KINDS OF DRAMA
Drama has one characteristic peculiar to
itself - it is written primarily to be performed, not read. It is a
presentation of action a. through actors (the impact is direct and immediate),
b. on a stage (a captive audience), and c. before an audience (suggesting a
communal experience). Of the four major points of view, the dramatist is
limited to only one - the objective or dramatic. The playwright cannot directly
comment on the action or the character and cannot directly enter the minds of
characters and tell us what is going on there. But there are ways to get around
this limitation through the use of
1. soliloquy (a character speaking directly
to the audience)
2. chorus ( a group on stage commenting on
characters and actions)
3. one character commenting on another.
1. Tragedy:
Aristotle's definition of tragedy:
Aristotle's definition, found in Poetics, is
an analysis of Sophocles' Oedipus the King. It is a classical definition
used throughout history to define tragedy, but also has been used for
discussion of drama in general. "Tragedy, then, is an imitation of
an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude; in language
embellished with each kind of artistic ornament, the several kinds being found
in separate parts of the play; in the form of action, not of narrative; through
pity and fear affecting the proper purgation of these
emotions."
Analysis of the Definition :
a)
"imitation of an important and complete action" :
Tragedy is the imitation of life itself, a mimisis of important things,
emotions and passions
b)
"specific length" : Tragedy's story must have a
start, a medium point and an end. It cannot be too long nor too short.
c)
"embellished language" : the language must have
rhythm, melody and harmony. Vulgarity must be excluded.
d)
"its separate parts set in order and not
randomly" : The lyrics, the dancing and the prose must be set in the right
proportion.
e)
"in active and not narrative form" : Action
characterizes tragedy. Action is achieved through dialogic parts. Monologues
can be used only as an exception.
f)
"tending through pity and fear to the catharsis of
passions" : The spectator watches the leading actor to raise in
arrogance and fall in despair. He feels pity and mercy for him, because he has
been the innocent tool in the hands of fate. His insulting behavior towards the
divine element merits a punishment. This punishment though will purify him and
at the end the spectator feels that justice has been served.
According to the Poetics, the action that
animates a tragedy must be stately in tone, complete (brought to a conclusion),
and of great moral significance. Every aspect of the tragic performance—plot,
character, thought, diction, song, and spectacle—must contribute to these
qualities. But among a play's elements, it is plot (with beginning, middle, and
end focused on a single situation) that drives the dramatic action. Moreover,
Aristotle believed that the finest tragedies achieve their passionate focus
through a conflict—both its development and its aftermath—that unfolds during a
single day.
Central features of the Aristotelian
archetype:
1. The
tragic hero is a character of noble stature and has greatness. If the hero's
fall is to arouse in us the emotions of pity and fear, it must be a fall from a
great height.
2. Though
the tragic hero is pre-eminently great, he/she is not perfect. Tragic flaw
‘hubris’ (excessive pride or
passion), and ‘hamartia’ (some error) lead to the hero's downfall.
3. The
hero's downfall, therefore, is partially her/his own fault, the result of one's
own free choice, not the result
of pure accident or villainy, or some overriding malignant fate.
4. Nevertheless,
the hero's misfortune is not wholly deserved. The punishment exceeds the crime. The hero remains admirable.
5. Yet
the tragic fall is not pure loss - though it may result in the hero's death,
before it, there is some increase in
awareness, some gain in self-knowledge or, as Aristotle puts it, some "discovery."
6. Though
it arouses solemn emotion - pity and fear, says Aristotle, but compassion and awe might be better terms - tragedy, when
well performed, does not leave its audience in
a state of depression. It produces a catharsis or an emotional release at the
end, one shared as a common
experience by the audience.
Some principal writers:
Classical
Aeschylus.
Sophocles.
Euripides.
Seneca.
Middle Ages
Renaissance
Shakespeare.
Jonson.
Marlowe.
Modern
Shaw, Eliot
In the English language,
the most famous and most successful tragedies are those of William Shakespeare and his Elizabethan
contemporaries. Shakespeare's tragedies include:
- Antony and Cleopatra
- Coriolanus
- Hamlet
- Julius Caesar
- King
Lear
- Macbeth
- Othello
- Romeo and Juliet
- Timon of
Athens
- Titus Andronicus
A contemporary of Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, also wrote examples of
tragedy in English, notably:
John Webster
(1580?-1635?), also wrote famous plays of the genre:
The essential difference between tragedy and
comedy is in the depiction of human nature: tragedy shows greatness in human
nature and human freedom whereas comedy shows human weakness and human
limitation. The norms of comedy are primarily social; the protagonist is always
in a group or emphasizes commonness. A tragic hero possesses overpowering individuality
- so that the play is often named after her/him (Antigone, Othello); the comic
protagonist tends to be a type and the play is often named for the type (The
Misanthrope, The Alchemist, The Brute). Comic plots do not exhibit the high
degree of organic unity as tragic plots do. Plausibility is not usually the
central characteristic (cause-effect progression) but coincidences, improbable
disguises, mistaken identities make up the plot. The purpose of comedy is to
make us laugh and at the same time, help to illuminate human nature and human
weaknesses. Conventionally comedies have a happy ending. Accidental discovery,
act of divine intervention (deus ex machina), sudden reform are common comedic
devises. "Comedy is the thinking person's response to experience; tragedy
records the reactions of the person with feeling." - Charles B. Hands
2. Comedy:
A play (or other literary composition)
written chiefly to amuse its audience by appealing to a sense of superiority
over the characters depicted. A comedy will normally be closer to the
representation of everyday life than a tragedy,
and will explore common human failings rather than tragedy's disastrous crimes.
