World Literature

About A Play

Nemah Alsayed
1220042

Tragedy

A type of drama in which the characters experience reversals of fortune, usually for the worse. In

tragedy, catastrophe and suffering await many of the characters, especially the hero.

Tragic flaw

A weakness or limitation of character, resulting in the fall of the tragic hero.

Tragic hero

A privileged, exalted character of high repute, who, by virtue of a tragic flaw and fate, suffers a

fall from glory into suffering. The character who appears as the focus in a tragic play.

Tragicomedy

Experimental literary work--either a play or prose piece of fiction--containing elements common

to both comedies and tragedies.

Comedy

The word comedy came to mean any play or narrative poem in which the main characters

manage to avert an impending disaster and have a happy ending. The comedy did not necessarily

have to be funny, and indeed, many comedies are serious in tone.

Comic relief

A humorous scene, incident, character, or bit of dialogue occurring after some serious or tragic

moment. Comic relief is deliberately designed to relieve emotional intensity and simultaneously

heighten and highlight the seriousness or tragedy of the action.

Dialogue

The conversation of characters in a literary work. In fiction, dialogue is typically enclosed within

quotation marks. In plays, characters' speech is preceded by their names.

Monologue

Monologue refer to a character speaking aloud to himself, or narrating an account to an audience

with no other character on stage.

Soliloquy

A monologue spoken by an actor at a point in the play when the character believes himself to be

alone. The technique frequently reveals a character's innermost thoughts, including his feelings,

state of mind, motives or intentions. The soliloquy often provides necessary but otherwise

inaccessible information to the audience.

Aside

In drama, a few words or a short passage spoken by one character to the audience while the other

actors on stage pretend their characters cannot hear the speaker's words. It is a theatrical

convention that the aside is not audible to other characters on stage.

Gestures

The physical movement of a character during a play. Gesture is used to reveal character, and may

include facial expressions as well as movements of other parts of an actor's body. Sometimes a

playwright will be very explicit about both bodily and facial gestures, providing detailed

instructions in the play's stage directions. Shaw's Arms and the Man includes such stage

directions.

Stage direction
Sometimes abbreviated "s.d.," the term in drama refers to part of the printed text in a play that is

not actually spoken by actors on stage, but which instead indicates actions or activity for the

actors to engage in.

References:

Wheeler, K. (2003, August 1). Literary Terms and Definitions. Retrieved April 15, 2015, from

https://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/lit_terms.html

DiYanni, R. (2002, January 1). Glossary of Drama Terms. Retrieved April 15, 2015, from

http://highered.mheducation.com/sites/0072405228/student_view0/drama_glossary.html