University of Basrah
 
College of Arts
 
Department of English
 

AN INTRODUCTION TO Literature  

An Introductory Course for 1st Year Students of English,  

Developed at the Department of English, College of Arts  

 
University of Basrah
 

 
Compiled By  

ADEL HAMEED

2019-2020

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What is literature?

Literature is defined as: “pieces of writing that are valued as works of art, especially
novels, plays and poems”

Literary Genres:
Genre means a type of literature characterized by a specific form, content, and style. For example,
literature has three main genres: poetry, drama and fiction. All of these genres have particular
features and functions that distinguish them from one another.

Literary History :
Names of literary epochs or periods have mostly been ‘invented’ in retrospect. In English literature,
historians for convenience often use the name of the sovereign in power at a certain time. A division
into literary periods is useful for our understanding and discussion of connections between literary
and socio-historical developments. They help us compare texts within one period and also across
periods.

450-1066 Old English (or Anglo-Saxon) Period

1066-1500 Middle English Period
1500-1660 The Renaissance (or Early Modern Period)
1558-1603 Elizabethan Age
1603-1625 Jacobean Age
1625-1649 Caroline Age
1649-1660 Commonwealth Period (or Puritan Interregnum)
1660-1785 The Neoclassical Period
1660-1700 The Restoration
1700-1745 The Augustan Age (or Age of Pope)
1745-1785 The Age of Sensibility (or Age of Johnson)
1785-1830 The Romantic Period
1832-1901 The Victorian Period
1848-1860 The Pre-Raphaelites
1880-1901 Aestheticism and Decadence
1901-1914 The Edwardian Period
1910-1936 The Georgian Period
1914- The Modern Period
1945- Postmodernism

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 Rhetorical device
It is a technique that an author or speaker uses to convey to the listener or reader a meaning with the goal
of persuading them towards considering a topic from a different perspective, using sentences designed to
encourage or provoke an emotional response in the .

1. Allusion- an indirect reference to a mythological, historical or literary person, place,

thing or event with which the reader is assumed to be familiar. Allusions require a common cultural
experience shared by the writer and the reader.
- He said that “Dubai is like a Garden of Eden.”
- “Don’t act like a Romeo in front of her.”
-

2. Simile: is a direct comparison between two dissimilar things that have certain qualities in common by
using ( "like" or "as" ) .
- “Love is as painful as a wound to the heart”
- Is love a tender thing? It is too rough,
Too rude, too boisterous, and it pricks like thorn. (I. iv. 25 Romio and Juliet).
-
3. Metaphor: is an implied comparison between two dissimilar things that have certain qualities in
common without using ( "like" or "as" )
- “Love is a battlefield”.
- ROMEO: But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.( Romio and Juliet).

4.Denotation & Connotation.

Denotation is the dictionary meaning of a word, but Connotation is the emotional response evoked by
a word. Examine the denotative and connotative meaning of the following words: (Paris, rose, heart , rib)

5. Hyperbole: is an exaggeration aiming at emphasis, rhetorical, humour effect.

- I told her thousands of times that I was dying of shame in the party.
- “I had to wait in the station for ten days – an eternity.”.( Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad).

6. Personification: Giving something that is not human humanlike characteristics.

- Justice is blind
- The flowers danced in the gentle breeze.

Sound Devices:
7 . Assonance: is a repetition of the same vowel sounds in words close to each other.
"Thy kingdom come, thy will be done." - The Lord's Prayer

8. Consonance- is a repetition of two or more consonants within words in a sequence.

All mammals named Sam are clammy

9. Alliteration- repetition of the initial consonant sounds beginning several words in sequence.
- A big bully beats a baby boy
- “The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,
The furrow followed free;

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 Poetry

What is Poetry?

Poetry is an imaginative awareness of experience, expressed through meaning, sound, and rhythmic
language and evokes an emotional response. Poetry mostly employs meter and rhyme, but this is
not necessary. Poetry is an old form and has gone through numerous and drastic reinvention over
time.

