Lecture 4 Drama Interpretation

References:

1. Lethbridge, Stefanie & Mildorf, Jarmila. Basics of English Studies: An introductory course for students of literary studies in English. Developed at the English departments of the Universities of Tübingen, Stuttgart and Freiburg. – PP. 88 – 140.

2. Гальперин И.Р. Стилистика английского языка. Учебник. Изд. 2-е. М., Высш. школа, 1977. – 332 с.– СС. 281 – 287. (library)

Plan:

1. Drama and dramatic text.

2. Information flow.

3. Structure of a play.

4. Space (settings).

5. Time.

6. Characters and characterization.

7. The language of drama.

8. Dramatic sub-genres.

I. When one deals with dramatic texts one has to bear in mind that drama differs considerably from poetry or narrative in that it is usually written for the purpose of being performed on stage. Although plays exist which were mainly written for a reading audience, dramatic texts are generally meant to be transformed into another mode of presentation or medium: the theatre. For this reason, dramatic texts even look different compared to poetic or narrative texts.

One distinguishes between the primary text, i.e., the main body of the play spoken by the characters, and secondary texts, i.e., all the texts ‘surrounding’ or accompanying the main text: title, dramatis personae (the characters in a play), scene descriptions, stage directions for acting and speaking, etc.

Depending on whether one reads a play or watches it on stage, one has different kinds of access to dramatic texts. As a reader, one receives first-hand written information (if it is mentioned in the secondary text) on what the characters look like, how they act and react in certain situations, how they speak, what sort of setting forms the background to a scene, etc. However, one also has to make a cognitive effort to imagine all these features and interpret them for oneself. We first decipher a text about them when reading a play script and then at best ‘see’ them in our mind’s eye and ‘hear’ their imaginary voices. While stage performances offer a multi-sensory access to plays (they can make use of multimedia elementssuch as music, sound effects, lighting, stage props, etc.). Reading is limited to the visual perception and thus draws upon one primary medium: the play as text.

2. Since in drama there is usually no narrator who tells us what is going on in the story-world the audience has to gain information directly from what can be seen and heard on stage. Information can be conveyed both linguistically (in the characters’ speech, for example), or non-linguistically (as in stage props, costumes, the stage set, etc).

The audience is informed about the ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘where’, ‘when’ and ‘why’ of the story at the beginning of plays. This is called the exposition. The audience is given answers to most of the wh-questions and all that remains for viewers to wonder about is how the plot is going to develop and what the results will be. Sometimes, the information we get is not as detailed as that and leaves us with a lot of questions.

Although in drama information is usually conveyed directly to the audience, there are instances where a mediator comparable to the narrator of a narrative text appears on stage. Some of the ‘ narrative’ elements in this type of theatre are songs, banners and, most importantly, a narrator who comments on the action. (In Shakespeare’s play, Richard III, for example, the main protagonist frequently comments on the events and reveals his plans in speeches spoken away from other characters).

There is another important aspect to bear in mind when discussing the mediation of information: Whose perspective is adopted? Are there characters in the play whose views are expressed more clearly and more frequently than others’? And finally, what function does this have? The way information is conveyed to the audience and also how much information is given can have a number of effects on the viewers and they are thus important questions to ask in drama analysis. The discrepancy between the audience’s and characters’ knowledge of certain information can, for example, lead to dramatic irony. Thus, duplicities or puns can be understood by the audience because they possess the necessary background knowledge of events while the characters are ignorant and therefore lack sufficient insight. Narrators in narrative texts often use irony in their comments on characters, for example, and they can do that because they, like the audience of a play, are outside the story-world and thus possess knowledge which characters may not have.

In contrast to this, lack of vital information can lead to confusion but it also contributes to a sense of suspense. As long as the audience is not fully informed about characters, their motives, previous actions, etc., the questions ‘How did all this happen?’, ‘What is going on here?’ and ‘What’s going to happen next or in the end?’ become crucial. Many plays employ the strategy of leaving the audience in the dark and it is easy to understand why they do it: they try to keep people interested in the play as long as possible. Detective plays typically use this device (all the events are revealed in a piecemeal fashion). The audience is invited to speculate on possible motives and reasons, and the play becomes highly psychological not only on the level of the story-world but also on the level of the audience’s reception of the play. Lack of necessary information can also lead to surprises for the audience, and this is often used in comedies to resolve confusions and mixed-up identities. Information flow thus becomes an important device for propelling and complicating the plot, and it creates suspense (the tension that the reader or audience experiences when the outcome of events or the cause for certain results in a narrative or play are uncertain) and surprise in the viewer.

3. As with the study of narrative texts, one can distinguish between story and plot in drama. Story addresses an assumed chronological sequence of events, while plot refers to the way events are causally and logically connected. Furthermore, plots can have various plot-lines, i.e., different elaborations of parts of the story which are combined to form the entire plot. Thus, plot refers to the actual logical arrangement of events and actions used to explain ‘why’ something happened, while ‘story’ simply designates the gist of ‘what’ happened in a chronological order.

