AN ANALYSIS OF JOE KELLER’S DOWNFALL IN ARTHUR

MILLER’S PLAY ALL MY SONS

A THESIS

BY: BENRI PURBA

REG NO: 080721001

UNIVERSITY OF NORTH SUMATERA

FACULTY OF LETTER
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
MEDAN
2009

Universitas Sumatera Utara

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning Psalmen:30 :5

heaven Father thank you for always “lighting a ray of hope for me”

In the name of Jesus Christ, The Almighty God.

Hallelujah, I would like to thank to Jesus Christ, The savior, for the love, blessing and

mercy so that the writer able to finish this thesis.”thank you God”

My particularly gratitude must go to. Dra. Swesana Mardia Lubis, M. Hum,

my supervisor, and to Drs. Parlindungan Purba,M. Hum my Co-supervisor for the

attention and guidance during the process of analyzing and writing this thesis. I

appreciate all they have contributed and my God bless them.

Then I would like to thank to Dean of Fakultas Sastra, North Sumatera

University. Prof. Bahren Umar Siregar, Ph.D; the head and the secretary of English

Department, Dra.Swesana Mardia Lubis, M.Hum and Drs. Parlindungan Purba,

M.hum, and all the lectures of English Deparment who have taugh the writer for two

years.

My best and deep appreciation and love are due to my beloved father Ramali

Purba Tanjung and My Beloved mother Sitinurhalizah br Silalahi for their greatest

love all of all, attentions, supports, and prayers, who always guide me to the’right

way’ and be patience along this time. This thesis dedicated to them. “thank you and I

love you so very much”

I also grateful to my family, brother and sister who always encourage me in

finishing my study. My great thank are devoted to Jolly Purba Tanjung, Astri veronica

Purba, Fritanti Purba, Oga Amransius Purba Hendra Purba, Dody Purba, Arjuna

Purba, Jhon Lenon Purba, Tiarna Purba,” I will always love you”.

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 I would like to say thanks too to my friends ‘In Berdikari Street’ family (

Frans Judea Samosir A.K.A Lady Gaga, Ance, Bangga, kak

Kerin,Soven,Sara,,Rahman,) “always be truly friends”. I would like to say thanks to

all my students and friends in ‘Sipinggan’ Elisabet, Debora , Lastry, Nisa, Despi, Eva,

Novia, Siti, Gracella, Lydia, Jantri Ganteng.” I know that you will always make me

strong”

I would like to thank you my ‘Bere’ Jimmi, Sanjaya, Kristabolu, Lindung

“thank you for being my breath you are all the reason I could do my best my love

never end for you all “

At last but not least I would like to thank you my ‘Inang Bunga Sampang’ all

nanggi, and family ” thank you so very much for sharing me your unconditional love

in my life, and I really love you just as the way you are thank you and I love you all”

Medan, December 15, 2009

Benri Purba

Universitas Sumatera Utara

 ABSTRAK

Dalam karya All My Sons ini saya mencoba mengangkat suatu permasalahan tentang
kehidupan seorang ayah yang sudah berumur hampir enam puluhan tahun Joe keller
sebagai salah satu tokoh utama yang mengalami berbagai penderitaan dan pencobaan
akibat dari buah-buah perbuatannya pada masa lalu dan juga akibat dari pemikirinya
dimana kesuksesan materi merupakan segala-galanya bagi kehidupannya sehingga ia
melakukan segala cara untuk mendapatkan kesuksesaan materi.
Kejatuhan Joe Keller tidak hanya karena ambisi pribadinya dimana dia
mengutamakan kesuksesan materi di atas segala-galanya. Tetapi juga karena
penolakan yang diberikan oleh anak-anaknya atas kesuksesan yang diperolehnya
dengan cara yang tidak wajar. Dimana Joe Keller mengorbankan kehidupan ataupun
nyawa orang lain bahkan nyawa anaknya sendiri Larry rela dia korbankan untuk
mendapatkan kesuksesan materi.
Untuk menganalisis kejatuhan Joe Keller dalam Play All My Sons karya Arthur
Miller penulis menggunakan metode deskriptip dengan menggabungkan perilaku dan
perkataan Joe Keller sebagaimana dikemukakan dalam play All My Sons

