Theme: Understanding drama

Lecture 9

Patterns in Poetry

Types of Poetry

Imagery and Figurative Language

Sound of Poetry

Speaker and Tone

Guide for Studying Poetry

The following guide will help you to recognize the types of poetry and the techniques a poet uses to join form and meaning.

1. Who or what is the poem's speaker? In what ways are the poet's word choices appropriate to the speaker?

2. What tone does the speaker use throughout the poem?

1. What pattern can you find in the poem's rhythm? Does it have a regular meter?

2. What rhymes can you find in the poem? If the poem contains end rhymes, what is its rhyme scheme? If the poem does not rhyme, is it written in blank verse or free verse?

3. Does the poem contain repetition or parallelism?

4. What examples can you find of alliteration and onomatopoeia?

1. What vivid images does the poem contain?

2. What examples can you find of personification?

3. What similes directly compare dissimilar items?

4. What metaphors equate dissimilar items? Which of these metaphors are implied? Which, if any, are extended?

5. What symbols can you find?

1. What events in the poem form a narrative?

2. What personal emotions does the poet express in a lyric?

3. What character or characters speak within the poem to make it dramatic? What situation makes the character or characters speak?

1. What pattern does the poem follow in its length, stanzas, line length, meter, and rhyme scheme? Is the poem's pattern a tradi­tional one, such as the Shakespearean or Petrarchan sonnet?

2. Where does the poem depart from traditional patterns in stanza arrangement, line length, capitalization, and punctuation?

1. Kinds of plays.

2. Basic parts of drama.

3. The main forms of conversation in drama: dialogue, polylogue and monologue.

Drama consists of a series of actions meant to be performed on a stage by live actors for an audience. More than any other literary forms, drama resembles real life. It shows us action directly, rather than telling us about it as fiction does. We also take an active role in reading a play, for our imagination brings the playwright’s words to life and makes the play’s people and events real. Drama is the least solitary, the most communal of all forms of literature.

The earliest known Greek dramas were tragedies, serious plays presenting the downfall of noble but flawed heroes. Comedies — plays that make fun of human problems — first appeared in Greece as light entertainment meant to amuse the audience after the performance of a tragedy. There is light comedy in which there is little conflict, but much humour of situation. There is romantic comedy, which relies on a romance, witty dialogues, and humorous situations. There is straight comedy, which takes an ironic view of the difficulties human beings bring upon themselves. There is poetic comedy, which has as its appeal not only dramatic poetry of excellence, but also the high spirits of its characters. There is high comedy, which criticizes social manners. There is satiric comedy, which combines wit with biting criticism of evil. There is musical comedy, which uses engrossing narrative, appealing music, and witty dialogue. There is farce, which relies upon response to humorous situation and unexpected twist of thought. All these various forms of comedy appeal to the intellect, making us realize that man is often not the noble hero of tragedy, but a blundering fool. Comedy makes us see the limitations of man; it also shows us that we should not despair because of our limitations, but should laugh at them.

Tragicomedy. In a tragicomedy there is no tragic hero, and the moral thought is not concerned with a fall caused by a “flaw” in an otherwise noble person. Although the theme of the play is serious, scenes of pathos are mixed with themes of humour or irony in the presentation of that theme.

Melodrama is popular because of its engrossing narrative, exciting action, entertaining dialogue and rapid-placed events.

Since drama is meant to be performed, the reader of a play should understand the basic parts of any drama: the script that is written by the playwright and the staging that brings that script to life in the theater through scenery, lighting, costumes, and acting. The script of a play is made up of dialogue, which is the speech of the characters, and stage directions, which include descriptions of the characters, setting and action, along with instructions for performing the play.

Traditionally the Greek and later the Roman and the English structured their plays in five acts. Plays are constructed around a conflict, and the five acts function either to advance, retard, or resolve the conflict.

Act 1 contains exposition scenes, which introduce settings, characters and situations, and hint at the conflict.

Act 2 traditionally contains rising action.

Act 3 usually continues the rising action in the play until a turning point or crisis occurs. Here the lending character, or protagonist, faces an important test.

Act 4 contains falling action. There is no lessening of dramatic interest, since interest increases as the action approaches the climax.

Act 5 contains the catastrophe. Events leading to the catastrophe are set in motion by the tragic force, which usually occurs late in act 4 or in act 5.

The main forms of conversation in drama are: dialogue, polylogue and monological narration.

Dialogue in drama is the conversation exchanged by the characters in a play. It is the playwright’s most important means of establishing a play’s characters and advancing its action.

Though the dialogue of a play seems to be an exact copy of a life dialogue, it actually undergoes a certain reshifting by the author. The playwright works at the cues, adds some auxiliary information which is not necessary in life conversation.

Monologue in drama is another element of the dramatic text. It is independent piece of a speech situation. That is why it is usually longer than any cue of the dialogue. The borders of the monologue depend on the purpose of the speaker and the situation.

Monologue can be: 1) independent (caused by inner inducement, reflexive) or 2) dependent (induces by somebody’s cues). In the first case it is addressed to himself, in the second — to another character. Monologue is characterized by such grammatical categories as entity of content and completeness. (Hamlet’s monologue is a conversation with his alter ego).

In polylogue, with several interlocutors, there are several themes developed simultaneously, which causes thematic leaps and breaks of thematic unity. Such forms might be given the term of language polyphony.

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