These worksheets are the completion of the questionaires provided by Dr. Mashrur Shahid Hasan.
Worksheet 1
Differentiation
Poem vs Poetry
Poem is a piece of writing that has features of both speech and song, whereas the poetry is the art of creating these poems. Poetry is also used to refer to poems collectively or as a genre of literature.
Image vs Imagery
Image is just one picture that is created through words in the mind of the readers, for instance, the wolf stood before him and he could not move as he was terrified. On the other hand, imagery is the plural form of image and is used when more than one images are traced in a work of art.
Story vs plot
A story is the requisite timeline of events present in any narrative. If there is no story, there is no novel, because any novel must report events of some kind.
A plot expresses rationale and informs the reader why a specific list of events belongs together, what the timeline is ultimately meant to communicate.
The classic example by E. M. Forster in his collected lectures, Aspects of the Novel, still says its best: “‘The king died and then the queen died’ is a story. ‘The king died, and then the queen died of grief’ is a plot.” When reading a story, Forster explains, we wonder “and then?” When evaluating a plot, we ask “why?”
Scenario vs Screenplay
The two words are theoretically synonyms, but in practice, they are used differently. Scenario is an outline of the plot of a dramatic or literary work while screenplay is a script for a movie or a television show.
Drama vs Play
The word ‘drama’ is used in the sense of ‘theater’. On the other hand, the word ‘play’ is used in the sense of ‘a literary composition’. A drama is a type of play. A movie or TV show can also be dramas but are not plays. Some other types of plays are musical, comedy, Shakespearean, and biopic. (Opposite definition is also accepted)
Scene vs Act
A scene applies to different things in the theater. A scene can refer to the actual action that takes place in a specific and single setting and moment in time. On the other hand, an act is often defined as the major division of drama, and it forms the basic structure of a performance. The main difference between the two is length and depth of each. Act consists of several scenes and can run for a long length in a performance whereas a scene features a brief situation of action and dialogue.
Hero vs Protagonist
A protagonist is the subject of a story. A hero is a human being of extraordinary qualities. A protagonist can be a hero, certainly, but is not always. Quite often in manuscripts, the protagonist is an ordinary person.
Villain vs Antagonist
A villain is usually "bad". He may or may not actually oppose the main character. "Villain" is not a plot role – it is a character type. On the contrary, an antagonist is not necessarily evil, he merely has opposing actions, thoughts, motives, etc. to (in a story) the protagonist.
Hero vs Antihero
A hero is a person who is admired for their courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities. On the other hand, the anti-hero is a central character in a story, film, or drama who lacks conventional heroic attributes. Moreover, an antihero is a protagonist or other notable figure who is conspicuously lacking in heroic qualities.
Comedy vs Tragedy
• A tragedy has a sad and depressing ending while a comedy has a happy and vigorous ending.
• The plot of a tragedy is marked with a series of actions that happened to the protagonist causing fear and pity in the audience while a comic plot often creates laughter in the audience.
• A protagonist of a tragedy is called a tragic hero while the main character of a comedy is called a comic hero.
• Comedy is also characterized with ambiguity in language while tragedy deals with concrete language.
• Stubbornness is often a characteristic of tragic heroes while willingness to learn and change a characteristic of comic heroes.
Judging by the above-mentioned differences, it is comprehensible that comedy and tragedy differ from each other in the sense that one ending being sad and disappointing and the other being happy and enlightening. Also, differences are also noted with regard to the plot, setting, characters, language used, and emotions evoked in the audience.
2. Most plays are not only entertaining to watch but also enjoyable to read. When we study to play, we chiefly look at the following:
a) characters
b) themes
c) dramatic form Corollary to these are:
