WHAT IS

DRAMA?
DRAMA
a play for theater,
radio, or television.
T Y P ES O F DRA M A
A. TRAGEDY
- exposes the plight and sufferings of
humans to the audience

- comes from the Greek word tragoida

which means “goat song” .

- the three great playwrights of

tragedy were Aeschylus, Sophocles and
Euripides
 KINDS OF
TRAGEDY
1. TRADITIONAL TRAGEDY

- featuring noble characters in an

irretrievable situation that elicits their
immense capacity for suffering and promise
for a better tomorrow, the vision of the play is
dark.

Example: Romeo and Juliet by William

2. MODERN TRAGEDY

- characters rise to the status of

exceptional characters facing a tragic
web of circumstances and personal
weaknesses that spell their doom in an
unsympathetic world.

Example: A Streetcar Named Desire

3. DOMESTIC TRAGEDY

-a tragedy in which the tragic

protagonists are ordinary
middle class individuals.

Example: Doll's House by

Henrik Ibsen
4. TRAGICOMEDY
-a mixture of tragic
and comic elements
existing in a single
dramatic work.

Example: Waiting for Godot by

Samuel Beckett
 5. REVENGE TRAGEDY

-dramatic works in
which one character
seeks revenge upon another
character from an evil doing.

Example: Hamlet by William

Shakespeare
 B. SATYR PLAYS
- short plays performed between the acts of
tragedies and made fun of the plight of the
tragedies characters.

Satyr - a mythical half-human, half-goat

figures, and actors in the play who wore large
phalluses for comic effect.
 C. MELODRAMA
- emphasizes action and spectacular
effects.

- historically employed stock characters

engaged in an ambiguous struggle
between good and evil with music under
the action scenes.
 D. COMEDY

-a humorous play in which the

actors dominate the action.

-intends to make the audience

laugh.
Kinds of Comedy
1. Romantic Comedy

-a composite genre which

centers mostly on the
vicissitudes of young lovers
who get happily united in
the end.
2. Comedy of Humors

- based on the medieval and

Renaissance beliefs that
people's actions are governed
by their dominant bodily
humors.
3. Satirical Comedy

- main purpose is to expose

the vices and shortcomings
of society and of people
representing that society.
4. Comedy of Manners

- depicts a stylish society,

mainly the middle and upper
classes, its focus is on
elegance, with characters of
fashion and rank.
5. Sentimental Comedy

- focuses on the virtues of

private life, with simple and
honorable characters.
6. Farce
- intends to provoke simple mirth in
the form of roars of laughter.

- aims at entertaining the audience

through situations that are highly
exaggerated, extravagant, and thus
improbable.
7. Black Comedy

- displays cynicism and

disillusionment, human beings
without hope or convictions, their
lives controlled by fate or unknown
and incomprehensible powers.