Advanced Higher English Drama Textual Analysis
Kelso High School English Department
Advanced Higher English – Drama Textual Analysis
Drama comes from Greek, meaning action, play, or deed. This meaning carries forward to our modern usage as it bears the connotation of a story to be acted out. Dramas revolve around conflict or contrasts of character. Playwright George Bernard Shaw (who wrote Pygmalion, which was later adapted to become the film My Fair Lady) once said ‘No conflict, no drama’. How right he was! Drama that lacks conflict is normally dull and uninspiring. As a rule, conflict should always be considered an essential ingredient for all dramatic performances. Conflict can be between two or more characters, or simply one (inner conflict). Many Elizabethan soliloquies contain inner conflict (‘To be or not to be…’ is an excellent example). Conflict on stage can be verbal, physical or non-verbal (psychological). Conflict differs from tension in that it is often a fixed part of the structure of a play, with characters destined to clash with one another from the outset.
Dramatic Form
Plays are not written in paragraphs like a novel or short story. Instead, they are written as lines of dialogue in the form of a script. Typically, scripts are broken down into one or more acts, or major divisions of the play. And each act is then subdivided into a scene, or smaller divisions within the act. Usually a change in setting means there will be a change in either the act or the scene.
First step
If you are given an extract of a script to read and analyse, the first thing you want to do is to identify the type of play. Is it a comedy or a tragedy? Can you identify the sub-genre? The type of play will give you insight as to what to expect from the theme, characters, and plot.
Types of Drama
Let us consider a few popular types of drama:
- Comedy– Comedies are lighter in tone than ordinary writers, 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.Comedy tends to bring humor and induce laughter in plays, films and theaters. The primary function of comedy is to amuse and entertain the audience, while it also portrays social institutions and persons as corrupt and ridicules them through satirising, parodying and poking fun at their vices. By doing this, the authors expose foibles and follies of individuals and society by using comic elements.
- 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 audience. Just like the farce, the characters are of single dimension and simple, or may be stereotyped.
- Musical Drama – In musical drama, the dramatists not only tell their story through acting and dialogue, nevertheless through dance as well as music. Often the story may be comedic, though it may also involve serious subjects.
Examples of Drama from Literature
Example 1
Comedy:
Much Ado About Nothing is the most frequently performed Shakespearian comedy. 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.
Some of the same dramatic elements we find in tragedy occur in comedy as well. Discovery scenes and consequent reversals of fortunate, for example, occur in both. So too do misperceptions and errors of judgment, exhibitions of human weakness and failure. But in comedy the reversals and errors lead not to calamity as they do in tragedy, but to prosperity and happiness. Comic heroes are usually ordinary people. Moreover, comic characters are frequently one-dimensional to the extent that many are stereotypes: the ardent young lovers.
The happy endings of comedies are not always happy for all the characters involved. This marks one of the significant differences between the two major types of comedy: satiric and romantic comedy. Though much of what we have said so far about comedy applies to both types, it applies more extensively to romantic than to satiric comedy, or satire. Satire exposes human folly, criticises human conduct, and aims to correct it.
Romantic comedy on the other hand, portrays characters gently, even generously; its spirit is more tolerant and its tone more genial. Whatever adversities the heroes and heroines of romantic comedy must overcome, the tone is typically devoid of rancour and bitterness. The humour and romantic comedy is more sympathetic than corrective, and it intends more to entertain than instruct, to delight than ridicule.
Example 2
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 following reasons:
- The play arouses emotions of pity andfear, and achieves the tragic katharsis.
- 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.
- Some readers of tragedy have suggested that, according to Aristotle, the catastrophe results from a flaw in the character of the hero. Others have contented that the hero’s tragic flaw result from fate or coincidence, from circumstances beyond the hero’s control.
- An essential element of the tragic hero’s experience is a recognition of what has happened to him. Frequently this takes the form of the hero discovering something previously unknown or something he knew but misconstrued. According to Aristotle, the tragic hero’s regognition (or discovery) is often allied with a reversal of his expectations.
- We may consider why, amid such suffering and catastrophe, tragedies are not depressing. Aristotle suggested that the pity and fear aroused in the audience are purged or released and the audience experiences a cleansing of those emotions and a sense of relief that the action is over. Perhaps tragedy represents for us the ultimate downfall we will experience in death: we watch in fascination and awe a dramatic reminder of our own inevitable mortality. Or perhaps we are exalted in witnessing the high human aspiration and the noble conception of human character embodies in tragic heroes. [1][5]
Example 3
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) that he uses for Cecily, 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 Cecily, then Algernon comes in to play Earnest’ role, and ward immediately falls in love with another Ernest. Thus, two young women think that they love the same man – an occurrence that amuses the audience.
Example 4
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 falling in love with a young man, Morris Townsend wishes to elope with him, but he leaves her in lurch. Author creates melodrama towards the end, when Catherine teaches a lesson to Morris and leaves him instead.
Elements of Drama
The elements of drama include plot, character, dialogue, staging, and theme. Our discussions of each of these elements individually allow us to highlight the characteristic features of drama in a convenient way. We should remember, however, that analysis of any single element of drama should not blind us to its function in conjunction with other dialogue; character is expressed through dialogue and staging; and so on.
- Plot
One of the reasons we read plays to discover what happens, to see how particular consequences result from specific observable actions. We become engaged by a play’s story line, and remain held by its twist and turns, until the playwright resolves things. The details of action, or incidents, in a well-organized play form a unified structure. The unified structure of a play’s incidents is called plot.
It is important to realize that a dramatic plot is not merely a series of haphazard occurrences. It is, rather, a carefully arranged series of casually related incidents. The incidents of the plot, that is, must be connected in such a way that one gives rise to another or directly results from another. And, of course, the playwright shapes and arranges the incidents of the plot to do precisely these things.