Criteria of Poetic Text

Poetic texts have a tendency to:
 relative brevity (with some notable exceptions)
 dense expression
 express subjectivity more than other texts
 display a musical or songlike quality
 be structurally and phonologically overstructured
 be syntactically and morphologically overstructured
 deviate from everyday language
 aesthetic self-referentiality (which means that they draw attention to themselves as art
form both through the form in which they are written and through explicit references to
the writing of poetry)

Types of Poetry

When studying poetry, it is useful first of all to consider the theme and the overall development of the
theme in the poem. It is useful to keep two general distinctions in mind: lyric poetry and narrative poetry.

1. Lyric Poetry
A lyric poem is a comparatively short, non-narrative poem in which a single speaker presents a
state of mind or an emotional state. Lyric poetry retains some of the elements of song which is said
to be its origin. There are four subcategories :

1. elegy is a formal lament for the death of a particular person (for example Tennyson’s In
Memoriam A.H.H.). More broadly defined, the term elegy is also used for solemn
meditations often on questions of death, such as Gray's Elegy Written in a Country
Churchyard.

2. Ode is a long lyric poem with a serious subject written in an elevated style. Famous
examples are Wordsworth’s Hymn to Duty or Keats’ Ode to a Grecian Urn.

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 3. The sonnet is a lyric poem of (usually) fourteen lines in iambic pentameter which became
popular in England in the sixteenth century. One distinguishes between two main types of
sonnet: The Italian sonnet and the English sonnet. The Italian sonnet is divided into an
octave (eight lines) and a sestet (six lines) .The English sonnet usually falls into three
quatrains and one final couplet.

4. Occasional poetry is a poetry written for a specific occasion: a wedding or the return of a
king from exile or a death.
 

2. Narrative Poetry

Narrative poetry gives a verbal representation, in verse, of a sequence of connected events, it

propels characters through a plot. It is always told by a narrator . Narrative poems might tell a story
Sub-categories of narrative poetry are for example: epic, mock-epic or ballad.

1. Epics usually operate on a large scale, both in length and topic .They tend to use an elevated
style of language and supernatural beings take part in the action. Like (Virgil’s Aeneid) or
(Milton's Paradise Lost),
2. Mock-epic makes use of epic conventions, like the elevated style and the assumption that
the topic is of great importance, to deal with completely insignificant occurrences. A famous
example is Pope's The Rape of the Lock, which tells the story of a young beauty whose
suitor secretly cuts off a lock of her hair.

3. Ballad is a song, originally transmitted orally, which tells a story. It is an important form of
folk poetry which was adapted for literary uses from the sixteenth century onwards.

Metre & Rhythm

Metre is the measured arrangement of accents and syllables in poetry. In any kind of utterance we
stress certain syllables and not others.

Rhythm

Rhythm generally is “a series of alternations of build-up and release, movement and counter-
movement, tending toward regularity but complicated by constant variations and local inflections.”

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Steps of analyzing poetry

Sample to study :

Amoretti: Sonnet 75 by  Edmund Spenser  

   

Biography 

Edmund Spenser was born in 1552.Spenser was an English subject during the reign of Queen
Elizabeth I. He was sent to Ireland in official mission and there he met and wooed Elizabeth Boyle,
a young woman from an important English family, who was probably half his age. His year-long
suit to win her hand in marriage is recorded (with a deal of poetic license) in Spenser's Amoretti. He
died in 1599.

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 Amoretti: Sonnet 75

By

Edmund Spenser

One day I wrote her name upon the strand,

But came the waves and washed it away:

Again I write it with a second hand,

But came the tide, and made my pains his prey.

Vain man, said she, that doest in vain assay,

A mortal thing so to immortalize,

For I myself shall like to this decay,

And eek my name be wiped out likewise.

Not so, (quod I) let baser things devise

To die in dust, but you shall live by fame:

My verse, your virtues rare shall eternize,

And in the heavens write your glorious name.

Where whenas death shall all the world subdue,

Our love shall live, and later life renew.

Sonnet 75 is taken from Edmund Spenser’s poem Amoretti which was published in 1595. The poem has
been fragmented into 89 short sonnets that combined make up the whole of the poem. The name Amoretti
itself means “little notes” or “little cupids.” This poem is said to have been written on Spenser’s love affair
and eventual marriage to Elizabeth Boyle, his second wife. Sonnet 75 centres on the immortality of spiritual
love and the temporarily of physical love.