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………………………………………………………..I

ABSTRAK…………………………………………………………………………..III

TABLE OF CONTENTS..........................................................................................IV

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of Analysis…………………………………………1

1.2 The Problem of Analysis...............................................................4

1.3 The Objectivities of Analysis…………………………………….4

1.4 The scope of Analysis…………………………………………....5

1.5 Methods of Analysis.......................................................................5

1.6 Significance of Analysis………………………………………….6

1.7 Review of Related Literatures…………………………………..6

CHAPTER II AN OVERVIEW OF LITERATURE

2.1 The American Dream Myth……………………………………..8

2.2 The Land of Opportunity………………………………………..9

2.3 The Ideology of the American Dream………………………….9

2.4 American Literature and American Play………………….......10

2.5 American Play…………………………………………………...13

2.6 Elements of Play………………………………………………...13

2.7 The structure of a play ( Tragedy and Comedy )……………..17

2.8 The Nature of Drama……………………………………………19

2.9 Types of Tragic Drama………………………………………….21

2.10. Types of comedy……………………………………………….23

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CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY

A. Collecting data……………………………………………………26

B. Data Selecting…………………………………………………….26

C. Data Analyzing................................................................................27

CHAPTER IV JOE KELLER DOWNFALL IN ARTHUR MILLE’S PLAY ALL

MY SONS

1. Joe Keller’s Self-concept…………………………………………31

2. Joe Keller Past misdeed………………………………………….36

3. The Death of Joe Keller………………………………………….40

CHAPTER V CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION

5.1 Conclusion………………………………………………………41

5.2 Suggestion……………………………………………………….41

BIBLIOGRAPHY……………………………………………...………42

APPENDIXES

Appendix1.The Biography of Arthur Miller

Appendix2.The Summary of All My Sons play by Arthur Miller

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 ABSTRAK

Dalam karya All My Sons ini saya mencoba mengangkat suatu permasalahan tentang
kehidupan seorang ayah yang sudah berumur hampir enam puluhan tahun Joe keller
sebagai salah satu tokoh utama yang mengalami berbagai penderitaan dan pencobaan
akibat dari buah-buah perbuatannya pada masa lalu dan juga akibat dari pemikirinya
dimana kesuksesan materi merupakan segala-galanya bagi kehidupannya sehingga ia
melakukan segala cara untuk mendapatkan kesuksesaan materi.
Kejatuhan Joe Keller tidak hanya karena ambisi pribadinya dimana dia
mengutamakan kesuksesan materi di atas segala-galanya. Tetapi juga karena
penolakan yang diberikan oleh anak-anaknya atas kesuksesan yang diperolehnya
dengan cara yang tidak wajar. Dimana Joe Keller mengorbankan kehidupan ataupun
nyawa orang lain bahkan nyawa anaknya sendiri Larry rela dia korbankan untuk
mendapatkan kesuksesan materi.
Untuk menganalisis kejatuhan Joe Keller dalam Play All My Sons karya Arthur
Miller penulis menggunakan metode deskriptip dengan menggabungkan perilaku dan
perkataan Joe Keller sebagaimana dikemukakan dalam play All My Sons

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 INTRODUCTION

1.1 The Background of Analysis

There have been various attempts to define what literature is. Wallek and

Warren said that “literature is said to be creative ,an art, what an author has been

produced.” It means that literature is a product of author’s imagination that imitates

the reality in to the art of writing. Besides that ,Taylor states that “literature is said to

be the school of life that authors tent to comment on the conduct of the society and of

individuals in the society.” So ,Taylor means that literature may become tool of

valuing people in their behavior both collectively and individually. Literature is like

mirror in which people or individuals can see their face and judge what are in them.

