Elements of Drama

By: Hayder Gebreen

What Is Drama?
: A drama (play) is a story enacted onstage for a live audience.
Origins of Drama
The word drama comes from the Greek verb dran, which means “to do,” or "action."
The earliest known plays were written around the fifth century B.C. produced for
festivals to honor Dionysus, the god of wine and fertility.
Types of Drama:

Tragic hero: is noble and admirable in many ways but has a tragic flaw, a personal
failing, that leads to a tragic end.

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 Elements of Drama
By: Hayder Gebreen

Elements of Drama

A- Language:
1-Dialogue: conversations of characters onstage
2-Monologue: long speech given by one character to others
3-Soliloquy: speech by a character alone onstage to himself or herself or to the
audience.
4-Asides: remarks made to the audience or to one character the other characters
onstage do not hear an aside
Function of Dialogue: Dialogue brings characters to life by revealing their
personalities and by showing what they are thinking and feeling as they react to other
characters.
Function of Soliloquy: A soliloquy typically reveals the private thoughts and
emotions of the character.
Function of Asides: are frequently used to provide information to the audience and to
reveal the private thoughts of characters.
B-Theme: -The play's theme is its message, its central concerns, the controlling idea.
C- Character: can be defined as any person, animal, or figure represented in
a literary work.
Types of Characters:
1- Protagonist: the central character, the hero.

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 Elements of Drama
By: Hayder Gebreen

2- Antagonist: is the villain, the forces working against her/him, whether persons,
things, conventions of society, or traits of their own character.
3-Foil is a character who contrasts with another character usually the protagonist in
order to highlight particular qualities of the other character.
4-The confidant: is a character in a story that a protagonist confides in and trusts.
D- Plot: It is a term for the action of drama. It is the sequence of events of which the
story is composed. The dramatic structure of the plot consists of the following:

1-Exposition: introduces the characters, especially the main character, also known as
the protagonist. It shows how the characters relate to one another, their goals and
motivations, as well as their moral character. During the exposition, the protagonist
learns their main goal and what is at stake.
2-Rising action: Rising action involves the buildup of events until the climax.
i-Conflict: a point of time in which all of the major characters have been introduced,
their motives and allegiances have been made clear, and they have begun to struggle
against one another.
ii-Crisis: It is the event that catalyzes the protagonist to go into motion and to take
action. It starts with a conflict, for example, the death of a character. The inciting
incident is the point of the plot that begins the conflict.
In this phase, the protagonist understands his or her goal and begins to work toward
it. Smaller problems thwart their initial success and their progress is directed
primarily against these secondary obstacles. This phase demonstrates how the
protagonist overcomes these obstacles.

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 Elements of Drama
By: Hayder Gebreen

3-Climax: The climax is the turning point or highest point of the story. The
protagonist makes the single big decision that defines not only the outcome of the
story, but also who they are as a person. Freytag defines the climax as the third of the
five dramatic phases which occupies the middle of the story.
At the beginning of this phase, the protagonist finally clears away the preliminary
barriers and engages with the adversary. Usually, both the protagonist and the
antagonist have a plan to win against the other as they enter this phase. For the first
time, the audience sees the pair going against one another in direct or nearly direct
conflict.
This struggle usually results in neither character completely winning or losing. In
most cases, each character's plan is both partially successful and partially foiled by
their adversary. The central struggle between the two characters is unique in that the
protagonist makes a decision which shows their moral quality, and ultimately decides
their fate. In a tragedy, the protagonist here makes a poor decision or a miscalculation
that demonstrates their tragic flaw.
4-Falling action: the falling action phase consists of events that lead to the ending.
Character's actions resolve the problem. In the beginning of this phase, the antagonist
often has the upper hand. The protagonist has never been further from accomplishing
their goal.
5-Resolution: In this phase the protagonist and antagonist have solved their problems
and either the protagonist or antagonist wins the conflict. The conflict officially ends.
Some stories show what happens to the characters after the conflict ends and they
show what happens to the characters in the future.
E- The setting: The setting of a play refers mainly to the time and place in which the
action occurs. It also refers to the scenery, the physical elements that appear on stage.
The setting influences the action and the emotional reaction of the audience.
***Stage Directions: Found in brackets [ ], and describe scenery and how characters
speak.