Transcript Varieties of Drama

The Stage and the School Chapter 6
Dr. Neighbours
2 Recognized varieties of drama:
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Tragedy

Comedy
 Generally end in
 Usually lighthearted
catastrophes
 Often have a death at
the end
 Clever dialogue and
amusing characters
Tragicomedies:
Have qualities of both comedy
and tragedy
“Dramas”:
Do not fit the definition of tragedy
but are serious in nature
60 Words to Add to Your Cultural
Vocabulary……
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Allegory
Ambiguity
Anticlimax
Anticipation
Aside
Avant-garde
Burlesque
Caricature
Catharsis
Children’s theatre
Comedy
Comedy of manners
Constructivism
Epic Theatre
Exaggeration
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Existentialism
Expressionism
Fantasy
Farce
Foreshadowing
Hamartia
High comedy
Hubris
Incompletion
Incongruity
Low comedy
Melodrama
Monodrama
Naturalism
Parody
60 Words to Add to Your Cultural
Vocabulary……(cont.)
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Pathos
Performance art
Plant
Play of ideas
Presentational
Protagonist
Protection
Psychological drama
Puppet theatre
Realism
Recognition
Relief
Representational
Romantic comedy
Romanticism
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Running gag
Satire
Schmaltz
Screen scene
Sentimental comedy
Style
Stylization
Symbolism
The “whodunit”
Theatre of Involvement
Theatre of the Absurd
Theatrical conventions
Theatricalism
Total Theatre
Tragedy
PART ONE:
COMEDY AND TRAGEDY
Tragedy
About TRAGEDY:
Considered to be
humanity’s highest
literary achievement
 Sober, thoughtful plays
based on proud human
emotions and conflicts
that do not change with
time or place
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Focus is on a
protagonist
 Character is a
significant person
engaged in a struggle
but ultimately fails
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 Overcome by opposing
forces
 Struggle may be internal
or external
 May be characteristics of
the person (internal) or
divine or human forces
(external)
 Quality is called
transcendence:
“transcending time and
place”

Tragic character has no
control
Philosophy: “The love of Wisdom;”
how and why one thinks as he/she
does; understanding beyond the
tangible
Philosophical guide to Tragedy
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Pathos:
meaning pity, sorrow, suffering
 The quality of the drama that arouses feelings in the
audience that include pity and compassion for the
tragic protagonist.
 The inevitable outcome creates this feeling
 Audiences’ emotions intensify the impact of the events
because they can relate to the human quality

Catharsis:
 A sense of release the audience feels when the
tragedy ends because the pathos has been purged
 Audiences obtain a sense of relief
Tragic characters can be significant
rulers, such as Macbeth or King Lear,
or common citizens like Willy Loman in
Death of a Salesman or Blanche
DuBois in Streetcar Named Desire
Five Characteristics often Found in
Tragic Characters
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They have a flaw or make an error that has
serious consequences
They make no apology for their actions
They set goals based on unyielding beliefs
They know that almost everything worth
having demands some sacrifice
They are willing to make the sacrifice
themselves, never asking another to make
sacrifices for them
Found in his work Poetics
Aristotle's Definition of Tragic
Character
An average or better person who, during the course
of the play, is brought from happiness to misery
 Through suffering he/she acquires a sense of
awareness of truth, of self, or of others
 Also becomes alienated and isolated from society
 His actions that cause the difficulties are brought
about by Hamartia:
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 A character weakness or error in judgment
 Also called tragic flaw
 Most common form of Hamartia is hubris:
○ Hubris: excessive pride
Tragic
comparisons
What are the forces that the
tragic characters are
against?
What is the protagonist's
weakness?
Does the play communicate
a sense of inevitability?
•Hamlet:
•http://www.youtube.com/wat
ch?v=-YHMYkUrV7A
•Macbeth:
•http://www.youtube.com/wat
ch?v=JaLBfH3o1TU&feature
=related
Comedy
About COMEDY:
Derived from Greek words
komos and ode, meaning
“revel song”
 Usually societal and
conciliatory – all the
characters come together at
the end of the play
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Even villains
There’s a “happy ending”
Often depends on
circumstance unique to a
particular time and place,
most enduring have
transcendence
 Built around character,
situations, and dialogue
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Some bring great laughs
Some only cause inner smiles
Comedy is not always funny,
but is always amusing,
delighting, or at least please
an audience
Protagonist overcomes
opposing forces or achieves
desired goals or both
Protagonist is often less-thanaverage person
Protagonist may be an
idealist, a romantic, an
extreme pragmatist, a
blunderer, a dreamer, or even
a rogue
Tragedy versus Comedy
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Inevitable – there is no way to
change or to stop the outcome
Universal theme and appeal
Emotional
Protagonist fails to achieve
goals
Protagonist alienate from
society
Protagonist average or better
Protagonist falls from
leadership, losing respect
dreams, position
Tragedy
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Predictably unpredictable –
you can expect the unlikely
Often time and place oriented
Intellectual, mental
Protagonist achieves goals
Protagonist often becomes
leader of new society, even
villain is usually accepted
Protagonist less than average
Protagonist achieves success,
often as a result of own
mistakes or shortcomings
Comedy
What makes people
laugh?
•What
is funny today may
not be tomorrow
•Sometimes we laugh out
of embarrassment
•Sometimes we laugh for
no reason at all
•What is humorous in one
city may not be in another
7 common causes of laughter:
Exaggeration
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Overstatements
Overstated physicality's
Personality types
Incongruity
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Anything that seems out of place, out of time, or out of character
Comes in many forms – unnatural action, a test or turn of events, or the
irrelevant
Anticipation
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The looking forward to a potential laugh
Sight gags
Plays roll in “mistaken identity” humor
Techniques: Plants or foreshadowing, running gag, incompletion
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Plants: an idea, line, or action emphasized early in play, also called
foreshadowing
Running gag: a minimum of three exposures to the plant
Incompletion: a line or bit of action is started but never finish; audience
completes with laughter
7 common causes of laughter:
Ambiguity
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Double meaning, puns, word play
Recognition
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Discovering hidden or obscure meanings
Audience is amused to recognize the meanings
Protection
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Cruel, violent, grotesque, and abusive actions and events
cause laughter because the audience is protected by knowing
these things are not real and are not damaging as they seem
Examples are found in most cartoons
Relief
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A build in pressure and then releases it
This would be like catharsis in tragedy
Relief of pressure is humorous when the pent-up emotions are
allowed to explode in laughter