- dialogue
- use of language images
- motifs
- plot Structure
- writer's viewpoint
- theatrical details / stagecraft
3. Conventions of Drama
3.1.a Convention of construction: ACTS & SCENES
3.1.b Convention of construction: PASSING OF TIME
3.2.a Convention of language: VERSE & PROSE
3.2.b Convention of language: REFERRING TO ONESELF AS 3RD PERSON
3.2.c Convention of language: "You '& THOU
3.2.d Convention of language: Soliloquy
3.2.e Convention of language: ASIDE
3.3.a Convention of action: THE CHORUS
3.3.b Convention of action: DISGUISE
3.3.c Convention of action: SONGS AND DANCE
4. Plot
4.1 Theme: a good plot brings the main theme/issue into focus as early as possible
4.2 Organization: arrangement of scenes; ordering of plot; management of sub-plot.
4.3 Pace of plot
4.4 Tension and surprise led to the climax.
4.5 Climax 4-6
4.6 Finishing or Denouement
Basic dramatic structure consists of three stages:
1. Rising action 2.Climax and 3.Falling action
What is called Freytag's pyramid?
According to Freytag, a drama is divided into five parts or acts: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and dénouement. This idea is demonstrated through a pyramid called Freytag's Pyramid. Freytag's Pyramid can help writers organize their thoughts and ideas when describing the main problem of the drama, the rising action, the climax and the falling action.
Although Freytag's analysis of dramatic structure is based on five-act plays, it can be applied (sometimes in a modified manner) to short stories and novels as well, making dramatic structure a literary element.
Worksheet 2
1. Define Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance (Elam, 1980). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been contrasted with the epic and the lyrical modes ever since Aristotle's Poetics (c. 335 BC)—the earliest work of dramatic theory.
Drama is a composition in prose or verse presenting in dialogue or pantomime a story involving conflict or contrast of character, especially one intended to be acted on the stage; a play. Moreover, it is the branch of literature having such compositions as its subject; dramatic art or representation. (Dictionary.com)
The term "drama" comes from a Greek word meaning "action" (Classical Greek: δρᾶμα, drama), which is derived from "I do" (Classical Greek: δράω, drao).
At which point drama is different from novel or poetry?
The main difference between a drama and a novel or poetry is derived from the formatting of each piece. A drama is almost exclusively written in dialogue while a novel is generally written in basic prose. Both types of work have similar story elements such as characters, plot, settings, etc.
Both drama and poetry are considered literary genres. Drama presents the actions and words of characters on the stage. The intensity of action and plot development are the key markers that act to draw the viewer in. Poetry, by contrast, is the written form that expresses emotions, observations and feelings through rhythmic cadence. It is this combination of cadence and words that draws the reader or listener in.
Moreover, poetry is composed in lines, called verses arranged into stanzas (there are several kinds of lines into which poetry and or lines can be arranged) while drama is basically written into acts and scenes. Again, modern drama may not follow this traditional format of composition as some dramatists may employ divergent composition styles.
2. What is tragedy?
Tragedy (from the Greek: τραγῳδία, tragōidia) is a form of drama based on human suffering that invokes an accompanying catharsis or pleasure in audiences (Banham,1998). While many cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, the term tragedy often refers to a specific tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of Western civilization. That tradition has been multiple and discontinuous, yet the term has often been used to invoke a powerful effect of cultural identity and historical continuity—"the Greeks and the Elizabethans, in one cultural form; Hellenes and Christians, in a common activity," as Raymond Williams puts it.
In the wake of Aristotle's Poetics (335 BCE), tragedy has been used to make genre distinctions, whether at the scale of poetry in general (where the tragic divides against epic and lyric) or at the scale of the drama (where tragedy is opposed to comedy). In the modern era, tragedy has also been defined against drama, melodrama, the tragicomic, and epic theatre.
Name some tragedies
Shakespeare: Antony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus, Hamlet, Julius Caesar, King Lear, Macbeth, Othello, Romeo and Juliet, Timon of Athens, Titus Andronicus, Troilus and Cressida.
Christopher Marlowe: The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, Tamburlaine the Great.
John Webster: The Duchess of Malfi, The White Devil.
3. According to Aristotle, who is a tragic hero?
A tragic hero is the protagonist of a tragedy in drama. In his Poetics, Aristotle records the descriptions of the tragic hero to the playwright and strictly defines the place that the tragic hero must play and the kind of man he must be. Aristotle based his observations on previous dramas (Aristotle, On Poetics).
A tragic hero is a literary character who makes a judgment error that inevitably leads to his/her own destruction. In reading Antigone, Medea and Hamlet, look at the role of justice and/or revenge and its influence on each character’s choices when analyzing any “judgment error.”