In general literature has some different kinds. Each of them has its own

characteristics though they have much in common such as they have characters,

theme , setting and style. Peck and Coyle devide literature into three genres or types;

they are : poetry, drama, and novel . Poetry etymologically the work poetry derived

from the Greek word poesis means to make or construct and poietis means the maker

.usually the maker of a poem called poet. usually poem is a piece of writing in verse

form, and the beauty ,the power and the effect of a poem rarely depend on styles

technique form and also the essential elements like rhyme, rhythm ,form and also the

choice of words to create a poem.

A poem usually have some aspects such as: feeling, sense, tone and intention.

Sense is the subject matter of the poem. What is a poem about . Feeling is the attitude

of the writer toward the subject matter, by reading a certain poem carefully we could

understand what does the writer think about the subject matter feel of it and his

opinion about it. Tone is the attitude of the writer toward the reader weather he writer

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in a good mood , pessimist, or optimist, sad or happy. We understand it by giving our

intention to the words that poets used in their poem.

Novel is a narrative kind of fictitious writing. A novel is an extended fictional

prose narrative dealing with human characters and action of a period of time. What is

old in a novel might have happened. The happenings and actions or even the events

need not necessarily to be true and factual. They might all the same be true to every

day life.

The author of the novel is the creator of the story He invents the characters,

the happening, the action, the events, ect. The novelist usually tells his story through

his characters or his media. All characters must act and behave according to the

novelist. Novelist arranges everything who is to be the chief characters or hero and

who is the heroine, and who will act minor actions.

A novel is like mirror it reflects all the lives of people in other people in other

places, the way how they live their lives, how they love or hate, how they struggle for

their ideals or better way of life. Usually a novel have several aspects such as: the

plot, the characters portrayals, the theme or themes, the tone, the background, the

symbolism, and the language.

The plot is the sequence of the events in the novel. the plot is like a chain, all

the events are linked together. The events are the links. If one of the links drops down

the chain falls apart. If one of the events is missing the story will not go or the story

misses some of its part and the reader will not be satisfied. The characters is the actor

of the novel and deal with how their appearances, their characters, their habits, their

way of lifeas portrayal in a novel. The theme is the attitude r the philosophical point

of view of a novelist or the creator of a novel. Tone is the general or prevailing

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characters of morals, sentiment, the tone maybe sad, joyful, sentimental, humours,

satirical, bitter,humours, passionate.

Play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of

scripted dialogue between characters, in tended for theatrical performances rather

than reading. A play usually have some aspects or elements such as: characters,

plot,theme, dialogue, convention. Most plays contain major characters and minor

characters, The delineation and development of major characters is essential to the

play The distinction between heroes or heroines and villains, between good guys and

bad guys, between virtue and vice is useful in dealing with certain types of plays, but

in many modern plays.

Another common term in drama is protagonist. Etymologically, it means the

first contestant. The plot is usually structured with acts and scenes. The plot usually

called the body of a play. The theme is the attitude r the philosophical point of view of

a playwright or the creator of the play. Dialogue provides the substance of a play.

Each Dialogue provides the substance of a play contributes to its effect as a whole.

This thesis deals with play as the main source of analysis. It is Arthur Miller’s

All My Son. In this thesis I want to analysis the character as one main aspect in a

play.i have read this play several times and it is inspires me to do this analysis. In

analysis this play I intend to analysis the downfall of one major character in that play

named Joe Keller. This analysis is focused on backdrop of Joe Keller’s downfall such

as the failure of Keller to understand the American Dream Myth.

I chose this plays as the object of my analysis because I want to inform some

statements caused the downfall of Joe Keller as the reflection to social life that is

happen in our present life , especially it describes some cases that influence family life

and society influences itself and how materialism can destroy all our dream.

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1.2 Problem of the Analysis

The thesis analysis has been focused on how the hero Joe Keller ,fails to

understand American Dream Myth in his life. He has been betrayed by his own

myopic worldview of the life that Keller sees himself as answerable only to himself

and his family, not to society as a whole. It is also refers to his past misdeeds and

Keller’s self define as an uneducated man, taking pride in his commercial success

without traditional book learning. Also how a capitalist system and materialism that

encourage individuals to value their business sense over their moral sense. Joe

Keller’s blame attitude He tries to blame anyone and everyone for crimes during the

wartime first by letting his partner go to jail. Based on those assumptions above, I

come to state my problem analysis as follows:

1. How far the materialism can effect and destroy human life as portrayal in Joe

Keller’s life.

