Download Literary Drama Terms

Literary
Terminology –
Drama
Genre
— a particular type or category
of writing or literature.
•Writing-persuasive, expository,
personal narrative, etc.
•Literature-fiction, non-fiction, drama,
poetry, etc.
Fiction
— a narrative in which situations
and characters are invented by the
writer.
*Fictional work may be based on
fact or experience.
Historical fiction is set against a
backdrop of history and contains
many details about the period in
which it is set.
*Fictional works include short
stories, novels, and dramas.
Elements of Drama
•Aside
•Soliloquoy
•Characters
•Setting
•Plot
•Theme
•Dialogue
•Acts & Scenes
•Stage Directions
Drama
— a story intended to be performed before an
audience by actors on a stage.
*The script may include stage directions –
descriptions of the action, setting, and scenery.
*A drama may be divided into acts-a major unit of
a drama and scenes-a subdivision of an act used
to, indicate changes in location or the passage of
time. Examples include comedy and tragedy.
*Dialogue—conversation between the characters;
helps reveal the plot and characters of the play
Tragedy
Comedy
Comedy—a light humorous play
with a happy ending
Tragedy—a play in which the
protagonist comes to a tragic end.
Aside
— Words spoken by an actor directly to
the audience, which are not "heard" by
the other characters on stage during a
play.
In Shakespeare's Othello, Iago voices his inner
thoughts a number of times as "asides" for the
play's audience.
Soliloquy
— A speech in a play that is meant to be heard
by the audience but not by other characters on
the stage. If there are no other characters
present, the soliloquy represents the character
thinking aloud.
Hamlet's "To be or not to be" speech is an
example.
Character
—a person, animal, or a natural
force presented as a person
appearing in a literary work.
Character Types
Main character
character—central to the story and
characterized fully
Minor character
character—displays few personality
traits and is used only to help develop the
story
Dynamic character
character—undergoes change
Static character
character—does not undergo
change; remains the same
Round character
character—shows varied and
sometimes contradictory traits
Flat character
character—reveal only one
personality trait
Protagonist—the central character
of a drama, novel, short story, or
narrative poem.
Antagonist
Antagonist—a character or force in
conflict with the main character, or
protagonist.
•In accomplishing his or her objective, the protagonist is
hindered by some opposing force either human (one of
Batman's antagonists is The Joker), animal (Moby Dick is
Captain Ahab's antagonist in Herman Melville's Moby
Dick), or natural (the snow [cold] is the antagonist which
must be overcome in Jack London’s “To Build a Fire”).
Characterization—The means by
Characterization
which a writer reveals a character’s
personality.
Methods of characterization may include:
• Direct Characterization:
•The author makes direct statements
about his character’s performance.
• Indirect Characterization
•(1) by what the character says about
himself or herself;
•(2) by what others reveal about the
character; and
•(3) by the character's own actions.
Setting
—the time and place in which
events in a short story, novel, play,
or narrative poem occur.
*The author’s choice of setting can reveal his purpose in
telling a story by :
•Creating a mood or atmosphere
•Illuminating (shines light on/reveals things about)the
characters.
•Unifying or organizing the plot
•Pointing beyond itself to a deeper symbolic meaning
Mood—the emotional feeling of the
Mood
setting, something like tone, but
specifically related to setting (the reader’s
general feeling from the story.)
The atmosphere is the dominant mood or
feeling conveyed by a piece of writing.
•A work may contain a mood that is gloomy,
scary, calm, peaceful, suspenseful, to name a
few, depending on the author's treatment of
the work.
Plot
—the sequence of events or actions in
a short story, novel, play or
narrative poem. Consists of five
elements: exposition, rising action,
climax, falling action, and
resolution(denouement).
A plot may include flashback or it may
include a subplot that is a mirror image of
the main plot. For example, in Shakespeare's, "King
Lear," the relation ship between the Earl of Gloucester
and his sons mirrors the relationship between Lear and
his daughters.
PLOTLINE
Climax
Resolution/Denoument
Exposition
Narrative Hook/Conflict Introduced
Plot is the literary element that describes the structure of a story. It shows
arrangement of events and actions within a story.