Characteristics
Aristotle once said that "A man doesn't become a hero until he can see the root of his own downfall." An Aristotelian tragic hero must possess specific characteristics, five of which are below:
1) Flaw or error of judgment (hamartia) -Note the role of justice and/or revenge in the judgments.
2) A reversal of fortune (peripeteia)- brought about because of the hero's error in judgment.
3) Anagnorisis- The discovery or recognition that the reversal was brought about by the hero's own actions.
4) Excessive Pride (hubris)
5) The character's fate must be greater than deserved.
Initially, the tragic hero should be neither better nor worse morally than normal people, in order to allow the audience to identify with them. This also introduces pity, which is crucial in tragedy, as if the hero was perfect we would be outraged with their fate or not care especially because of their ideological superiority. If the hero was imperfect or evil, then the audience would feel that he had gotten what he deserved. It is important to strike a balance in the hero's character.
Eventually, the Aristotelian tragic hero dies a tragic death, having fallen from great heights and having made an irreversible mistake. The hero must courageously accept their death with honor.
Other common traits:
- Hero must suffer more than he deserves.
- Hero must be doomed from the start, but bears no responsibility for possessing his flaw.
- Hero must be noble in nature, but imperfect so that the audience can see themselves in him.
- Hero must have discovered his fate by his own actions, not by things happening to him.
- Hero must understand his doom, as well as the fact that his fate was discovered by his own actions.
- Hero's story should arouse fear and empathy.
- Hero must be physically or spiritually wounded by his experiences, often resulting in his death.
- The hero must be intelligent so he may learn from his mistakes.
- The hero must have a weakness, usually it is pride
- He has to be faced with a very serious decision that he has to make
Name some tragic protagonists:
Many of the most famous instances of tragic heroes appear in Greek literature, most notably the works of Sophocles and Euripides. Some of the tragic protagonists:
- Oedipus, Oedipus Rex (By Sophocles)
- Prince Hamlet, Hamlet (by William Shakespeare)
- Romeo, Romeo and Juliet (by William Shakespeare)
- Davy Jones, Pirates of the Caribbean (by Irene Trimble)
- Okonkwo, Things Fall Apart (by Chinua Achebe)
- Julius Caesar
- King Lear
- Macbeth
4. What is hamartia?
The term hamartia derives from the Greek word hamartánein, which means "to miss the mark" or "to err". It is most often associated with Greek tragedy, although it is also used in Christian theology. Hamartia, as it pertains to dramatic literature, was first used by Aristotle in his Poetics. In tragedy, hamartia is commonly understood to refer to the protagonist’s error or tragic flaw that leads to a chain of plot actions culminating in a reversal of their good fortune to bad. What qualifies as the error or flaw can include an error resulting from ignorance, an error of judgment, a flaw in character, or a wrongdoing. The spectrum of meanings has invited debate among critics and scholars and different interpretations among dramatists.
Hamartia is first described in the subject of literary criticism by Aristotle in his Poetics. The source of hamartia is at the juncture between character and the character's actions or behaviors as outlined by Aristotle. "Character in a play is that which reveals the moral purpose of the agents, i.e. the sort of thing they seek or avoid." In his introduction to the S. H. Butcher translation of Poetics, Francis Fergusson describes hamartia as the inner quality that initiates, as in Dante's words, a "movement of spirit" within the protagonist to commit actions which drive the plot towards its tragic end, inspiring in the audience a build of pity and fear that leads to a purgation of those emotions, or catharsis.
What is Oedipus' hamartia? Hamlet's? Doctor Faustus'?
In the case of Oedipus, his hamartia, or downfall, is his unintended wrongdoings. While Oedipus displays excessive pride, hastiness, and anger, his ultimate downfall comes with a series of unfortunate misjudgments that are made as he continuously aims to do the right thing.
One could consider Hamlet's indecisiveness and inability to act upon his instincts to be his hamartia.
The character of Doctor Faustus certainly coincides well with the tragic flaw theory of character development. From the opening lines, the reader already gets a sense that Faustus has an insatiable desire to attain knowledge which will confer power on him. His desire for this knowledge, particularly his view that he is entitled to it, is his tragic flaw. As his character develops, the reader is meant to understand the corruption that inevitably coincides with the pursuit of such knowledge, as well as the blindness to potential consequences.