Overall, Sonnet 75 is a poem about a man promising eternal love to his beloved one. He eschews his lover’s
realistic worries about the loss of love due to death with enchanting words. His elaborate and detailed use of
language creates a rhythm and deepens the meaning as it goes along with the tone of the verses. Thus, as the
poet had anticipated, as long as people read and recite this poem, it will last eternally as a beautiful sonnet.

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POETIC / LITERARY DEVICES

1. Imagery

- “One day I wrote her name upon the strand,

But came the waves and washed it away:”

2. Alliteration

- “die in dust,” “verse your virtue,” “love shall live,” “later life,”

3. Repetitive

- “decay,” “die,” “death,”

4. Symbolism

- The sea alludes to the distance that is between the lover and his beloved which is causing pain to the
lover.

- The writing on the sand refers to the lover’s insistence on making a worldly impact on his beloved.

- The waves are a constant reminder of the cruelty of love, haunting again and again. By washing away the
name of the beloved, the waves act as torrents of torture. The waves also signify time. The erasing of the
name by water signifies the transient nature of human life.

- The sea-side or beach also symbolizes a peaceful, comfortable place where the lover unreservedly
expresses himself.

- The lover’s writing on the sand can be a reference to man’s inherent desire to eternalize his being to be
remembered forever.

5. Personification

- But came the waves and “washed” it away

- But came the tide, and my “pains” his prey

CRITICAL APPRECIATION

The poet desires to commemorate the beloved by inscription. He tries taking writing off the page to the
outdoors, leads to a lover's debate about death & time. Here we know that his lover believes that everything
will subdue to the power of nature and everyone will die just like everything else on the earth but the poet
believes otherwise. He feels that their love will stay alive forever and she will be famous (you shall live by
fame). The poet wants to immortalise their love through his writings and it will be known until the heavens.

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 Prose Fiction
Fiction is defined as any narrative, especially in prose, about invented or imagined characters and
action.

Elements of Fiction
I. Plot: It is how the author arranges events to develop the basic idea; it id the sequence of the events
in a story or play. The plot is planned, logical series of events having a beginning, middle and end.
The plot consists of five essential parts :
1. Exposition ( Introduction) – beginning of the story; characters, background and setting
revealed .
2. Rising Action – Events in the story become complicated; the conflict is revealed. There are
events between the introduction and climax.
 Conflict- is essential to plot, opposition ties incidents together and moves the plot.
Conflict can be any form of struggle the main character faces. There are two types of
conflict:
 Internal – Struggle within one's self
 Character vs. Self- struggle with own soul, physical limitations, choices
 External – struggle with a force outside one's self
 Character vs. Character – struggle against other people.
 Character vs. Nature – struggle against animas, weather, environment
 Character vs. Society – struggle against ideas, practices or customs
3. Climax – turning point of the story . Readers wonder what will happen next; will the conflict be resolved
or not?
4. Falling Action – Resolution begins; events and complications start to fall into place. There are the
events between climax and denouement
5. Resolution (conclusion).- Final outcome of events in the story .

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]  
 II. Setting – Time and location in which a story takes place. It is created by language. How many or how few
details we learn is up to the author. Many authors leave a lot of these details up to the reader's imagination.
Some or all of these aspects of setting should be considered when examining a story:
a.) Place – geographical location. Where is the action of the story taking place?
b.) Time – when the story is taking place? ( historical period, time of day, year etc.)
c.) Weather conditions- It is rainy, sunny, stormy, etc?
d.) Social condition – What is the daily life of the character's like? Does the story contain local colour (
writing that focuses on the speech, dress, mannerisms, customs, etc.of a particular place.)?
e.) Mood or atmosphere – what feeling is created at the beginning of the story?. Is it bright and cheerful
or dark and frightening?.

III. Character

Character can be defined as any person, animal, or figure represented in a literary work. There are
many types of characters that exist in literature, each with its own development and function.

You can usually detect some or all of the types below.

A. Major characters

These are the most important characters in the story. There are two types, of which there may be a
couple for each.

 Protagonist – This is the main character, around which the whole story revolves. The decisions
made by this character will be affected by a conflict from within, or externally through another
character, nature, technology, society, or the fates/God.

 Antagonist – This character, or group of characters, causes the conflict for the protagonist.
However, the antagonist could be the protagonist, who is torn by a problem within. b. Minor
characters.