Plot Components
Climax: the turning point, the most
intense moment—either mentally or
in action
Rising Action: the series of conflicts
Falling Action: all of the action
and crisis in the story that lead to the
which follows the climax
climax
Narrative Hook: grabs the reader’s attention: the point
at which the author catches our attention and
establishes the basic conflict the story will eventually
resolve.
Exposition: the start of the story, the
situation before the action starts
Resolution: the conclusion, the tying
together of all of the threads
Conflict
—A struggle between two opposing forces or
characters in a short story, novel, play, or narrative
poem.
External—conflict between two characters,
between a character and nature, between a
character and society
•In Shakespeare’s drama Julius Caesar Cassius has a
conflict with Caesar because he fears he is becoming
too ambitious, so he decides Caesar must be killed.
Internal—conflict between two elements struggling
for mastery within a person’s mind
•In Julius Caesar, Brutus faces an internal conflict
because he is struggling with whether or not he
should join the conspiracy against Caesar, his best
friend
Plot: Conflict
Conflict is the dramatic struggle
between two forces in a story. Without
conflict, there is no plot.
Plot: Types of Conflict
Character vs Character
Character vs Nature
Character vs Society
Character vs Self
Theme
—the general idea or insight about life that a
writer wishes to convey in a literary work. The
theme provides an answer to the question What is
the work about? Some works have a stated theme,
which is expressed directly. More works have an
implied theme, which is revealed gradually through
events, dialogue, or description. A literary work
may have more than one theme.
Concepts to remember about theme:
• Expresses the author’s opinion.
• Raises a question about human nature.
• The meaning of human experience.
• May or may not agree with your own beliefs.
• A piece of literature may have both a subject and a
theme.
• The subject is the specific topic of the selection.
• The theme is the generalization about life at large.
There are too many possible themes to recite
them all in this document. Each literary work
carries its own theme(s).
•The theme of Tuesdays With Morrie is death
and dying.
•Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter
contains many themes, among which are
madness, sin and guilt . Unlike plot which
deals with the action of a work, theme
concerns itself with a work's message or
contains the general idea of a work.
Inference
—to conclude by reason an idea,
attitude, tone which is not directly
stated by the author; A conclusion based
on facts or circumstances; to draw a
reasonable conclusion from the
information presented.
•For example, advised not to travel alone in
temperatures exceeding fifty degrees below zero, the
man in Jack London's "To Build a Fire" sets out
anyway. One may infer arrogance from such an action.
•When a multiple-choice question asks for an
inference to be drawn from a passage, the most
direct, most reasonable inference is the safest answer
choice.
Motivation
— reason why characters do what they do
Extrinsic Motivation – motivation derived
from some physical reward (i.e. money,
power, lust)
Intrinsic Motivation – motivation derived
from an internal reward (i.e. knowledge,
pride, spiritual or emotional
peace/wellbeing)
Additional Literary Elements
of Drama
Metaphor
—a figure of speech in which one
thing is compared to another by
being spoken of as though it were
that thing; “ . . . a sea of troubles.”.
•Jonathan Edwards, in his sermon "Sinners in the Hands of
an Angry God," has this to say about the moral condition of
his parishioners:
There are the black clouds of God's wrath now
hanging directly over your heads, full of the
dreadful storm and big with thunder;
The comparison here is between God's anger and a storm.
Imagery
—words that appeal to the senses
Imagery of light and darkness is repeated many times in Shakespeare’s
“Romeo and Juliet”. Consider an example from Act I, Scene V:
“O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!
It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night
Like a rich jewel in an Ethiope’s ear;”
Romeo praises Juliet by saying that she appears more radiant than the
brightly lit torches in the hall. He says that at night her face glows like a
bright jewel shining against the dark skin of an African. Through the
contrasting images of light and dark, Romeo portrays Juliet’s beauty.
Allusion
—a brief reference to a person,
place, event, or passage in a work
of literature or the Bible assumed
to be sufficiently well known to be
recognized by the reader.
•“ I am Lazarus, come from the
dead.”
