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English 103: Analyzing and Interpreting Literature / English Courses Next Lesson
Elements of Drama: Characters, Plot, Setting & Symbolism
Chapter 4 / Lesson 3 Transcript
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Lesson Transcript
Instructor: Heather Carroll
Heather teaches high school English. She holds a master's degree in education and
is a National Board Certified Teacher.

Have you ever wondered how actors in a play can convey a story without the
audience reading the script? Watch and learn how playwrights use dramatic
elements to tell a story on the stage.
Understanding Drama
A drama, or a play, is a piece of writing that is presented almost exclusively through
dialogue. Like a short story or novel, it has a setting, characters, plot, and even
symbolism. However, the way in which they are presented to the audience is
different, because unlike a short story or novel, the play is meant to be performed in
front of an audience, not read.
Dramatic Form
Plays are not written in paragraphs like a novel or short story. Instead, they are
written as lines of dialogue in the form of a script. You can see in this example from
August Wilson's Fences that the characters are told exactly what to say for the
dialogue. Typically, these scripts are broken down into one or more acts, or major
divisions of the play. And each act is then subdivided into a scene, or smaller
divisions within the act. Usually a change in setting means there will be a change in
either the act or the scene. In this case, this is Act I, Scene 2, and the scene has
shifted onto Rose.
Act I
Scene 2
The LIGHTS come up on ROSE hanging up clothes.
SHE hums and sings softly to herself.
It is the following morning.
ROSE. (Sings.)
Jesus, be a fence all around me every day
Jesus, I want you to protect me as I travel on my way.
Jesus, be a fence all around me every day.
(TROY enters from the house)
ROSE
Jesus, I want you to protect me
As I travel on my way.
(To TROY.) Morning. You ready for breakfast? I can fix it as soon as I finish hanging up
these clothes?

TROY. I got the coffee on. That'll be all right. I'll just drink some of that this morning.
Setting and Staging
In addition to the dialogue, a script will also include stage directions. These notes,
which are often in italics or parentheses, help the actors interpret the scene for the
audience. In this example, when Rose transitions from singing to speaking directly
to Troy, the stage directions tell her to whom she is talking. The audience will only
see her turn and direct her comment to Troy.
ACT I
Scene 1
The setting is the yard which fronts the only entrance to the MAXSON household, an
ancient two story brick house set back off a small alley in a big-city neighborhood.
The entrance to the house is gained by two or three steps leading to a wooden
porch badly in need of paint. A relatively recent addition to the house and running
its full width, the porch lacks congruence. It is a sturdy porch with a flat room. One
or two chairs of dubious value sit at one end where the kitchen window opens on to
the porch. An old-fashioned icebox stands silent guard at the opposite end.
Unlike a novel, which may devote several paragraphs to describing the setting, the
play is limited to what the audience can see on stage. It is important that the
playwright give some indication to setting, especially if the actors will use the items
on stage. In some cases, the stage directions provide information on what the stage
should look like. Other times, they tell the actors where or how to move, or what
facial expressions or tone of voice is appropriate when speaking a line.
In this except from Fences, the director and actors can visualize how the stage
should appear to the audience. And while they will not have an actual house on a
stage, they will have the window and entrances in corresponding places so that the
audience can visualize the scene as well.
Characters and Actors
Before the dialogue in a script, the playwright will often include a cast of characters.
Typically, each character, both major and minor, is listed alongside a brief
description of the character's role in the story. In this example, you can see that Troy
is the main character, and each character is described in relation to him.
Characters
TROY MAXSON
JIM BONO, Troy's friend
ROSE, Troy's wife
LYONS, Troy's oldest son by previous marriage
GABRIEL, Troy's brother

CORY, Troy and Rose's son

RAYNELL, Troy's daughter
This list is usually given to audience members on a printed playbill, or program, as
they enter the theatre, so that they may identify the major characters and the
actors who will play them. Of course, the biggest difference between characters in
prose and characters in drama is that live people, or actors, are representing the
characters in drama. The actors are chosen based on both their physical and verbal
ability to interpret the character. Sometimes it's important that an actor have
certain physical characteristics, such as red hair or stocky nature, because it is an
important aspect of the play.
Plot
The plot structure of the play doesn't really differ from that in prose. There is an
exposition, a rising action, a climax, falling action, and the resolution.
In the play Fences, the exposition explains that Troy Maxson is a garbage man who
loves his family, in spite of the fact he is cheating on his wife, Rose. The main
conflict comes when Troy's son, Cory, wants to go to college on a football
scholarship, but Troy doesn't want him to go because he's afraid he'll be
discriminated against like he had been when he played baseball. In the rising action,
Troy goes to Cory's coach and tells him that Cory can't play football anymore. Cory
accuses Troy of being jealous. Troy's affair with Alberta comes out when she
becomes pregnant.
Alberta dies during childbirth, and Rose agrees to raise the child, but is no longer
attached to Troy. The climax is when Troy and Cory fight. Troy kicks Cory out of the
house. During the falling action, several years later, Troy is dead and Cory doesn't
want to go to his funeral, a decision his mother does not agree with. But the
resolution comes when Cory and Raynell sing a song together, one that Troy used to
sing. As they sing in honor of Troy, the audience knows that Cory can forgive his
father.
The conflict occurs before the rising action begins, and the conflict is the problem
that must be solved. Sometimes the conflict is between two characters, like Troy
and Cory, and plays out on stage with dialogue and actions. Other times, it's an
internal conflict between the character and his or her own thoughts or actions.
Elements of drama
A detailed definition of the basics of drama with a corresponding short story that
highlights each particular theme.
Original Alphabetical

PLOT

(The Most Dangerous Game) ...the series of events that comprise the whole story
that is told in a novel, play, movie, TV show, etc.

DIALOGUE
(Catch the Moon) ...the "lines" (words, facial expressions, body language) "spoken"
by characters in a drama or fiction intended to convey intent, feeling, action or
thought

CHARACTER
(The Secret Life of Walter Mitty) ...the "people" in a novel, play, movie, TV show, etc.
that exhibit characteristics (attributes and experiences that determine or influence
moral, ethical, intellectual and emotional actions, reactions and thought processes)

AUDIENCE
(The Gift of the Magi) ...a gathering of spectators or listeners at a (usually public)
performance

STAGECRAFT
(To Build a Fire) ...the art and craft of establishing the physical environment of a
production

GENRE
(A Sound of Thunder) ...a kind of literary or artistic work that follows a particular
technique or includes certain characteristic forms

CONVENTION
(The Incident at Owl Creek Bridge) ...the set of practices or characteristics within a
drama or artistic work that are expected to be included in order to establish the
genre

THEME
(A Very Old Man with an Enormous Pair of Wings/Thank You, Ma'am) ...the unifying
idea that is reflected through recurrent elements within a literary or artistic work
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