B. Minor characters

These are the other characters in a story. They are not as important as the major characters, but still
play a large part in the story. Their actions help drive the story forward.. Major characters will
usually be more dynamic, changing and growing through the story while minor characters may be
more static.

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 Foil – A foil is a character that has opposite character traits from another, meant to help
highlight or bring out another’s positive or negative side. Many times, the antagonist is the foil
for the protagonist.
 Static – Characters who are static do not change throughout the story. Their use may simply be
to create or relieve tension, or they were not meant to change. A major character can remain
static through the whole story.
 Dynamic – Dynamic characters change throughout the story. They may learn a lesson, become
bad, or change in complex ways.
 Flat – A flat character has one or two main traits, usually only all positive or negative. They are
the opposite of a round character. The flaw or strength has its use in the story.
 Round – These are the opposite of the flat character. These characters have many different
traits, good and bad, making them more interesting.
 Stock – These are the stereotypical characters, such as the boy genius, ambitious career person,
faithful sidekick, mad scientist, etc.

IV. Point of View – The angle from which the story is told. The writer selects the point of view
from which to tell the story that best suits his/her intentions as a writer. There are several
variations of POV:

1) First Person*: “I” is the central character and tells his or her own story.

2) Third Person where the point of view can be one of:

 Omniscient: Characters are referred to as “he” and “she”, and the reader knows
what is going on in their heads. All characters’ thoughts are made clear in the
text.
 Limited Omniscient: Characters are referred to as “he” and “she”, and the
reader knows what is going on in some of their heads. The remaining characters
are treated in the objective fashion. (NT)
 Objective: The story is about “he” or “she”, and the author records action
objectively, as a movie camera would. The reader does not see any of the
character’s thoughts (doesn’t get inside their heads).
3) Stream of Consciousness - The story is told so that the reader feels as if they are inside
the head of one character and knows all their thoughts and reactions.

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5.Theme :

The theme is central message, "moral of the story," and underlying meaning of a fictional piece;
may be the author's thoughts on the topic or view of human nature. The theme is a common idea
that is incorporated and repeated throughout a literary work. A theme is often also called “the moral
of the story.” The author uses the characters, plot, and other literary devices to build and enhance
the theme. The theme weaves through the entire story and is highlighted by symbols, setting and
character actions. Examples of common themes occurring in literature, on television, and in film
are:

 Revenge: Hamlet, Star Trek: Wrath of Khan, A Time to Kill

 Things are not always as they appear to be.
 Love is blind.
 Believe in yourself.
 People are afraid of change.
 Don't judge a book by its cover
.

Types of Prose Fiction

The most important types of prose fiction are the following:

1. Novel
2. Science fiction
3. Novella
4. Fairy Tale
5. Fable
6. Short story

I. Novel:
The novel can be defined as an extended work of prose fiction. It derives from the Italian novella
(“little new thing”), which was a short piece of prose. The novel has become an increasingly popular
form of fiction since the early eighteenth century.. The novel has developed various types:

Types of Novel

1. Epistolary novel
In the epistolary novel the narrative is conveyed entirely by an exchange of letters. (e.g. Samuel
Richardson, Pamela.)

2. A picaresque novel
A picaresque novel is kind of narrative fiction made up of the adventures of a wily hero or
heroine. You know the type we're talking about here: a scruffy, lower class scoundrel (in other

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 words, he's hardly picturesque) whom everyone just loves, and who always gets through by the
skin of his or her teeth. Examples are: Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders.

3. The historical novel

It takes its setting and some of the (chief) characters and events from history. It develops these
elements with attention to the known facts and makes the historical events and issues important
to the central narrative. (e.g.Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities).

4. The bildungsroman (novel of education)

It is a type of novel presents the development of a character mostly from childhood to
maturity. This process typically contains conflicts and struggles, which are ideally
overcome in the end so that the protagonist can become a valid and valuable member of
society. Examples is James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

5. The gothic novel

An English genre of fiction popular in the 18th to early 19th centuries, characterized by
an atmosphere of mystery and horror and having a medieval setting. Heroes and
heroines find themselves in gloomy atmospheres where they are confronted with
supernatural forces, demonic powers and wicked tyrants. Examples is William
Faulkner, Absalom!.