The last lines of the play effectively summarize the lesson to be learned - a lesson which springs from the outcome of Faustus's tragic flaw. He aspires to too much, and in doing so he gets what is rightfully his. An excess of anything becomes a bad thing. Faustus's excess pride and intellectual curiosity ultimately consign him to hell.
5. What do you understand by catharsis?
Catharsis is a Greek word meaning "purification" or "cleansing". It is the purification and purgation of emotions—particularly pity and fear—through art or any extreme change in emotion that results in renewal and restoration. It is a metaphor originally used by Aristotle in the Poetics, comparing the effects of tragedy on the mind of a spectator to the effect of a cathartic on the body.
In his works prior to the Poetics, Aristotle had used the term catharsis purely in its medical sense (usually referring to the evacuation of the katamenia—the menstrual fluid or other reproductive material). Here, however, he employs it as a medical metaphor. F. L. Lucas maintains, therefore, that purification and cleansing are not proper translations for catharsis; that it should rather be rendered as purgation. "It is the human soul that is purged of its excessive passions."
6. What is a comedy?
In a modern sense, comedy (from the Greek: κωμῳδία, kōmōidía) refers to any discourse or work generally intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, television, film, stand-up comedy, or any other medium of entertainment. The origins of the term are found in Ancient Greece. In the Athenian democracy, the public opinion of voters was influenced by the political satire performed by the comic poets at the theaters. The theatrical genre of Greek comedy can be described as a dramatic performance which pits two groups or societies against each other in an amusing agon or conflict. Northrop Frye depicted these two opposing sides as a "Society of Youth" and a "Society of the Old". A revised view characterizes the essential agon of comedy as a struggle between a relatively powerless youth and the societal conventions that pose obstacles to his hopes. In this struggle, the youth is understood to be constrained by his lack of social authority, and is left with little choice but to take recourse in ruses which engender very dramatic irony which provokes laughter. Satire and political satire use comedy to portray persons or social institutions as ridiculous or corrupt, thus alienating their audience from the object of their humor. Parody subverts popular genres and forms, critiquing those forms without necessarily condemning them. Other forms of comedy include screwball comedy, which derives its humor largely from bizarre, surprising (and improbable) situations or characters, and black comedy, which is characterized by a form of humor that includes darker aspects of human behavior or human nature. Similarly, scatological humor, sexual humor, and race humor create comedy by violating social conventions or taboos in comic ways. A comedy of manners typically takes as its subject a particular part of society (usually upper-class society) and uses humor to parody or satirize the behavior and mannerisms of its members. Romantic comedy is a popular genre that depicts burgeoning romance in humorous terms and focuses on the foibles of those who are falling in love.
Name some comedies:
Samia (The Woman from Samos) by Menander
Crocodile Dundee by Paul Hogan
By Shakespeare:
Midsummer Night's Dream , Measure for Measure, The Merchant of Venice, The Merry Wives of Windsor, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, Pericles, Prince of Tyre; The Taming of the Shrew, The Tempest, Twelfth Night, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Two Noble Kinsmen, The Winter's Tale Cymbeline All's Well That Ends Well, As You Like It, The Comedy of Errors, Love's Labour's Lost.
What is slapstick?
Slapstick is a style of humor involving exaggerated physical activity which exceeds the boundaries of normal physical comedy. The term arises from a device developed during the broad, physical comedy style known as Commedia dell'arte in 16th Century Italy. The "slapstick" consists of two thin slats of wood made from splitting a single long stick, which make a 'slap' when striking another actor, with little force needed to make a loud - and comical - sound. The physical slapstick remains a key component of the plot in the traditional and popular Punch and Judy puppet show.
What do you understand by comic relief?
Comic relief is the inclusion of a humorous character, scene, or witty dialogue in an otherwise serious work, often to relieve tension. Comic relief usually means a releasing of emotional or other tension resulting from a comic episode interposed in the midst of serious or tragic elements in a drama. Comic relief often takes the form of a bumbling, wisecracking sidekick of the hero or villain in a work of fiction. A sidekick used for comic relief will usually comment on the absurdity of the hero's situation and make comments that would be inappropriate for a character who is to be taken seriously. Other characters may use comic relief as a means to irritate others or keep themselves confident.