2. How far self define influence and effect one’s life as portrayal in Joe keller’s

life.

3. How past misdeed effect present and shape the future of life as portrayal in

Joe Keller’s life.

1.3 Objective of the Analysis

In analyzing the Joe Keller’s downfall as portrayed in Arthur miller’s play All

My Sons, I have some purpose as follows are:

1.To explain how far the materialism can effect and destroy human life as

portrayal in Joe Keller’s life.

2. To explain how far self define influence and effect one’s life as portrayal in

Joe keller’s life.

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 3. To explain how past misdeed effect present and shape the future of life as

portrayal in Joe Keller’s life.

1.4 Scope of the Analysis

I restrict my analysis in this thesis into three aspect of manifesting American

Dream Myth trough the leading character that is Joe Keller. Firstly the causes of Joe

Keller downfall ,the second is about Joe Keller’s self define and his myopic

worldview. And the third is about Joe Keller’s past misdeed that influence his own

life and his family.

These three aspect are confined to the way of thinking which believes that by

the myopic perspective on his world stem a devotion to his family and his claim that

there is nothing greater than the family and his self define and past misdeed .these

aspects are related to Joe Keller’s Downfall which is then formulated as the scope of

the analysis .

1.5 Method of the Analysis

In analyzing this play I am using descriptive approach which describes the

downfall of Joe Keller as portrayed in Arthur Miller’s Play All My Son. The main

source or primary data of the analysis is Arthur miller’s play All My Son. I mean by

the data here is the quotations I selected from the play. Thus , the first step of the

method procedure is reading the play several times. After having understood the story

, I come to find out the idea which is related to American Dream Myth.

The selection of the data is important in order to get relevancy with the analysis.

So the selected quotations are interoperated to get the actual meaning. After that I

analyze the data for the truth of the analysis.In doing the research , I focused on books

and references to get information for the data analyze. Since the data are documented

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in written form , the method of my analysis is known as documentation method of

analysis. In other word this kind of research known with library research.

1.6 Significances of the Analysis

This thesis entitled Joe Keller’s downfall as portrayed in Arthur Miller’s play

All My Sons. The significance of this analysis contains theoretical and practical use.

Theoretically ,this analysis is meant to add a`study of literature trough play as one

genre of literature, particularly American literature which is represented by Arthur

Miller’s All My Sons. I hope this play may give information about American play for

students of literature in general, and for students literature in particular.

Practically, the student of English literature may get knowledge of literature

especially trough Arthur Miller’s All My Sons. And this analysis also may be

reference for further analysis in literary work especially drama.

1.7 Review of Related Literatures

In analyzing this play, I deals with books which has close relation to the title

itself. Thus I state them as the importance to the analysis:

1.Thomas E. Porter , Myth and Modern American Drama (1969)

Explain the dramatic Milieu and the American drama in the introduction. It

clarifies how the concept of American dream myth comes into the central idea of

literature especially drama. It is further added that such kind of myth has become

central to literature.This book offer idea which help me to do further analysis in my

thesis. It is related to an understanding of how the myth becomes the product of

adaptation to American culture. It is said that because the myth represents experience

that offers attitude of American to reach success.American dream myth which is

manifested in slogan such as “work hard, good performance, beauty and unique

appearance can be materialized in achieving succeed. Yet , it is true culturally but not

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realistic factually.for some evidence, the myth can betray the dream for success in

term of failure or downfall.

2. Jean Gould .modern American playwright (1966)

The name of some modern American play wrights include in this book, and of

them is Arthur miller in this book background of playwright’s life and lists of his

works presented here.

3.Jhon Gassner. Best American plays Third Edition (1987)

This book contains all American best play and here I found the play of Arthur

Miller’s All My Sons and also contain another his best play such as The Death of

Salesman .from this one I take it and devote as the other chapter of the analysis.

