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Act
A major division in a play. Can be sub-divided into scenes. (See scene). Greek plays were not divided into ____. The five ___ structure was originally introduced in Roman times and became the convention in Shakespeare’s period. In the 19th century this was reduced to four ____ and 20th century drama tends to favor three ____.
Antagonist
A character or force against which another character struggles.
Aside
Words spoken by an actor directly to the audience, but not "heard" by the other characters on stage during a play.
Blocking
Movement patterns of actors on the stage. Planned by the director to create meaningful stage pictures.
Catharsis
The purging of the feelings of pity and fear. According to Aristotle the audience should experiences _________ at the end of a tragedy.
Character
An imaginary person that inhabits a literary work. Dramatic _______ may be major or minor, static (unchanging) or dynamic (capable of change).
Chorus
A traditional ______ in Greek tragedy is a group of characters who comment on the action of a play without participating in it. A modern ______ (any time after the Greek period) serves a similar function but has taken a different form; it consists of a character/narrator coming on stage and giving a prologue or explicit background information or themes.
Climax
The turning point of the action in the plot of a play and the point of greatest tension in the work.
Comedy
A dramatic work in which the central motif is the triumph over adverse circumstance, resulting in a successful or happy conclusion. Can be divided into visual ______ or verbal ______. Within these 2 divisions there are further subdivisions. For example visual ______ includes farce and slapstick. Verbal Includes satire, black ______ and ______ of manners.
Comic Relief
Does not relate to the genre of comedy. Serves a specific purpose: it gives the spectator a moment of “relief ” with a light-hearted scene, after a succession of intensely tragic dramatic moments. Typically these scenes parallel the tragic action that they interrupt. Is lacking in Greek tragedy, but occurs regularly in Shakespeare's tragedies.
Conflict
Can be external (between characters) or internal (within a character) and is usually resolved by the end of the play.
Complication
An intensification of the conflict in a play.
Denouement (Recognition)
The final outcome of the main complication in a play. Usually occurs AFTER the climax (the turning point or "crisis"). It is sometimes referred to as the explanation or outcome of a drama that reveals all the secrets and misunderstandings connected to the plot.
Deus Ex Machina
When an external source resolves the entanglements of a play by supernatural intervention. The Latin phrase means, literally, "a god from the machine." The phrase refers to the use of artificial means to resolve the plot of a play.
Dialogue
The conversation of characters in a literary work. In plays, characters' speech is preceded by their names.
Diction
A style of speaking. In drama, it can:
Reveal character
Imply attitudes
Convey action
Identify themes
Suggest value
Dramatic Irony
A device in which a character holds a position or has an expectation reversed or fulfilled in a way that the character did not expect but that the audience or readers have anticipated because their knowledge of events or individuals is more complete than the character’s.
Dynamic Character
Undergoes an important change in the course of the play- not changes in circumstances, but changes in some sense within the character in question -- changes in insight or understanding or changes in commitment, or values. The opposite is a static character who remains essentially the same.
Exodos
The final scene and exit of the characters and chorus in a classical Greek play.
Exposition
The first stage of a fictional or dramatic plot, in which necessary background information is provided. In most drama the characters have to expose the background to the action indirectly while talking in the most natural way. What any person says must be consistent with his character and what he knows generally. Frequently employs devices such as gestures, glances, “asides” etc.
Falling Action
This is when the events and complications begin to resolve themselves and tension is released. We learn whether the conflict has or been resolved or not.
Flat Characters
Often, but not always, relatively simple minor characters. They tend to be presented though particular and limited traits; hence they become stereotypes. For example, the selfish son, the pure woman, the lazy child, the dumb blonde, etc. These characters do not change in the course of a play.
Foil
A secondary character whose situation often parallels that of the main character while his behavior or response or character contrasts with that of the main character, throwing light on that particular character’s specific temperament.
Foreshadowing
Also called Chekhov's gun. A literary technique that introduces an apparently irrelevant element is introduced early in the story; its significance becomes clear later in the play.
Fourth Wall
The imaginary wall that separates the spectator/audience from the action taking place on stage. In a traditional theatre setting (as opposed to a theatre in the round) this imaginary wall has been removed so that the spectator can “peep” into the fictional world and see what is going on.
Gesture
The physical movement of a character during a play. Used to reveal character, and may include facial expressions as well as movements of other parts of an actor's body.
Hubris
Implies both arrogant, excessive self-pride or self-confidence, and a lack of some important perception or insight due to pride in one's abilities. This overwhelming pride inevitably leads to a downfall.
In Media Res
"In the midst of things" (Latin); refers to opening a plot in the middle of the action, and then filling in past details by means of exposition or flashback.
Inciting Incident
The first incident leading to the rising action of the play. Sometimes is an event that occurred somewhere in the character’s past and is revealed to the audience through exposition.
Irony
In general, a term with a range of meanings, all of them involving some sort of discrepancy or incongruity between what is expected or understood and what actually happens or is meant. Used to suggest the difference between appearance and reality, between expectation and fulfillment, and thus, the complexity of experience.