7. What is called tragicomedy?
Tragicomedy is a literary genre that blends aspects of both tragic and comic forms. Most often seen in dramatic literature, the term can variously describe either a tragic play which contains enough comic elements to lighten the overall mood or a serious play with a happy ending. There is no complete formal definition of tragicomedy from the classical age. It appears that the Greek philosopher Aristotle had something like the Renaissance meaning of the term (that is, a serious action with a happy ending) in mind when, in Poetics, he discusses tragedy with a dual ending. In this respect, a number of Greek and Roman plays, for instance, Alcestis, may be called tragicomedies, though without any definite attributes outside of the plot.
Name some tragicomedies
The Winter’s Tale by Shakespeare
8. Show your acquaintance with these different forms and trends of drama:
Morality Play The morality play is a genre of Medieval and early Tudor theatrical entertainment. In their own time, these plays were known as interludes, a broader term for dramas with or without a moral. Morality plays are a type of allegory in which the protagonist is met by personifications of various moral attributes who try to prompt him to choose a Godly life over one of evil. The plays were most popular in Europe during the 15th and 16th centuries. Having grown out of the religiously based mystery plays of the Middle Ages, they represented a shift towards a more secular base for European theatre. The earliest known morality play is Hildegard von Bingen's Ordo Virtutum (English: "Order of the Virtues") composed c. 1151. It is the earliest morality play by more than a century, and the only Medieval musical drama to survive with an attribution for both the text and the music.
Melodrama
A melodrama is a dramatic work in which the plot, which is typically sensational and designed to appeal strongly to the emotions, takes precedence over detailed characterization. Characters are often simply drawn, and may appear stereotyped. In scholarly and historical musical contexts, melodramas are Victorian dramas in which orchestral music or song was used to accompany the action. The term is now also applied to stage performances without incidental music, novels, movies, and television and radio broadcasts. In modern contexts, the term "melodrama" is generally pejorative, as it suggests that the work in question lacks subtlety, character development, or both. By extension, language or behavior which resembles melodrama is often called melodramatic; this use is nearly always pejorative. The term originated from the early 19th-century French word mélodrame. It is derived from Greek melos, μέλι, honey, melody, μελωδία, sweet song, music, and French drame, drama (from Late Latin drāma, eventually deriving from classical Greek δράμα, theatrical plot, usually of a Greek tragedy).
Comedy of Manners
The comedy of manners is a form of comedy that satirizes the manners and affectations of contemporary society and questions societal standards. Social class stereotypes are often represented through stock characters such as the miles gloriosus ("boastful soldier") in ancient Greek comedy or the fop and rake of English Restoration comedy, which is sometimes used as a synonym for "comedy of manners". A comedy of manners often sacrifices the plot, which usually centers on some scandal, to witty dialogue and sharp social commentary. Oscar Wilde's play, The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), which satirized the Victorian morality of the time, is one of the best-known plays of this genre. The comedy of manners was first developed in the New Comedy period of ancient Greek comedy and is known today primarily from fragments of writings by the Greek playwright Menander. Menander's style, elaborate plots, and stock characters were imitated by the ancient Roman playwrights, such as Plautus and Terence, whose comedies were in turn widely known and reproduced during the Renaissance. Some of the best-known comedies of manners are those by the 17th century French playwright Molière, who satirized the hypocrisy and pretension of the ancien régime in plays such as L'École des femmes ([The School for Wives], 1662), Tartuffe ([The Imposter], 1664), and Le Misanthrope ([The Misanthrope], 1666).
Expressionist Play
Expressionism is a modernist movement in drama and theatre that developed in Europe (principally Germany) in the early decades of the 20th century and later in the United States. It forms part of the broader movement of Expressionism in the Arts. Expressionist plays often dramatize the spiritual awakening and sufferings of their protagonists and are referred to as Stationendramen (station dramas), modeled on the episodic presentation of the suffering and death of Jesus in the Stations of the Cross. August Strindberg had pioneered this form with his autobiographical trilogy To Damascus (1898-1904). Early expressionism, in particular, testified to the failure of social values with a predilection for ecstasy and despair and hence a tendency towards the inflated and the grotesque; a mystical, even religious element with frequent apocalyptic overtones; an urgent sense of the here and now.