6. The social novel

It became particularly popular between 1830 and 1850 and is associated with the
development of nineteenth-century realism. As its name indicates, the social novel gives
a portrait of society, especially of lower parts of society, dealing with and criticising the
living conditions created by industrial development or by a particular legal situation.
Well-known examples is Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist.

II. Science fiction

Science fiction, often called “sci-fi,” is a genre of fiction literature whose content is imaginative, but
based in science. It relies heavily on scientific facts, theories, and principles as support for
its settings, characters, themes, and plot-lines, which is what makes it different from fantasy. (e.g.
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein).

III. Novella
Novella is simply a term used for a miniature or short novel. It shares all the characteristics of the
novel and can fall into any of the categories of the novel. However it is not as popular as the novel
and sometimes, readers cannot differentiate between a novel and a novella. ( e.g. Joseph Conrad's
Heart of Darkness)

IV. A fairy tale

Fairy tales are short stories that involve fantasy elements and characters—like gnomes, fairies, witches,
etc— who use magical powers to accomplish good and/ or evil. Fairy tales and fables share many of the
same elements, particularly their uses of animals with human abilities. In fact, the lines between these
two types of stories are sometimes blurred. The main difference between them is that fairy tales don’t
necessarily teach a lesson, while all fables do. (e.g. Snow White or Cinderella)

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 V. Fable,
A fable is a short piece of fiction that features animals in the role of the protagonist and usually
includes or illustrates a moral. A fable can also have other inanimate objects, mythical creatures, or
forces of nature as main characters. The distinguishing feature of a fable is the personification used
in this kind of fiction. ( e.g. Toy Story, Shrek, and Kung Fu Panda. Generally the fable genre is not
intended for adult readers, though there are some notable exceptions, such as George
Orwell’s Animal Farm.

VI. A short-story
It is a piece of prose fiction marked by relative shortness and density, organized into a plot and
with some kind of dénouement at the end. The plot may be comic, tragic, romantic, or satiric. It
may be written in the mode of fantasy, realism or naturalism. ( e.g: Oscar Wilde Happy Prince and
James Joyce Araby.

How to analyze a story or novel:

1. The title of the story, (the date of its original publication)

2. The author's name and basic dates
3. The name (if any) of the central character, together with a description of that character's main traits or
features
4. Other characters in the story
5. A short description of the setting
6. The narrator of the story (to identify him or her is, of course, to define the point of view from which the
story is told)
7. A terse summary of the main events of the story, given in chronological order
8. A description of the general tone of the story; the author's apparent feelings toward the central character
or the main events
9. Some comments on the style in which the story is written (brief illustrative quotations are helpful as
space permits)
10. Whatever kinds of irony the story contains, and what they contribute to the story
11. In a sentence, the story's main theme
12. Leading symbols (if the story has any), with a guess at whatever each symbol suggests
13. Evaluation of the story as a whole (your personal view).

Sample Study

THE HAPPY PRINCE

By Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) - An Irish-born English poet, novelist, and playwright. Considered an
eccentric, he was the leader of the aesthetic movement that advocated “art for art’s sake” and was
once imprisoned for two years with hard labor . The Happy Prince (1888) - A fairy tale about a
swallow who falls out of love with a reed then lands on and falls in love with the stature of the
Happy Prince.

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 DRAMA
What is drama? .

“Drama is a composition designed for performance in the theatre, in which actors take the roles of
the characters, perform the indicated action and utter the written dialogue”.

Elements of drama:

1. Plot:
Plot means the arrangement of the events in a story, including the sequence in which they are told,
the relative emphasis they are given, and the causal connections between events. Plot is the series of
events that take place in a play. There are five stages in a plot structure: Introduction, Rising action,
Climax, Falling action and Denouement.

