done on
the stage has one meaning for the characters
concerned and another for the spectators who
know something the characters do not
 Verbal Irony and Irony of Situation

 Egs:
IRONY IN EVERYDAY LIFE

 I posted a video on YouTube about how boring


and useless YouTube is.
 The name of Mark’s biggest dog was “Tiny”.

 You laugh at a person who slipped stepping on


a banana peel and the next thing you know, you
slipped too.
 The butter is as soft as a marble piece.

 “Oh great! Now you have broken my new


camera.”
IRONY IN SHAKESPEARE’S “ROMEO AND
JULIET”, ACT I, SCENE V.
 “Go ask his name: if he be married.
My grave is like to be my wedding bed.”

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”, Coleridge


 “Water, water, everywhere,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, everywhere,
Nor any drop to drink.”
SOLILOQUY AND ASIDE
 Actor’s secret thoughts uttered aloud on stage
to acquaint the audience with what is on his
mind.
 Not supposed to be heard by anyone; spoken
when the character is alone
 Willing suspension of disbelief

 ASIDE – passing thought uttered aloud by an


actor in front of other characters on the stage,
who are not supposed to hear it.
 Soliloquy continued to be employed,
particularly in farce and melodrama till 19th c.
EXPECTATION AND SURPRISE

 Plot construction follows either of these two


methods
 EXPECTATION – all facts are disclosed at once
in which subsequent developments are all
expected (anticipate)
 SURPRISE – a few are held back for some time
to be sprung on the audience later as a
surprise (suspense)
STAGE DIRECTIONS

 Not strictly a dramatic device


 Given in the script to indicate lines the
producer has to follow in order to present the
play exactly as the author intends.

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