Plots can always be either linear or non-linear. Non-linear plots are more likely to confuse the audience and they appear more frequently in modern and contemporary drama, which often question ideas of logic and causality.

Older plays traditionally aimed at conveying a sense of cohesiveness and unity, and one of the classical poetic ‘laws’ to achieve this goal was the idea of the three unities: unity of plot, unity of place, and unity of time. The unities mean that a play should have only one single plot line, which ought to take place in a single locale and within one day (one revolution of the sun). The idea behind this is to make a plot more plausible, more true-to-life, to imitate or reflect life as authentically as possible. Many authors, however, disrespected the unities or adhered to only some of them.

Another model frequently used to describe the overall structure of plays is the so-called Freytag’s Pyramid. In his book Die Technik des Dramas (Technique of the Drama 1863), the German journalist and writer, Gustav Freytag, described the classical five-act structure of plays in the shape of a pyramid, and he attributed a particular function to each of the five acts. Freytag’s Pyramid can be schematised like this:

Act I contains all introductory information and thus serves as exposition: The main characters are introduced and, by presenting a conflict, the play prepares the audience for the action in subsequent acts. To illustrate this with an example: In the first act of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, the protagonist Hamlet is introduced and he is confronted with the ghost of his dead father, who informs him that King Claudius was responsible for his death. As a consequence, Hamlet swears vengeance and the scene is thus set for the following play.

The second act usually propels the plot by introducing further circumstances or problems related to the main issue. The main conflict starts to develop and characters are presented in greater detail. Thus, Hamlet wavers between taking action and his doubts concerning the apparition. The audience gets to know him as an introverted and melancholic character. In addition, Hamlet puts on “an antic disposition” (Hamlet, I, 5: 180), i.e., he pretends to be mad, in order to hide his plans from the king.

In act III, the plot reaches its climax. A crisis occurs where the deed is committed that will lead to the catastrophe, and this brings about a turn (peripety) in the plot. Hamlet, by organising a play performed at court, assures himself of the king’s guilt. In a state of frenzy, he accidentally kills Polonius. The king realises the danger of the situation and decides to send Hamlet to England and to have him killed on his way there.

The fourth act creates new tension in that it delays the final catastrophe by further events. In Hamlet, the dramatic effect of the plot is reinforced by a number of incidents: Polonius’ daughter, Ophelia, commits suicide and her brother, Laertes, swears vengeance against Hamlet. He and the king conspire to arrange a duel between Hamlet and Laertes. Having escaped his murderers, Hamlet returns to court.

The fifth act finally offers a solution to the conflict presented in the play. While tragedies end in a catastrophe, usually the death of the protagonist, comedies are simply ‘resolved’ (traditionally in a wedding or another type of festivity). A term that is applicable to both types of ending is the French dénouement, which literally means the ‘unknotting’ of the plot. In the final duel, Hamlet is killed by Laertes but before that he stabs Laertes and wounds and poisons the king. The queen is poisoned by mistake when she drinks from a cup intended for Hamlet.

While traditional plays usually, albeit not exclusively, adhere to the five-act structure, modern plays have deliberately moved away from this rigid format, partly because it is considered too artificial and restrictive and partly because many contemporary playwrights generally do not believe in structure and order anymore.

Another way to look at this is that traditional plays typically employ a closed structure while most contemporary plays are open. The terms ‘open’ and ‘closed’ drama go back to the German literary critic, Volker Klotz (1978), who distinguished between plays where the individual acts are tightly connected and logically built on one another, finally leading to a clear resolution of the plot (closed form), and plays where scenes only loosely hang together and are even exchangeable at times and where the ending does not really bring about any conclusive solution or result. Open playstypically are rather free as far as their overall arrangement is concerned.

The fact that some authors adhere to certain dramatic conventions, i.e. follow certain known practices and traditions, and others do not, is obviously an interesting factor to consider in drama analysis since this may give us a clue to certain ideological or philosophical concepts or beliefs expressed in a play.

Plays with a closed structure present life as comprehensible and events as causally connected. Moreover, they suggest that problems are solvable and that there is a certain order in the world which needs to be re-established if lost. (The fact that in many plays all the ‘baddies’, for example, are punished in the end follows the principle of poetic justice, i.e., every character who committed a crime or who has become guilty in some way or another by breaking social or moral rules, has to suffer for this so that order can be reinstalled). People often prefer closed endings since they give a feeling of satisfaction (just consider the way most mainstream movies are structured even today). If plays move away from the closed form, one then has to ask why they do it and one should also consider the possible effect of certain structures on the audience. (Sometimes, for example, open forms with loosely linked scenes rather than a tightly plotted five-act structure are used to break up the illusion of the stage as life-world. Viewers are constantly made aware of the play being a performance and they are thus expected to have a more critical and distant look at what is presented to them).

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