--T.S. Eliot
Figurative language
—language used for descriptive effect, in
order to convey ideas or emotions. Figurative
expressions are not literally true but express
some truth beyond the literal level. In
literature (especially prominent in poetry), a
way of saying one thing and meaning
something else.
•Take, for example, this line by Robert Burns, My love is a
red, red rose. Clearly Mr. Burns does not really mean that
he has fallen in love with a red, aromatic, many-petalled,
long, thorny-stemmed plant. He means that his love is as
sweet and as delicate as a rose. While, figurative language
provides a writer with the opportunity to write
imaginatively, it also tests the imagination of the reader,
forcing the reader to go below the surface of a literary
work into deep, hidden meanings.
Foreshadowing
—The use of hints or clues to suggest
what action will happen next.
In Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet,"
Romeo's expression of fear in Act 1, scene 4 foreshadows the
catastrophe to come:
I fear too early; for my mind misgives
Some consequence yet hanging in the stars
Shall bitterly begin his fearful date
With this night's revels and expire the term
Of a despised life closed in my breast
By some vile forfeit of untimely death.
But He that hath the steerage of my course,
Direct my sail! On, lusty gentlemen.
Irony
—a contrast or discrepancy
between appearance and reality; a
method of humorous or sarcastic
expression in which the intended
meaning of the words is the
opposite of their usual meaning;
the contrast between what seems
to be real and what actually is real.
Irony takes many forms.
There are three types of irony:
*dramatic irony- the audience knows
something that the characters in the
drama do not.
*situational irony-an occurrence is the
opposite of what is expected
*verbal irony-the meaning of a
statement is the reverse of what is said
Symbolism
— is the use of symbols to signify ideas and qualities
by giving them meanings that are different from their
literal sense.
Generally, it is an object representing another to give it an entirely
different meaning that is much deeper and more significant.
Sometimes, however, an action, an event or a word spoken by
someone may have a symbolic value. For instance, “smile” is a
symbol of friendship. Similarly, the action of someone smiling at you
may stand as a symbol of the feeling of affection which that person
has for you.
Symbols do shift their meanings depending on the context they are
used in. “A chain”, for example, may stand for “union” as well as
“imprisonment”. Thus, symbolic meaning of an object or an action is
understood by when, where and how it is used. It also depends on
who reads them.
Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights presents almost every
character, house, surroundings and events in a symbolic
perspective. The word “Wuthering”, which means stormy,
represents the wild nature of its inhabitants. The
following lines allow us to look into the symbolic nature
of two characters:
“My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods. Time
will change it; I’m well aware, as winter changes the
trees. My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks
beneath a source of little visible delight, but necessary.”
The phrase “foliage of leaves” for Linton is a symbol for
his fertile and civilized nature. On the contrary, Heathcliff
is likened to an “eternal rock” which symbolizes his crude
and unbendable nature.
Connotation
— refers to a meaning that is implied by a word apart from the
thing which it describes explicitly.
Words carry cultural and emotional associations or meanings in
addition to their literal meanings or denotations. For instance,
“Wall Street” literally means a street situated in Lower
Manhattan but connotatively it refers to “wealth” and “power”.
Metaphors are words that connote meanings that go beyond their literal
meanings. Shakespeare in his Sonnet 18 says:
“Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day”
Here, the phrase “a Summer’s Day” implies the fairness of his beloved.
Similarly, John Donne says in his poem “The Sun Rising”:
“She is all states, and all princes, I.”
This line suggests the speaker’s belief that he and his beloved are wealthier
than all the states, kingdoms, and rulers in the whole world because of their
love.
Denotation
— is generally defined as literal or dictionary
meanings of a word in contrast to its
connotative or associated meanings.
An example of denotation literary term can be found in the poetic work of
Robert Frost’s “Mending Wall”:
“And on a day we meet to walk the line
And set the wall between us once again.
We keep the wall between us as we go.
To each the boulders that have fallen to each.”
In the above lines, the word “wall” is used to suggest a physical boundary
which is its denotative meaning but it also implies the idea of “emotional
barrier”.