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 CHAPTER II
THEORITICAL REVIEW OF LITERATURE

2.1.The American Dream Myth

American Dream Myth is the mythology of American people to attain their

goals or their dream itself or it can be defined as having the freedom that allows all

citizen to achieve goals in their life through hard work. American Dream has three

kinds of dream which is conceiving of American people such as,(1)individual

freedom of choice in life styles,(2) equal access to economic abundance,(3)the pursuit

of shared objectives mutually advantageous to the individual and society.(Truslow.

Adam ,1931:404). American dream is also that dream of a land in which life should

be better and richer for every man with opportunity for each according to his ability or

achievement.

American dream is also that dream of a land in which life should be better and

richer and fuller for everyman with opportunity for each according to his ability or

achievement. As the interrelated persistent of myths in America called “ American

land of plenty, American as land of opportunity, and American as land of

destiny”.Richard M.Dorson in his book entitle Handbook Of American Folklore

(1983:57) states that ”the basic myth of American myth is America the land of

opportunity this vision has been expressed in analogues metaphors such as The

Promised Land, The Earthly Paradise, Manifest Destiny, The Garden of Eden, Land

of The free and home of the Brave”.

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2.2 The Land of Opportunity

In generally America is regarded as the land of opportunity. Anyone in

America can grow up to be President, or be a US Congressman or a US senator. All it

takes is a little hard work. They playing field is level. There is no reason that any one

of the people in this room could not one day be sitting in the halls of Congress, in the

Oval Office or on the bench of the US Supreme Court and this mean that live in

America everyone has the same opportunity in everything to get success all the thing

that must be done is work hard.

American Dream Myth is supposed to be a culture product of American

people. It deal with social behavior covering a dream of success, better attitudes,

moral values, that penetrate pattern of living socially and personally. Thus myth is to

be cultural spirit that encourages one to face living. Myth is spoken mouth to mouth in

the form of saying or proverbs. It summarizes the essence of worth living to achieve.

American people believe that dream myth which can be applied into their life in social

life such as profile or treasure.

2.3 The Ideology of the American Dream

The content of each individual version of American dream they all include the

belief in the opportunity to achieve some form of quantitative or qualitative success. It

will be helpful to define the different ways in which success can be measured. Jenifer

Hochchild states that definition of success involve measurement as well as content.

She classifies success into following three categories which have important normative

behavioral consequences:

1. Absolute success: “in this case achieving the American dream implies

reaching some threshold of well being higher than where on e began but not

necessarily dazzling.

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 2. Competitive success : ‘’achieving victory over someone else. My success

implies your failure.

3. Relative success: “here achieving the American dream consist in becoming

better off than some comparison point whether one’s childhood, people in the

old country, one’s neighbors, a character from a book another race or gender-

anything or anyone that one measure oneself against. Relative success implies

no threshold of well-being and it may or may not entail continually changing

the comparison group as one achieves a given level of accomplishment.

The American dream ideology is its emphasis on individual people’s behavior

rather than on economic processes, environmental constraints or political structures as

the causal explanation for social ordering which help American cope with or even to

recognize that the fact of dream myth.

The most widely accepted cultural attitudes are expressed in social ideograms like

democracy, law and order, frontier, success. The use of these ideograms implies the

existence of a complex of inter-related images and emotions working in the psyche in

a way that defies scientific analysis. the tradition of Anglo-Saxon parliamentary

history of republican experience add the images of the land of the free, equal

opportunity, freedom of choice, free enterprise, right of individual and the forth.

2.4 American Literature and American Play

In general literature has some different kinds. Each of them has its own

characteristics though they have much in common such as they have characters,

theme , setting and style. Peck and Coyle devide literature into three genres or types;

they are : poetry, drama, and novel .

Poetry etymologically the work poetry derived from the Greek word poesis

means to make or construct and poietis means the maker .usually the maker of a poem

16

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called poet. usually poem is a piece of writing in verse form, and the beauty ,the

power and the effect of a poem rarely depend on styles technique form and also the

essential elements like rhyme, rhythm ,form and also the choice of words to create a

poem.

