Drama

Drama is a mode of fictional representation through dialogue and

performance. It is one of the literary genres, which is an imitation of some
action. Drama is also a type of a play written for theater, television, radio,
and film.

In simple words, a drama is a composition in verse or prose presenting a

story in pantomime or dialogue. It contains conflict of characters,
particularly the ones who perform in front of audience on the stage. The
person who writes drama for stage directions is known as a “dramatist” or
“playwright.”

What is drama? Drama is a unique and distinctive genre of literature.

Drama definition is a narrative presented by actors/actor on a stage
through dialogue/monologue and live action. Usually, dramas are stories
that are acted. Through the combination of performance, music, dance,
props, etc; the audience is able to feel like a part of the action. This is what
makes drama a unique genre of literature. Of course, you can also read
drama; however, you will get the full impression of what the author intended
to show only when you visit a theater.

Types of Drama
 Comedy – Comedies are lighter in tone than ordinary works, and
provide a happy conclusion. The intention of dramatists in comedies
is to make their audience laugh. Hence, they use quaint
circumstances, unusual characters, and witty remarks.
 Tragedy – Tragic dramas use darker themes, such as disaster, pain,
and death. Protagonists often have a tragic flaw — a characteristic
that leads them to their downfall.
 Farce – Generally, a farce is a nonsensical genre of drama, which
often overacts or engages slapstick humor.
 Melodrama – Melodrama is an exaggerated drama, which is
sensational and appeals directly to the senses of the audience. Just
like the farce, the characters are of a single dimension and simple, or
may be stereotyped.
 Musical Drama – In musical dramas, dramatists not only tell their
stories through acting and dialogue, but through dance as well as
music. Often the story may be comedic, though it may also involve
serious subjects.
Example #1: Much Ado About Nothing (By William Shakespeare)

Much Ado About Nothing is the most frequently performed Shakespearian

comedy in modern times. The play is romantically funny, in that love
between Hero and Claudio is laughable, as they never even get a single
chance to communicate on-stage until they get married.

Their relationship lacks development and depth. They end up merely as

caricatures, exemplifying what people face in life when their relationships
are internally weak. Love between Benedick and Beatrice is amusing, as
initially their communications are very sparky, and they hate each other.
However, they all of sudden make up, and start loving each other.

Example #2: Oedipus Rex (By Sophocles)

Tragedy:

Sophocles’ mythical and immortal drama Oedipus Rex is thought to be his

best classical tragedy. Aristotle has adjudged this play as one of the
greatest examples of tragic drama in his book, Poetics, by giving the
following reasons:

 The play arouses emotions of pity and fear, and achieves the

tragic catharsis.
 It shows the downfall of an extraordinary man of high rank, Oedipus.
 The central character suffers due to his tragic error called hamartia;
as he murders his real father, Laius, and then marries his real
mother, Jocasta.
 Hubris is the cause of Oedipus’ downfall.

Example #3: The Importance of Being Earnest (By Oscar Wilde)

Farce:

Oscar Wilde’s play, The Importance of Being Earnest, is a very popular

example of Victorian farce. In this play, a man uses two identities: one as a
serious person, Jack (his actual name), which he uses for Cesily, his ward,
and as a rogue named Ernest for his beloved woman, Gwendolyn.

Unluckily, Gwendolyn loves him partially because she loves the name
Ernest. It is when Jack and Earnest must come on-stage together for
Cesily, then Algernon comes in to play Earnest’ role, and his ward
immediately falls in love with the other “Ernest.” Thus, two young women
think that they love the same man – an occurrence that amuses the
audience.
Example #4: The Heiress (By Henry James)

Melodrama:

The Heiress is based on Henry James’ novel the Washington

Square. Directed for stage performance by William Wyler, this play shows
an ungraceful and homely daughter of a domineering and rich doctor. She
falls in love with a young man, Morris Townsend, and wishes to elope with
him, but he leaves her in the lurch. The author creates melodrama towards
the end, when Catherine teaches a lesson to Morris, and leaves him
instead.

Types of drama in literature (additional source)

There are four main forms of drama. They are comedy, tragedy,
tragicomedy and melodrama. All these types have the common
characteristics of drama genre; they are, plot, characters, conflict, music
and dailogue.

Comedy
Comedy is a type of drama that aims to make the audience laugh. Its tone
is light and it mostly has a happy ending. Such tradition came from the
Ancient Greek theatre, where comedy first emerged as a form of drama.
Comedy could be further divided into subcategories, for example, dramatic
irony, farce, sarcasm, black comedy, etc. Each type of comedy has its own
audience. Interestingly, such preferences may also depend on the cultural
background of people.

Tragedy
Differences among playwright, poet and author Murders, deaths, insanity,
and pain are among the most common ideas in tragedies. Main characters
usually have some kind of weakness or defect that causes their downfall.
Tragedy first appeared in the theatre of Ancient Greece. Like comedy, it
lived through Roman Empire, Medieval times, Renaissance and other eras.
Aristotle believed that the main characteristic of tragedy was the change of
fortunes of the main character because of his flaws. The philosopher also
believed that such drama has to implant a feeling of fear and pity in the
audience. As drama evolved, more modern script writers thought that
depicting the downfall of a common person will cause the viewer to feel
greater emotions as it will relate more to a character of their own social
status.

Tragicomedy
Tragicomedy is a special kind of drama that combines the features of
tragedy and comedy. It means that such play may be sad but will have a
happy ending, or it may be serious with some elements of humor emerging
throughout the whole play. Unlike comedy and tragedy, tragicomedy
emerged a bit later, in the times of Roman Empire. Roman dramatist
Plautus was the first to write a tragicomedy and to use the term. In his play
Amphitryon, he used the lightheartedness of comedy but chose gods and
kings as the main characters. This was quite revolutionary of him. Before
Plautus, there were strict rules about writing drama, it was either comedy or
tragedy. These genres were never mixed together. Plautus was the first to
note that in our daily lives we have features of both tragedy and comedy.
Therefore, drama also can combine them both.