2. Characters:
A character can be any person, a figure, an inanimate object, or animal in a play.

Types of Characters

V. Character – There are two meanings for "character" :1) a person in a fictional story; or 2)
qualities of person.
1) A person in a work fiction can be a(n):
 Protagonist – clear center of story; all major events are important to this character.
 Antagonist – opposition or "enemy" of main character.
2) Characteristics of a character can be revealed through:
 his/her physical appearance.
 What he/she says, thinks. Feels, dreams and what he /she does or does not do.
 What others say about him/her and how others react to him/her.
3) Characters can be :
 Round – Fully developed personalities that are affected by the story's events; they can learn,
grow, or deteriorate by the end of the story. They are consistent, motivated, and life-like.
 Flat – one- dimensional character.
 Dynamic – character who does go through change and "grows" during a story.
 Static – character does not go through a change.

4. Dialogue:
Dialogue is simply conversation between people in literary work; in its most restricted sense, it refers
specifically to the speech of characters in a drama. As a specific literary genre, a ‘dialogue’ is a composition
in which characters debate and issue or idea. According to the critics of drama reading drama means reading
dialogue.

Types of Utterance in Drama

 Monologue – a single fictional speaker – usually a performance actor - gives an extended

speech, either as if alone on stage (like a Shakespearian soliloquy) or as if speaking to a

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 fictional audience. The personality of the character and significant events in his/her life are
revealed by the speech.
 Dialogue – when two or more speakers speak to one another; the spoken exchanges that
comprise a play.
 Aside – when a character says something privately to another character while other
characters are also on stage. The line(s) are meant for one character’s ears alone. Sometimes
asides are addressed to the audience.

 Soliloquy –.A speech meant to be heard by the audience but not by other characters on the
stage (as opposed to a monologue which addresses someone who does not respond). In a
soliloquy only the audience can hear the private thoughts of the characters. Example:
Hamlet's famous "To be or not to be" speech Consider the famous soliloquy from Hamlet:

5. Stage Directions:
Stage directions are playwright's descriptive or interpretive comments that provide readers (as well
as actors and directors) with information about the dialogue, setting, and action of a play. They
gave the outline of the scenery of the play and broad directions to the actors. Stage directions
establish a link between the reader and the dramatist.

6. Theme:

Theme is defined as a main idea or an underlying meaning of a literary work, which may be stated
directly or indirectly.

Major and minor themes are two types of themes that appear in literary works. A major theme is
an idea that a writer repeats in his literary work, making it the most significant idea in the work. A
minor theme, on the other hand, refers to an idea that appears in a work briefly, giving way to
another minor theme.

Presentation of Themes: A writer presents themes in a literary work through several means. A
writer may express a theme through the feelings of his main character about the subject he has
chosen to write about. Similarly, themes are presented through thoughts and conversations of
different characters.

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 Types of Drama
Comedy 

A. Comedy is a dramatic work in which the central motif is the triumph over adverse circumstance,
resulting in a successful or happy conclusion. There are types of comedy:

1. Romantic Comedy:
A pair of lovers and their struggle to come together is usually at the centre of romantic comedy. Romantic
comedies also involve some extraordinary circumstances, e.g., magic, dreams, the fairy-world, etc. Examples
are Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream or As You Like It.

2. Satiric Comedy:
Satiric comedy has a critical purpose. It usually attacks philosophical notions or political practices
as well as general deviations from social norms by ridiculing characters. In other words: the aim is
not to make people ‘laugh with’ the characters but ‘laugh at’ them. Examples: Ben Jonson’s
Volpone and The Alchemists.

3. Comedy of Manners:
A Comedy of Manners is a play concerned with satirising society’s manners. A manner is the
method in which everyday duties are performed, conditions of society, or a way of speaking. It
implies a polite and well-bred behaviour.The comedy of manners is also satirical in its outlook and
it takes the artificial and sophisticated behaviour of the higher social classes under closer scrutiny. (
e.g. Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest (1895).

4. Farce:
Farce is a type of comedy that uses absurd and highly improbable events in the plot. Situations are
humorous because of their ludicrous and often ridiculous nature. The choice of setting is a key
factor in farce, as the protagonist is sometimes at odds with the environment. Often the central
character in a farce does not (or should not) belong in the place of the action,( e.g., in Shakespeare’s
The Taming of the Shrew).

5. Comedy of Humours:
Ben Jonson developed the comedy of humours, which is based on the assumption that a person’s
character or temperament is determined by the predominance of one of four humours (i.e., body
liquids): blood (= sanguine), phlegm (= phlegmatic), yellow bile (= choleric), black bile (=
melancholic). In the comedy of humours, characters are marked by one of these predispositions
which cause their eccentricity or distorted personality. An example is Ben Jonson’s Every Man in
His Humour.

