SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL SY 2017-2018

21ST CENTURY LITERATURE 2nd Term, Grade 12

ELEMENTS OF DRAMA Name: ________________________________

HANDOUT NO. 5 Grade-Section: _________________________
NOVEMBER 2017 Class #: ________

Literature is usually classified under many genres. But all these genres can be incorporated into three
main branches: prose, poetry, and drama.

Though prose (novels, short stories, biographies, essays, etc.) and poetry (epics, limericks, ballads, etc.)
are often dealt with under the context of literary genres, drama is usually seen as a form that may simply
be subsumed either under prose or poetry. However, drama has a separate classification because it has
elements and conventions uniquely its own.

LITERATURE

Prose Poetry Drama

Fiction Non-Fiction Narrative Lyric ?

ELEMENTS AND CONVENTIONS OF DRAMA

I. What is drama?

Drama, or commonly referred to as the play, is one of the main branches of literature.
- It is a literary composition written either in prose or verse, conveying the story through a set of actions and
dialogues typically designed for theatrical performance.
- The term is derived from the Greek word “dran” which means to do.
- Merriam-Webster defines drama as ‘a piece of writing that tells a story and is performed onstage.’

II. What are the different types of drama?

A. In terms of length:
1. ONE-ACT A play that has only one long scene happening in a single The play ‘Condemned’
setting, thus as the name implies, only one ‘act.’ These by National Artist
plays are usually shorter (15 minutes to an hour on Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero is
average) and have fewer characters a one-act play.

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 Shakespeare’s Romeo
2. FULL-LENGTH - A play that contains several acts, spans and Juliet and Merchant
more than an hour and is usually performed of Venice are full-length
with breaks or ‘intermissions’ between acts and straight plays.

B. In terms of presentation:
1. STRAIGHT PLAY – A play that is ‘realistic’ in the sense that it only shows action and dialogue and
does not involve musical numbers

2. MUSICAL - A play wherein music and musical numbers The famous Broadway
are part and necessary to tell the plot dramas Miss Saigon,
or move the story forward Wicked and Phantom of
the Opera are musicals.
3. MONODRAMA – A play for only one performer, whether
involving a single or multiple characters

III. What are the traditional genres of drama?

Nowadays, plays become classified in many genres, but all of them can still be
classified under these traditional genres:

A. TRAGEDY- Tragedy shows what is called ‘reversal of fortune,’ or the tragic

downfall of a character, usually a royal or noble person. This downfall is caused
by the character himself/herself, what is called a tragic flaw – a characteristic
or behavior that results to conflict and complication and eventually, a tragic outcome that cannot be undone.
According to Aristotle in his ‘Poetics,’ tragedy must evoke “pity and fear.”
(Examples: Macbeth, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet)

B. COMEDY - This genre usually depicts a witty or amusing conflict that does not aim to disturb, but to elicit
laughter. The characters in comedy still encounter difficulties but overcome them in the end. The humor in comedy
is focused on characters: low characters as opposed to noble; characters not always changed by the action of the
play; based upon observation of life.
(Example: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Much Ado About Nothing)

C. TRAGICOMEDY – a play with the sincerity and earnestness of tragedy but without its inevitability of impending
disaster; it uses tense situations and moments of extreme conflict, but the tragedy is averted and transcended.
(Example: Winter’s Tale, Merchant of Venice).

D. MELODRAMA – a sensationalized and theatrically-hyped story that involves characters of extreme good and
evil, and involves excessive sentiment and overdramatized emotions. Despite all these, it ends happily.
(Examples: Soap operas, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street)

E. FARCE – These are plays that elicit laughter for laughter’s sake. Unlike comedy, these stories involve
uncomplicated plots, fast paced action and grossly embellished events that are sometimes impossible. The humor
is focused on situations, not characters. Farce uses such theatrical devices as duplications, reversals, repetitions,

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surprises, disguises, chance encounters, often many doors and closets. (Examples: modern sitcoms, The
Importance of Being Ernest.)

IV. What are the basic elements of drama?

Drama shares the same elements with fiction. But having a form of its own, drama contains some variations of
these elements.

A. CHARACTERS – The most essential material of drama. They are the individuals – human or not – who
perform the play’s actions.

B. PLOT - the series of events that form the entire story of the play. Though it also follows the
introduction-rising-action-climax-denouement pattern, dramatic plot can be classified into:
1. Climactic – The play usually begins in medias res, is already near the climax, and involves limited or
even single setting where all the actions take place chronologically until it reaches the climax. The scenes
are usually long, with an entire act normally composing of just one whole scene.
(Best examples are Greek plays like Oedipus Rex, or contemporary dramas like Hedda Gabler.)