Melodrama
Melodrama is the last one of the four types of drama. It is a kind of drama
in which everything is hyperbolized. Usually, themes depicted in
melodramas are simple and without any unpredictable plot twists. There
are quite a lot of stereotypes in such dramas. However, the main point of a
melodrama is not to tell a story but to awaken feelings in the audience.
They are mostly love stories with beautiful heroines, charming heroes and
scary villains.
Melodrama originated much later than comedy, tragedy, and tragicomedy.
It first appeared in France at the end of the 18th century. Later, it reached
Britain and became one of the most popular types of drama in the 19th
century. Particularly, the 19th century was the period when theatre was the
most popular kind of entertainment and was visited by vast number of
people. This is due to the fact that in those times, theatres became
available for common people. As melodrama was aimed at this layer of
society in particular, it became immensely popular. The influence of
melodrama on society was so great that it lived to our days and even
penetrated other areas of literature and entertainment. Read
more: https://www.legit.ng/1219307-4-types-drama-literature.html
Function of Drama
Drama is one of the best literary forms through which dramatists can
directly speak to their readers, or the  audience, and they can receive
instant feedback of audiences. A few dramatists use their characters as a
vehicle to convey their thoughts and values, such as poets do with
personas, and novelists do with narrators. Since drama uses spoken words
and dialogues, thus language of characters plays a vital role, as it may give
clues to their feelings, personalities, backgrounds, and change in feelings.
In dramas the characters live out a story without any comments of the
author, providing the audience a direct presentation of characters’ life
experiences.

There are four types of drama, they are comedy, tragedy, tragicomedy and
melodrama. These genres originated in different times, but each of them
has its own characteristics. However, all of them have their place in modern
culture and should be appreciated.

Introduction (additional source)

Drama is the act of portraying a story in front of an audience. It
involves the characters and events of the story being brought to life on
a stage by actors and their interactions (verbal and non-verbal)
through its events.

Of various forms of drama, plays are the most popular. Some other
formats are dance performances, radio shows, puppet shows, etc.
The history of drama goes back to Aristotle and his treatise ‘Poetics’
which gives a critical analysis of Sophocles’ Greek play, ‘Oedipus
Rex’.
Plays aim to show through action and dialogues what the written text
of the story delineates. It has a written blueprint called the script which
has all the information regarding the characters, their dialogues, and
the stage setting like mise-en-scene, etc.

The various characteristics of drama are:

Themes in Drama
It represents the basic idea of the text. It can be as direct as the title of
the drama to very obscure and needs careful thought and analysis.
The action and its plot makes the audiences immerse in the drama
and try to extract the theme behind it.

Plot in Drama
The sequence of events or actions in a play is called its plot. It
represents what happens in the drama. The clarity and coherence of
the plot are essential to give the drama a logical and undisturbed flow.

The various characters follow a pattern of interactions and

movements through various stages of the plot. These stages are initial
disturbance or conflict, rising action, climax, falling action and finally
the resolution of the conflict.

Characterization in Drama
The way in which the characters are portrayed and developed is
known as characterization. The characters act out the story in front of
the audience. They are the agents of movement and progression in a
drama.

They are responsible for perusing and traversing the plotlines. A

character has its distinctive appearance, beliefs, thoughts, flaws,
personality, age, and dialogues. Actors in the play have the
responsibility of bringing the characters to life.

The various characters in any drama are the protagonist (represents

the theme), the antagonist (the villain of the drama), anti-hero (the
object of sympathy), etc.

Characters may include the narrator who introduces other characters

and informs about the various interactions and happenings in the
drama.
Setting, Spectacle, and
Descriptions
The setting represents when and where the drama unfolds. It can
have multiple places or confined to a single space. The historical and
social context, time period and the location of the story is set are all
included in the design of the setting of any drama.

Example: Merchant of Venice is set in the 16th century Venice.

Spectacle involves the complete range of aspects of dramatic
production from the setting, make-up, costumes to special effects.
The visual elements add more information for the audience to register
and help create a unique world or atmosphere and bring to life the
playwright’s ideas. The direction is an essential constituent of effective
stagecraft.

Stage directions are provided to the actors to follow and ensure unity
of movement on stage. The organization of props and lighting is also
crucial in any performance.

Descriptions provide a wealth of information about various things from

the setting and its elements, characters, and their thoughts, plot and
its web of action, etc. The coherence of details is important to keep
the audience engaged and richness is important to keep them
entertained.

Language in Drama
The word choices made by the playwright and the enunciation of the
actors of the language. The dialogues are the lines that the characters
speak and often represent their feelings and emotions.

Language and dialogues delivered by the characters move the plot

and action along, provides exposition, and defines the distinct
characters. Each playwright can create their own specific style in
relationship to language choices they use in establishing character
and dialogue.
Monologues and soliloquies help are speeches that incorporate
information difficult to be extracted through dialogues. Example: “To
be, or not to be“, a soliloquy from Hamlet.
Music in Drama
It provides the cadence to the dialogues and adds an element of the
theatrical presentation. Though not indispensable in a drama, music
provides sounds to the action in the drama.

It creates patterns and rhythm of those patterns. It is used to enhance

the experience of the audience and provide heightened sensorial
stimulation for the audience.

It also adds more power to the ideas presented in the play like a
tragedy, heroism, optimism, loss, etc. Even the thoughts and desires
of the characters are depicted through various musical elements and
compositions.

The right kind of sound effects or music greatly supplements the ebb
and flow of emotions in the play.