Epic Theater
Epic theatre (German: episches Theater) is a theatrical movement arising in the early to mid-20th century from the theories and practice of a number of theatre practitioners who responded to the political climate of the time through the creation of a new political theatre. These practitioners included Erwin Piscator, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Vsevolod Meyerhold and, most famously, Bertolt Brecht. The term "epic theatre" comes from Erwin Piscator who coined it during his first year as director of Berlin's Volksbühne (1924–27). Piscator aimed to encourage playwrights to address issues related to "contemporary existence." This new subject matter would then be staged by means of documentary effects, audience interaction, and strategies to cultivate an objective response. The epic form describes both a type of written drama and a methodological approach to the production of plays: "Its qualities of clear description and reporting and its use of choruses and projections as a means of commentary earned it the name 'epic'." Epic theatre incorporates a mode of acting that utilizes what Brecht calls gestus.
Absurd Theater
The Theatre of the Absurd (French: théâtre de l'absurde [teɑtʁ(ə) də lapsyʁd]) is a post–World War II designation for particular plays of absurdist fiction written by a number of primarily European playwrights in the late 1950s, as well as one for the style of theatre which has evolved from their work. Their work focused largely on the idea of existentialism and expressed what happens when human existence has no meaning or purpose and therefore all communication breaks down. Logical construction and argument give way to irrational and illogical speech and to its ultimate conclusion, silence. Critic Martin Esslin coined the term in his 1962 essay "Theatre of the Absurd." He related these plays based on a broad theme of the Absurd, similar to the way Albert Camus uses the term in his 1942 essay, The Myth of Sisyphus. The Absurd in these plays takes the form of man’s reaction to a world apparently without meaning, and/or man as a puppet controlled or menaced by invisible outside forces. This style of writing was first popularized by the 1953 Samuel Beckett play Waiting for Godot. Though the term is applied to a wide range of plays, some characteristics coincide in many of the plays: broad comedy often similar to vaudeville, mixed with horrific or tragic images; characters caught in hopeless situations forced to do repetitive or meaningless actions; dialogue full of clichés, wordplay, and nonsense; plots that are cyclical or absurdly expansive; either a parody or dismissal of realism and the concept of the "well-made play". These plays were shaped by the political turmoil, scientific breakthrough, and social upheaval going on in the world around the playwrights during these times. While absurdists believed that life is absurd, they also believed that death and the "afterlife" were equally absurd if not more, and that whether people live or not all of their actions are pointless and everything will lead to the same end (hence the repetitiveness in many of these absurdist plays).
Worksheet 3
1. Theater: (names with asterisk were especially important in the Elizabethian theater)
ATMOSPHERE is created through
character traits (e.g. stock characters-- light; king, soldiers—grave)
action details (e.g. eavesdropping, disguise—light; murder, battle-- grave)
imagery (e.g. a network of imagery of blood, or flower creates the atmosphere)
STAGE
position
curtain
ACTING
assuming the persona: age; size; voice
movement: stage exercises*
speech: prose and poetry*
improvisation: situations*
DIRECTION
Rehearsal*
design: sketches*
Music*
Dance*
Mime*
ARTISTIC DIRECTION
lighting*
stagecraft: furniture*
backdrop
sound effect
ART DIRECTION
makeup: character
costume and accessories
props
2. Identify / Exemplify:
Comedy and Tragedy Mask
The two masks associated with drama represent the traditional generic division between comedy and tragedy. They are symbols of the ancient Greek Muses, Thalia, and Melpomene. Thalia was the Muse of comedy (the laughing face), while Melpomene was the Muse of tragedy (the weeping face).
Ancient Greek Theatre Medieval Western Theater
African Theater Elizabethan Theater
Expressionist Theater e.g. Miller's Death of a Salesman
Japanese Noh Theater Bangladeshi Katha Natya