A poem usually have some aspects such as: feeling, sense, tone and intention.

Sense is the subject matter of the poem. What is a poem about . Feeling is the attitude

of the writer toward the subject matter, by reading a certain poem carefully we could

understand what does the writer think about the subject matter feel of it and his

opinion about it. Tone is the attitude of the writer toward the reader weather he writer

in a good mood , pessimist, or optimist, sad or happy. We understand it by giving our

intention to the words that poets used in their poem.

Novel is a narrative kind of fictitious writing. A novel is an extended fictional

prose narrative dealing with human characters and action of a period of time. What is

old in a novel might have happened. The happenings and actions or even the events

need not necessarily to be true and factual. They might all the same be true to every

day life. The author of the novel is the creator of the story He invents the characters,

the happening, the action, the events, ect. The novelist usually tells his story through

his characters or his media. All characters must act and behave according to the

novelist.

Novelist arranges everything who is to be the chief characters or hero and who

is the heroine, and who will act minor actions. A novel is like mirror it reflects all the

lives of people in other people in other places, the way how they live their lives, how

they love or hate, how they struggle for their ideals or better way of life. Usually a

novel have several aspects such as: the plot, the characters portrayals, the theme or

themes, the tone, the background, the symbolism, and the language.

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 The plot is the sequence of the events in the novel. the plot is like a chain, all

the events are linked together. The events are the links. If one of the links drops down

the chain falls apart. If one of the events is missing the story will not go or the story

misses some of its part and the reader will not be satisfied. The characters is the actor

of the novel and deal with how their appearances, their characters, their habits, their

way of lifeas portrayal in a novel. The theme is the attitude r the philosophical point

of view of a novelist or the creator of a novel. Tone is the general or prevailing

characters of morals, sentiment, the tone maybe sad, joyful, sentimental, humours,

satirical, bitter, humours, passionate.

Play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of scripted

dialogue between characters, in tended for theatrical performances rather than

reading. A play usually have some aspects or elements such as: characters, plot,theme,

dialogue, convention. Most plays contain major characters and minor characters, The

delineation and development of major characters is essential to the play The

distinction between heroes or heroines and villains, between good guys and bad guys,

between virtue and vice is useful in dealing with certain types of plays, but in many

modern plays. Another common term in drama is protagonist.

Etymologically, it means the first contestant. The plot is usually structured with

acts and scenes. The plot usually called the body of a play. The theme is the attitude r

the philosophical point of view of a playwright or the creator of the play. Dialogue

provides the substance of a play. Each Dialogue provides the substance of a play

contributes to its effect as a whole.

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2.5 American Play

Play is one genre of literary works, it is the art of representing for the pleasure

of others events that happened in our real life or that we imagine happening. The basic

elements of play are characters, represented by players or the actor of a play; action

described by gesture and movement; though, implied by dialogue and action;

spectacle, represented by scenery and costume; and finally audience, who respond to

this complex mixture.

When we are in the theater we see the actors, hear the lines, are aware of the

setting, and sense the theatrical community of which we are a part. even when reading

a play, we should imagine actors speaking lines and visualize a setting in which those

lines are spoken. Play is an experience in which we participate on many levels

simultaneously. On one we may believe that what we see in a play is really happening

in our daily life; on another level, we know it is only make-believe. On one level we

may be amused, but on another we realize that serious statement about our society are

being made. Usually play called as mirror of life mean that we can see our life

reflected by one play.

2.6 Elements of Play

All plays share or consist of some basic elements with which playwrights and

producers work: plots , characters, settings, dialogue, movement, and themes. In

addition , many modern plays pay close attention to lighting, costuming and props.

When we respond to a play, we observe the elements of drama in action together, and

the total experience is rich, complex and subtle. Occasionally, we respond primarily to

an individual elements for instance we focused on the theme or characterization but

this is rare. Our awareness of elements of drama is most useful when we are thinking

analytically about a play and the way it affects us.

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