Verbal Irony
The most common kind of irony and is characterized by a discrepancy between what a speaker (or writer) says and what he or she believes to be true. More specifically, a speaker or writer using this type of irony will say the opposite of what he or she actually means.
Dramatic Irony
The contrast between what a character believes and/or says and what the audience knows to be true. May be used to refer to a situation in which the character’s own words come back to haunt him or her. However, it usually involves a discrepancy between a character’s perception and what audience (or reader) knows to be true. They reader possess some material information that the character lacks, and it is the character’s imperfect information that motivates or explains his or her discordant response.
Irony of Situation
Discrepancy between appearance and reality, or between expectation and fulfillment, or between what is and what would seem appropriate. This includes both dramatic & cosmic irony.
Cosmic Irony
A type of irony characterized by:
A powerful deity with the ability and desire to manipulate events in a character’s life.
The character subject to this irony believes in free will
The deity “toys” with the character in such a way that the outcome is clear to the observer, but the character hopes for escape.
Always involves a tragic outcome.
Linear Plot
A traditional plot sequence in which the incidents in the drama progress chronologically; in other words, all of the events build upon one another and there are no flashbacks. Usually based on causality (that is, one event "causes" another to happen) occur more commonly in comedy than in other forms.
Monologue
A speech by a single character without another character's response. The character however, is speaking to someone else or even a group of people.
Motivation
The thought(s) or desire(s) that drives a character to actively pursue a want or need. This want or need is called the objective . A character generally has an overall objective or long-term goal in a drama but may change his or her objective from scene to scene when confronted with various obstacles.
Plot
The sequence of events that make up a story. Needs a motivating purpose to drive the story to its resolution, and a connection between these events.
Plot Structure
(Freytag’s Pyramid)
Point of Attack
The point in the story at which the playwright chooses to start dramatizing the action; the first thing the audience will see or hear as the play begins.
Prologue
In original Greek tragedy, either the action or a set of introductory speeches before the first entry of the chorus. Here, a single actor's monologue or a dialogue between two actors would establish the play's background events.
In later literature, serves as explicit exposition introducing material before the first scene begins. Performed/delivered by the chorus.
Props
Articles or objects that appear on stage during a play. Can also take on a significant or even symbolic meaning.
Protagonist
The main character of a literary work.
Resolution
The sorting out or unraveling of a plot at the end of a play, novel, or story.
Reversal (Peripeteia)
The point at which the action of the plot turns in an unexpected direction for the protagonist- from failure to success or success to failure.
Rising Action
An event, conflict or crisis or set of conflicts and crises that constitute the part of a play's plot leading up to the climax.
Round Characters
Depicted with such psychological depth and detail that he or she seems like a "real" person. Contrasts with the flat character who serves a specific or minor literary function in a text, and who may be a stock character or simplified stereotype. If they change or evolve over the course of a narrative or appears to have the capacity for such change, the character is also dynamic. May be several of these in long plays.
Satire
A literary work that criticizes human misconduct and ridicules vices, stupidities, and follies.
Scene
A traditional segment in a play. Used to:
Indicate a change in time
Indicate a change in location
Provide a jump between subplots
Introduce new characters
Rearrange actors on the stage
Scenery
The physical representation of the play's setting (location and time period). It also emphasizes the aesthetic concept or atmosphere of the play.
Strophe (Antistrophe)
A portion of a choral ode in Greek tragedy followed by a metrically similar portion, the ___________. The words mean “turn” and “counter-turn,” suggesting contrasting movements of the chorus while the ode was being sung. These two parts are sometimes followed by an epode, during which the chorus may have remained stationary.
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). Only the audience can hear the private thoughts of the character.
Stage Direction
A 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.
Static Character
A dramatic character who does not change.
Suspension of Disbelief
We accept something as real or representing the real when it obviously is not. In drama this is a crucial condition, as we must put aside put aside our disbelief and accept the premise presented as real for the duration of the performance.
Stock Character
A recognizable character type found in many plays. Comedies have traditionally relied on such stock characters as the miserly father, the beautiful but naïve girl, the trickster servant.
Subplot
A subsidiary or subordinate or parallel plot that coexists with the main plot.
Theme
A central idea or statement that unifies and controls an entire literary work. It can take the form of a brief insight or a comprehensive vision of life; it is not a message or a moral. It:
Must be expressible in the form of a statement
Must be stated as a generalization about life (not including names of characters or specific situations in the plot)
Must account for all major details of the play and be reflected in its core aspects of character, setting, and plot
Tragedy
A type of drama in which the characters experience reversal of fortune, usually for the worse. Suffering awaits many of the characters, especially the hero.
Tragic Flaw
A weakness or limitation of character, resulting in the fall of the tragic hero.
Tragic Hero
A privileged, exalted character of high repute, who, by virtue of a tragic flaw and/or fate, suffers a fall from a higher station in life into suffering.
Vignette
Short, impressionistic scene that focuses on one moment or gives a particular insight into a character, idea, or setting.
