ELEMENTS of DRAMA

(Basics)

ELEMENTS of DRAMA

• (1) PLOT:
  • sequence of events, situation, or conflict that must be resolved, causes tension among characters
  • Is it plausible/credible, how?
• (2) CHARACTER:
  • round, stock, flat
  • Does the audience care about them? Are they believable, how?
• (3) ACTING:
  • realistic actions, reactions—normal, believable, credible, interesting, distinctive, how?
• (4) THEME:
  • main idea/point of film
  • Is it significant, how?
• (5) SETTING:
  • time & place of story; clothing, costuming, makeup, buildings, backgrounds
  • How do they reinforce plot, characters, theme?

ELEMENTS of DRAMA

• (6) PACE:
  • work well or drag, how? too fast, too slow
• (7) MUSIC/SOUND:
  • sound creates mood; believe what see b/c in part what you hear
  • How does music/sound contribute to the production?
• (8) CINEMATOGRAPHY/DIRECTING TECHNIQUES, EFFECTS:
  • lighting, positioning; “moving pictures;” special effects
  • How does cinematography contribute to film?
• (9) DIRECTOR:
  • style, interpretation, pace, acting, music, costumes
  • Has s/he done her/his job?
• (10) VALUE:
  • moral, social, psychological value beyond entertainment?
  • Is the entertainment value enough for you to recommend this production?

ARISTOTELIAN TRAGEDY

• *Key terms regarding Aristotelian tragedy, as discussed in his Poetics:

  “Tragedy, then, is an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude; in language embellished with each kind of artistic ornament, the several kinds being found in separate parts of the play; in the form of action, not narrative; through pity and fear effecting the proper purgation of these emotions.”

• TRAGEDY: The imitation of an action, not the telling of an action; that is, it is a dramatic recreation (mimesis) rather than narration or simply telling. It demonstrates what has happened and what may happen under the laws of probability, of cause-effect; thus, tragedy is different from and superior to history. The “fear” aroused and purged in the catharsis relates to these laws.

• 6 BASIC ELEMENTS:

• PLOT: The most fundamental and important aspect of tragedy, referring more to the structure or organization of the play than merely “what happens.”
  • probable, believable, inevitable
    • arising from the actions of Tragic Hero
    • (laws of probability & necessity)
  • complex:
    • with Recognition (anagnorisis)
    • with Reversal of Fortune (peripeteia)
    • with suffering
    • --> arouses pity & fear in audience (catharsis)
  • Plot = #1
    • Character = #2
  • The best plots are those whose resolutions arise from the construction of the events rather than from characterization—the laws of probability and necessity, cause and effect.
  • Also, the plot must be a unified whole:
    • a beginning, middle, and end:  (Freytag's Pyramid)

• EXPOSITION --> COMPLICATION --> CLIMAX -->
• DENOUEMENT --> RESOLUTION
  • The plot must also be self-contained, with a unity of action, its events operating under the rules of necessity. Thus, Aristotle frowned upon the reliance of DEUS EX MACHINA (see below).
  • Aristotle also mentions that tragic plots should be “of a certain magnitude”; that is, they should possess universality as well as complexity.
  • Complex plots should also have PERIPETEIA (see below) and ANAGNORISIS (see below), the former leading to the latter in a matter of cause and effect.

ARISTOTELIAN TRAGEDY

• CHARACTER:
  • The tragic character, secondary to plot, should possess a moral quality, for who should pity the fall of an evil man?
  • The tragic heroes should also be realistic and true to their type (gender), to themselves (consistency of character), and to the laws of necessity and probability.
  • While the characters should be realistic, Aristotle suggests that they should also be “more beautiful,” idealized, elevated, or ennobled.

• THOUGHT, DICTION, SONG, SPECTACLE:
  • These elements are below Plot and Character in order of importance.
  • If the construction, or Plot, of the play is sound, then the superior poet will not need to rely upon these or, at the very least, they will take care of themselves.
• SONG & DICTION:
  • the media of imitation
  • Diction = metrical arrangement of the words
    • words appropriate to character, plot, tragedy
    • metaphor = mark of genius
  • Song = melody, musical elements
    • Chorus' songs should be part of the plot, not mere interludes
• SPECTACLE:
  • last in importance
    • tragedy does not need to be performed to be effective
    • tragedy can be read for the same eeffect
  • (sensory effects)
  • costuming
  • scenery
  • gestures
  • voice
  • "stagecraft"
• PERIPETEIA:
  • A sudden reversal of fortune, or circumstances, leading to the protagonist’s downfall.
  • The peripeteia should be closely related to the anagnorisis (recognition).
• ANAGNORISIS:
  • It means “recognition” or “discovery,” and Aristotle uses these to denote the turning point in a drama at which the protagonist recognizes the true state of affairs, having previously been in error or ignorance.
  • We might say this is the moment in which the “tragic hero” recognizes his “tragic error” or “tragic mistake.”
  • Perhaps, too, we can call this a “moment of clarity.” For example, Oedipus recognizes that he killed his father, married his mother, and brought a plague upon his people.
• DEUS EX MACHINA:
  • A weakness in a tragedy or a writer who relies upon this artifice to resolve the Plot, rather than the action resolving itself according to the laws of probability and necessity.
  • Literally, it means “god in/from the machine,” and it involved the lowering of a god onto the stage via machinery in order to resolve the entanglements of the situation/plot.
• CATHARSIS:
  • The “purging” of pity and fear in the tragic audience.
  • These emotions, feelings are aroused by the action and assuaged by its resolution.
    • PITY = eleos: compassion for Pathos bearer
    • TERROR - FEAR = identification with Pathos bearer
    • PATHOS = Passion, key/religious suffering