Its ending will usually be happy for the leading characters.
In another sense, the term was applied in the
Middle Ages to narrative poems that end happily: the title of Dante's Divine Comedy (c.1320) carries this meaning. As a
dramatic form, comedy in Europe dates back to
the Greek playwright Aristophanes in the 5th century BCE. His Old Comedy combines several kinds of mischief, including the
satirical mockery of living politicians and writers.
This tradition was later developed in the
Roman comedy of Plautus and Terence, and eventually by Shakespeare in England
There are several kinds of comedy, including
the romantic comedy
of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's
Dream (c.1596), the satire
in Jonson's Volpone (1606) or
in Molière's Le Tartuffe
(1669), the sophisticated verbal wit of the comedy of manners
in Wilde's The Importance of Being
Earnest (1895), and the more topical ‘comedy of ideas’ in the plays of
George BernardShaw. Among its less sophisticated forms are burlesque
and farce.
Ancient Greek Comedy - performed to show the humorous
actions of one or more characters as they attempt to solve a problem.
required action and conflict that led to a
happy ending.
included ridiculing and violent personal
attacks on contemporary personalities.
involved acting out of bawdy personal and
social relationships.
as opposed to ancient Greek tragedy, a change
in fortune is almost always for the better.
Comic Devices
- Exaggeration
- Incongruity
- Surprise
- Repetition
- Wisecrack/Sarcasm
Types of comedy from ancient to modern times:
Example:
Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream
the movie, Pretty Woman
2. Manners - portrays upper-class society
involved in witty repartee that focuses on their relationships and
"affairs." A comedy of manners focuses on the behavior of men and
women who violate the rules and manners of upper-class society.
Example:
Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest
3. Farce - "low comedy" with lots
of "belly laughs" that uses quick physical action to induce immediate
laughter. The verbal humor is often crude or ridiculous. Farce is sometimes
based on incongruities of character and action; a character doing something
that is completely unlike what we would expect of them.
Example:
In Shakespeare uses farcical humor in his
play, Twelfth Night. Malvolio,
a very prude, self-important character, is convinced to wear funny clothing and
act like a fool (Meyer 900).
Most of Jim Carey's comedy is farce. His
comedy is based on quick physical humor and often crude dialogue.
- Satire - mean
jokes (barbs) are aimed at people, ideas or things in order to improve,
correct, or prevent something.
Example:
Again,
the character Malvolio in Shakespeare's play, Twelfth Night is a satirical character. He is held up for
scrutiny and ridicule by other characters and the audience because of his
self-important, pompous attitude. Shakespeare reveals Malvolio's faults, and
shows him to be pathetic.
5. Absurd (black) - unusual, some would say
weird or uncomfortable, comedy that portrays the world as unstable. The action
includes improbable events with highly unpredictable characters. Black comedy
is very different from other comedies in that this type tends to end unhappily.
Example:
True West
The movies, Fargo, and Pulp Fiction
Tragedy and Comedy Contrasted
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3. Melodrama:
A drama, such as a play, film, or television
program, characterized by exaggerated emotions, stereotypical characters, and
interpersonal conflicts.
Melodrama, in musicology,
work in which a spoken text is integrated with music.
The form, which began in the ancient Greek theater, became popular in the 18th
century; a notable example is The
Begger's Opera by the English dramatist John Gay.
By extension, the term melodrama has come to be applied to
any play with romantic plot in which the author manipulates events to act on
the emotions of the audience without regard for character development or logic.
Melodrama is essentially a form of
wish-fulfillment, presenting the world as we would like it to be. Thus, despite
the dire circumstances which threaten to defeat the hero, we can be confident
that all will end happily, with good triumphant and evil punished, a form of
resolution called poetic justice. Melodrama appears to deal with serious
subjects, but its seriousness is only pretense, a part of the game. While
tragedy explores ultimate questions of life, melodrama exists primarily to
entertain. It offers escape from everyday, humdrum existence into a world of
adventure with the guarantee that we will return safely at the end.
Some examples are such works as Frank
Arthur’s ‘Twenty Minutes to Mrs. Oakentubb’ and ‘The Count’s Revenge’ modeled
on ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’.
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