6. Melodrama:
th
Melodrama is a type of stage play which became popular in the 19 century. It mixes romantic or
sensational plots with musical elements. Later, the musical elements were no longer considered
essential. Melodrama aims at a violent appeal to audience emotions and usually has a happy ending.

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 Tragedy

B. Tragedy A type of drama in which the characters experience reversal of fortune, usually
for the worse. In tragedy, suffering awaits many of the characters, especially the hero.
There are many kinds of tragedy :

1. Senecan Tragedy:
This type of tragedy is related with the Roman poet Seneca (4 BC – 65 AD). His tragedies were
recited rather than staged but they became a model for English playwrights entailing the five-act
structure, a complex plot and an elevated style of dialogue.

2. Revenge Tragedy:
A popular genre of the Elizabethan and Jacobean stage, in which the main character seeks revenge
on the murderer of a relative or friend. The action was often precipitated by a ghost returning to a
descendant or friend, who promises to exact retribution. The genre usually combined violent and
sensational action with intense meditations on the morality of revenge. (e.g. Shakespeare Hamlet)

3. Domestic Tragedy:
A kind of tragedy in which the leading characters belong to the middle class rather than to
the royal or noble ranks usually represented in tragic drama, and in which the action concerns
family affairs rather than public matters of state. (e.g. aArthur Miller’s The Death of a Salesman )

4. Tragicomedy:
Tragicomedy is a literary device used in fictional works. It contains both tragedy and comedy.
Mostly, the characters in tragicomedy are exaggerated, and sometimes there might be a happy
ending after a series of unfortunate events. It is incorporated with jokes throughout the story, just to
lighten the tone. Thus, characters of both high and low social rank can be mixed as in Shakespeare’s
The Merchant of Venice (1600).

Dramatic Techniques
There are some techniques that are commonly used in dramatic works. Here we have some:

1. Dramatic irony: is an important stylistic device that is commonly found in plays in which
the audience knows more about the situations, the causes of conflicts, and their resolutions
before the leading characters or actors.

2. Suspense: the tension that the reader or audience experiences when the outcome of events or
the cause for certain results in a narrative or play are uncertain.

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 3. Comic Relief – a humorous scene, incident, or remark within an essentially serious or even
tragic drama. Following scenes of intense emotion, comic relief evokes laughter as a release
from the tension of the serious action.

4. Prologue – an opening section of a longer work such as a play. The prologue may perform a
number of functions: establish and/or anticipate character, theme, action or setting, etc.
Romeo and Juliet opens with a prologue, which is in the form of a sonnet.

5. Epilogue: In drama, is a small speech addressed to the audience after the end of a play. It's
spoken by one of the actors, sometimes in character, sometimes not.

6. Flashback: a flashback is an occurrence in which a character remembers an earlier event

that happened before the current point of the story and it is the interruption of a play's
chronology (timeline) to describe or present an incident that occurred prior to the main time-
frame of the play's action.
Examples: In Shakespeare’s Othello, Othello recalls how he courted Desdemona.

7. Foreshadowing is a literary device in which a writer gives an advance hint of what is to

come later in the story. Foreshadowing often appears at the beginning of a story, or a
chapter, and it helps the reader develop expectations about the upcoming events.

Analysis of a play:
1. The playwright's name, nationality, and dates
2. The title of the play and the date of its first performance
3. The central character, with a brief description that includes leading traits
4. Other characters, also described
5. The scene or scenes and, if the play does not take place in the present, the time of its action
6. The major dramatic question (some conflict whose outcome we wonder about, some uncertainty to whose
resolution we look forward)
7. A brief summary of the play's principal events, in the order the playwright presents them (in each act or scene)
8. The tone of the play, playwright's apparent feelings toward the characters or what happens to hem
9. The language spoken in the play (does language indicate a character's background or place of birth?; brief
quotations will be valuable)
10. In a sentence, try to sum up the play's central them (but plays often contain more themes than one)
11. Any symbols you notice, and believe to matter. What do they suggest?
12. A concise evaluation of the play; what do you think of it?

Sample of Play to study :

Play : Cinderella

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