2. Episodic – The play begins earlier in the story and involves many characters, various place and time
settings, and subplots. An act can contain many scenes or episodes that may be unrelated, until the
relationships are revealed or formed towards the climax or end.
(Best examples are Shakespearean plays.)

C. SETTING - the place and time of action. Generally, drama contains fewer settings due to staging limitations.
However, multiple settings are still possible with creativity and resourcefulness.

D. THEME –The universal truth about life depicted in the play. It is stated in a complete sentence.
(Example, the theme of Romeo and Juliet is: Love transcends hatred.)
What could be the theme of Merchant of Venice? Of Noli Me Tangere?

What is the theme of George Orwell’s Animal Farm?

E. STYLE - the distinctive mode of expression or method of presentation of a play. A playwright follows a certain
way of writing based on established styles in order to give the actors and directors a baseline on how the play
may be interpreted. Some examples of dramatic style are: naturalism, expressionism, realism, and many more.

What are the conventions of drama?

Conventions are characteristics or processes that are unique to a category. Drama also has its own conventions.

A. ACTS AND SCENES – a play is usually divided into acts and scenes, and such divisions are explicitly labeled in
the script.
1. Scene – a single event happening in a single setting
2. Act – A group of scenes or actions that contain a single theme or main idea

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B. THE CAST OF CHARACTERS – A dramatic text usually begins with a list of the characters with
corresponding descriptions
C. SPEECH DEVICES – In drama, the playwright develops the story through the characters’ spoken lines. The
speech devices in drama can be classified into the following:
1. Dialogue- the conversation between and among characters. This is the main speech
device of drama

2. Monologue – a long speech spoken by a character to other characters or to the

audience
3. Soliloquy – a character’s verbalized inner thoughts, not addressed to any character in
particular
4. Aside – A speech or comment spoken by the character to himself, herself or the
audience, but is not heard by the other characters present on stage. It is usually
introduced by a stage direction.

D. STAGE DIRECTIONS – the playwright’s descriptions of the suggested setting, lighting, props and action
of the characters. They can even describe how the characters will enter, look, speak
or feel.
- Stage directions are usually italicized and are inside parentheses because
they are only meant to be a guide and must not be spoken during performance. The
director of the play may choose to entirely follow or modify the stage directions in
the script.

A FOCUS ON TRAGEDY
When one encounters the word tragedy, what comes into mind? Perhaps, one would normally consider loss of
lives through crime of natural disasters as tragedy. In literature, tragedy is not far from such connotation.

Macbeth is categorically a tragedy, mainly because it depicts a reversal of fortune brought about by a tragic flaw
of the main character. But there are many other factors that define tragedy as a dramatic genre.

The idea of tragedy in drama is based on Aristotle’s ‘Poetics,’ the earliest surviving work on dramatic theory that
has become a basis on defining classical drama and its elements.

Aristotle defines tragedy as such:

“A tragedy is the imitation of an action that is serious and also, as having

magnitude, complete in itself; in appropriate and pleasurable language;...
in a dramatic rather than narrative form; with incidents arousing pity and fear,
wherewith to accomplish a catharsis of these emotions.”

cuip.chicago.edu breaks down and explains Aristotle’s definition of tragedy as follows:

1. “the imitation of an action that is serious and also, as having magnitude, complete in itself;”

This means that a good tragedy deals with one issue that is very “serious.” You can’t have a tragedy about
something trivial like breaking a fingernail. “Magnitude” here means great importance. The issue has to be

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serious and very, very important. That’s why a lot of tragedies deal with someone’s death. “Complete in itself”
means that the play must stick to the one issue; otherwise, the audience will get lost in the plot.

2. “in appropriate and pleasurable language:”

Ancient Greek tragedy had a chorus whose role was to comment on the action of the play. The chorus sometimes
sang their part. Aristotle said that the language should be easy to listen to. It should have rhythm and also good
harmony for the lines that were sung.

3. “in a dramatic rather than narrative form;”

To narrate a story is simply to tell the story, like telling a friend what happened over the weekend. In a play, the
story must be dramatized or acted out.

4. “with incidents arousing pity and fear,”

In a tragedy, the events or episodes in the play should lead the audience to feel very sorry for the main
character—the tragic hero. The audience should also feel afraid for the hero as he moves toward a destructive
end.

5. “wherewith to accomplish a catharsis of these emotions.”

As the play moves along, the events should build up the emotions of pity and fear. A catharsis is a purging, or
cleansing of th e emotions--a release of tension. In a tragedy, this is often a moment of revelation when the tragic
hero “falls flat on his face,” and the audience can finally “explode.”