The exposition of a play presents background necessary for the development of the plot. The rising action includes the separate incidents that “complicate” the plot and build toward its most dramatic moment. These incidents often involve conflicts either between characters or within them, conflicts that lead to a crisis. The point of crisis toward which the play’s action builds is called its climax. Most drama will have one or more crises in the development of the plot. A crisis is a key moment of dramatic tension and conflict in the play, usually occurring between two or more characters and having serious implications for the outcome of the plot. The ultimate crisis, or highest peak, is usually called the climax and often (but not always) occurs toward the end of a performance. There can also be more than one climax, although this is uncommon.
Following this high point of intensity in the play is the falling action, in which there is a relaxation of emotional intensity and a gradual resolution of the various strands of the plot in the play’s denouement (French word that refers to the untying of a knot).
How Miller builds suspense (i.e. the audience wonders what will happen and how events will transpire)
a delays in discoveringevents: Acts 1 and 2 have a two-day ‘frame’.
bShifting between present and past
i Simultaneous past and present
ii use of memories
iii use of flashbacks
iv blurring between memory and imagined memory
v imagined conversation with dead man
How tension and conflict is developed between characters.
a unsaid items
b dramatic irony
c anger
d surprise
e annoyance etc
f monologue
g dialogue
i questions & commands
ii sentence length
iii use of interruptions
iv hesitation
2. Theme
There are two questions you ask when you are determining theme. First is the 'What?' For example, 'What is the theme?' Usually, the theme is going to be a moral or a lesson that the characters learn. Often in a tragedy, the topics include revenge, loss, revelation, and justice. Comedy often deals with disorder in varying degrees.
The next question, 'How?', will further your analysis of the script. 'How does the playwright implement the theme?' Usually, this will be through characters and dialogue. Not only will this help you better understand the theme, it will help you discuss the playwright's style, or her unique use of dramatic techniques.
The ideas explored by are called the play's themes and themes are always made clear through the play's characters and action.
Playwrights are often very political creatures who are particularly sensitive to what they perceive to be the wrongs of society. Their plays are often a vehicle not just for entertainment but for the expression of the playwright's ideas and concerns. These are called the play's themes. A modern televised play can stir the imaginations and consciences of millions of people and change minds in a way little else can. It is because of this that drama has always had the potential to be a radical form of literature indeed, in Shakespeare's day, many plays were banned or had to be performed secretly or outside of the city's legal limits to avoid censorship or worse: more than one playwright was imprisoned and worse for their work.
Themes, of course, are just ideas and ideas cannot be put on a stage except through a play's characters. So, the study of a play always involves the study of who its characters are, what they do, how they do it, who they do it to, as well as what they say, how they say it and who to... that is, the action and language of the play!
- Character
The other elements of analysis, the dramatic techniques like the characters, plot, and stage directions, are all very much intertwined during the play. As you read, you need to ask yourself, 'How do stage directions, dialogues, soliloquies, and actions develop the characters?'
Each character will further be developed through the use of dialogue, or what the characters say, throughout the play. Not only will the playwright give you their speaking lines, she will often give you stage directions, the information in the script that is only meant for the director, actors, or stage crew, that indicate tone of voice and mannerisms. What the character says and how he says it will give you insight to the character's importance to the plot. In fact, the main character in the play will move the plot.
Drama is one of the best literary forms through which dramatists can directly speak to their readers or audience as well as they can receive instant feedback of audience. A few dramatists use their characters as a vehicle to convey their thoughts, 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, etc. In drama the characters live out a story without any comments of the author, providing the audience a direct presentation of characters’ life experiences.
If we read plays for their plots-to find out what happens-we also read them to discover the fates of their characters. We become interested in dramatic characters for varying, even contradictory, reasons. Characters bring plays to life. First and last we attend to characters: to how they look and what their appearance tells us about them; to what they say and what their manner of saying it expresses; to what they do and how their action reveal who they are and what they stand for.
Characters in drama can be classified as a major and minor, static and dynamic, flat and round. A major character is an important figure at the center of the play’s action and meaning. Supporting the major character are one or more secondary or minor characters, whose function is partly to illuminate the major characters. Minor characters are often static or unchanging: they remain essentially the same throughout the play. Dynamic characters, on the other hand, exhibit some kind of change-of attitude, of purpose, of behavior. Flat characters reveal only a single dimension, and their behavior and speech are predictable; round characters are more individualized, reveal more than one aspect of their human nature, and are not predictable in behavior or speech.
The protagonist is the main character in a play. Generally introduced to the audience very early, this is the character that the author expects should more engage our interest and sympathies. The antagonist is the character or force against which the protagonist struggles. The antagonist may be another character, a culture and its laws or traditions, natural elements, or the protagonist divided against himself.
Major / Minor Characters
The actors are responsible for putting across the characterisation
We learn about the characters through the dialogue:
What they say and what others say about them
How they say it e.g. tone of voice, pace of speaking
The stage directions often tell us how the words are said and therefore how the character feels.
The word choice also reveals feelings and emotions.
Who a character is, what they say, how they say it, what other characters say about them, how other characters act around them and so forth all help to build up a character in the audience's mind.
Do you like a particular character?
Why? Do you empathise with him or her or even sympathise with their plight? If so, think about what it is that makes you feel this way perhaps some aspect of the way they are being treated by their society? This is a theme of the play. Your sympathy and engagement with this character is persuading you to accepting the playwright's ideas or themes. And just because their society is, for example, Italy in the olden days, does not mean that the ideas are old hat. Society may have evolved technologically, but not always in other ways. Shakespeare's views on human relationships, andArthur Miller's views on society are, in many ways, still very valid today.