Drama Terms
- Drama- a literary form that recreates human life and emotions; uses dialogue; a play.
2. Playwright- the author of a drama
3. Script- the play in written form
4. Blank verse- unrhymed line of iambic pentameter
5. Pun- a play on words that has more than one meaning, often has a serious meaning
6. Pathos- suffering or deep feeling; when an audience experiences sorrow or pity
7. epiphany- a spiritually uplifting time when a character recognizes his/her flaws
8. Catharsis- working through emotions
- The story the play tells:
8. Theme- main idea
9. Plot- series of events that support the theme
10. Protagonist- the main character; the hero
11. Antagonist- usually a bad person who opposes the main character
- The organization of a play:
12. Prologue- an introduction
13. Act-division of a play
14. Scene- division of an act
15. Stage directions- instructions on a script
16. Dialogue-the lines; what the characters say
17. Cue- a signal for an actor to speak
18. Actor- a person who plays a role in a drama
19. Character- a role played by an actor
20. Flat- forms a background for a play; backdrop; a piece of scenery or background
21. Props- anything used on the stage, except costumes and sets; stands for property
22. Set- flats, scenery, and props for a scene or act
23. Director- the person in charge of the performance
24. Green room- a place for the actors to relax
25. Motivation- whatever causes a person to act in a certain way.
- Aside- when a character speaks directly to the audience without being heard by the actors
- Concealment- allows a character to be seen by the audience but remain hidden from the other actors
- Soliloquy- when an actor speaks his/her thoughts aloud alone on stage (solo); a monologue
- Monologue- A long, uninterrupted speech presented in front of other characters
30. Comedy- a drama where the hero wins; funny; white flag
31. Tragedy- a drama that lets the audience experience how the hero suffers but learns from his agony; a drama where the hero loses; sad; black flag
32. History- based on actual historical event or person; red flag
31. Tragic hero- a person born into nobility with the potential to be great, but the person has a tragic flaw which leads to making a serious error in judgment, resulting in the person’s death.
Examples: Tragic Flaw-
- Classic tragedy- had three elements that create unity: time, place, and action
- Shakespearean Tragedy- always has five acts
- Literary devices used by Shakespeare and other dramatists:
- personification
- simile
- metaphor
- Hyperbole-deliberate exaggeration or overstatement.
- Satire-literary work that ridicules the foolishness and faults of individuals, an institution, or society.
- Imagery-descriptive language to create word pictures.
- Foreshadowing-clues that suggest events that have yet to occur.
- Flashback-means by which author presents material that occurred earlier. May be memories, dreams, accounts of past events.
- Irony-the expected or seemingly evident does not happen or is not said; a contradiction between what is said and what is meant.
- Foil- a character who contrasts with another character, usually the protagonist, and, in so doing, highlights various facets of the main character's personality.
- Allusion-a passing or casual reference
- Dramatic irony- when a character’s words or actions carry a deeper meaning that even he/she does not understand; when the audience knows something that the actor doesn’t
There are three stages of dramatic irony:
Installation – audience is informed of something the character does not know aboutExploitation – using this information to develop curiosity among the audienceResolution – what happens when the character finally finds out what is going on?
A special category of dramatic irony is tragic irony.
Tragic irony occurs when a character in a play does or says something that communicates a meaning unknown to her but recognized by the audience.
An example of tragic irony is when a character orders poisoned food that is supposed to kill him or her and the audience already knows that the character is destined to die from food poisoning.
Tragic irony was common in plays that depicted the lives of legends in ancient Greece.
46. Verbal Irony- A contrast between what is said and what is meant; Verbal irony is the use of words to mean something different from what a person actually says.
Ex: “Thanks for the ticket officer you just made my day!”
“I can’t wait to read the seven hundred page report.”
There are two types of verbal irony:
Overstatement – when a person exaggerates the character of something.Understatement – when a person undermines the character of something.
47.Situational Irony- A contrast between what is expected and what really happens
It involves a discrepancy between what is expected to happen and what actually happens.
Situation irony occurs when the exact opposite of what is meant to happen, happens.
An example would be when someone buys a gun to protect himself, but the same gun is used by another individual to injure him. One would expect that the gun would keep him safe, but it has actually caused him injury.
There is however a difference between situation irony and coincidence or bad luck.
When someone washes his car and it rains, that is just bad luck; nothing led him or her to think that it would not rain. However, when a TV weather presenter gets caught in an unexpected storm, it is ironic because he or she is expected to know the exact weather changes.
For situation irony to occur there has to be something that leads a person to think that a particular event or situation is unlikely happen.
48. Epithet -A descriptive adjective or phrase used to characterize someone or something. (Peter the Great)
- Example: Romeo! Humors! Madman! Passion! Lover!