Aristotle’s Elements of Tragedy

Aristotle said that tragedy has six main elements: plot, character, thought, diction, melody, and spectacle.
Aside from enumerating these elements, Aristotle also arranged them by importance.

The last four elements (Thought, Diction, Melody, and Spectacle) are the least important, but Aristotle felt they
must be done well for the play to succeed.

Thought is the power of saying whatever can be said and should be said at each moment of the plot. Do the lines
spoken by the actors make sense? Are they saying what should be said at each particular moment in the play?

Diction is the actual composition of the lines that are recited. Thought deals with what is said, and diction deals
with how it is said. There are many ways to say something. A good playwright composes lines that say something
extremely well. In a good play, some lines are constructed well that the audience can leave the play quoting the
lines exactly.

Melody and Spectacle are accessories. Spectacle is basically the way a play is staged. The Greeks sometimes used
musical accompaniment. Aristotle said the music (melody) has to blend in with the play appropriately. Spectacle
refers to the staging of the play. Again, as with melody, the spectacle should be appropriate to the theme of the
play.

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Character is the second most important element of tragedy. Each character has an essential quality or nature that
is revealed in the plot. The moral purpose of each character must be clear to the audience. The characters should
have four main qualities:
1. No matter who they are (hero or slave), the characters must be good in some way.
2. The characters should act appropriately for their gender and station in life.
3. The characters have to have believable personalities.
4. Each character must act consistently throughout the play. In other words, nothing should be done or
said that could be seen as “acting out of character.”

Plot
Aristotle felt that the action of the play (its plot) was the most important of the six elements. He said, “All human
happiness or misery takes the form of action... Character gives us qualities, but it is in our actions--what we do--
that we are happy or miserable.”

Aristotle emphasizes what makes a good plot:

1. A good plot has unity. This has already been described in the definition which talks about “one complete
action.” Any events or episodes must be necessary to the main issue and must also be probable or believable.

2. A good plot has Peripety or Discovery--sometimes both.

Peripety is the change from one state of things at the beginning of the play to the exact opposite
state by the end of the play. This could be something like the change from being rich to being poor, or from
being powerful to being powerless, or from being a ruler to being a beggar. The change that takes place in
a tragedy should take the main character (and possibly other characters) from a state of happiness to a
state of misery.
Discovery is a change from ignorance to knowledge. This often happens to the tragic hero who starts out
“clueless” and slowly learns how he himself created the mess he ends up in at the end of the play.
3. Change by itself is not enough. The character involved in the change must have specific characteristics to
arouse the tragic emotions of pity and fear. Therefore, Aristotle said that there are three forms of plot that
should be avoided.
A. A totally good man must not pass from happiness to misery.
This will make the audience angry that bad things happened to him. They won’t pity him so
much as be angry for him.
B. A bad man must not pass from misery to happiness.
This won’t appeal to the audience at all because they won’t want to see evil rewarded.
C. A bad man cannot pass from happiness to misery.
The audience won’t feel sorry for him because they will believe he got what he deserved.

The true tragic hero cannot be too good or too bad, but he must end up in misery.

Aristotle concluded that the best tragedy centers on a basically good man who changes from happiness to misery
because of some great error. This is called the tragic flaw. For example, he might have a good quality, like pride,
that gets out of hand.

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4. The plot of a tragedy also involves some horrible or evil deed. The tragic hero either does it consciously, does
it out of ignorance, or mediates it (makes it easy for the deed to happen). For the audience to be horrified by the
evil deed, the evil has to be done to someone important to the tragic hero. If the hero kills his enemy, the deed
won’t seem so bad. On the other hand, if the hero kills someone he doesn’t care about, the audience won’t care
much either. To make it really horrible for the audience, Aristotle suggested that the evil deed should be done to
a family member.

SOURCES:
PRINT:
Hall, Donald. To Read Literature. USA: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. 1981.

Jenkinson, Edward and Hawley, Jane, eds. On Teaching Literature. Indiana : Indiana University Press. 1967

ONLINE:
Aristotle. Poetics. Trans. S. H. Butcher. The Internet Classics Archive. Web Atomic and Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
13 Sept. 2007. Web. 4 Nov. 2008. ‹http://classics.mit.edu/›.

Aristotle’s Ideas About Tragedy. Web. http://cuip.uchicago.edu/~ldernbach/msw/xhgkaristrag.pdf

Delfin, Ryan. The Three Genres of Literature. 2012. Web. http://genresofliterature.blogspot.com/

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