History
and Development of English Drama
Meaning of Drama:
The term ‘Drama’ has been derived from a
Greek word which means "action". This is also derived from the verb
meaning "to
do" or "to act”. Drama
is a special type of literature genre represented in performance. Drama is a long literary composition in prose
and action to be presented on the stage.
Origin or History:
The Drama has its origin from religion. It is rooted in the religious inclination
of man. The early Greek and Roman Dramas were generally concerned with
religious ceremonials and life of great personalities. There are different
views about the origin or history of drama.
The view on the origin or history of drama varies. Some scholars trace
the history of drama to astonished actions like custom dances and initiations
performed by dancers, masked players or priests during conventional festivals
or ceremonies. Drama in England developed from the Liturgical play to the
miracle play to morality from morality play to the interlude and from that to
the ‘regular drama’ drama of the Elizabethan age. Very early in the Christian centuries were
the beginnings of religious plays in Frnace. They appeared in England, soon
after the Norman Conquest in the form of troups.
Development in Drama:
The development of Drama in England
developed through four stages: i. Religious Stage, ii. Moral Stage, iii. Interludes, iv. Artistic.
The English drama had its origin in religion
as at its initial stage developed from religious rituals, ceremonies. The
English drama was started and developed in Churches. In order to make people well-known about the
Bible, the different incidents from the life of Christ and even some great
Priests were dramatized in the Church. In the 13th and 14th centuries,
in the church some plays, narrating the life of Christ and other saints, were
called Morality and Miracle plays.
In the 15th century, ‘Morality Play’ took birth. The
place of performance shifted from the inside of the church to the churchyard
and from churchyard to the market-place.
Miracle
Plays and Mystery:
The word ‘Mystery’ has been derived from the
Latin word ‘Ministerium’ meaning an office of the church. The word ‘Miracle’is
used arbitrarily for all plays having their origin in Bible or in the lives of
the saints. The Miracle plays dealt with
the lives of saints which is non-scriptural matter. They are basically religious in nature because
they deal with the lives of saints and the miracles performed by them. The life
and martyrdom of saint formed the central theme of a Miracle play. The first
representation of a miracle play took place in Dunstable as early as 1119. The
mystery play handled incidents from the Bible which have scriptural themes. The
Mystery plays basically deal with the themes taken from Bible. They present in
chronological order major events from the creation and fall of man through
Nativity, Crucifixion, and Resurrection of Christ to the last Judgment.
The Miracle and Mystery play differ
from the early Liturgical drama in their developed sense of drama and better
dialogue. Both of them were written and performed by priests and had for their clear
purpose the instruction of the people in scripture history. They treated of such themes from the Bible as
the ‘Creation’, ‘Crucifixion’, and ‘Resurrection’ etc. They have also features
of entertainment.
These religious performances were,
without doubt crude and poor in literary quality, but they lasted well on into
the 16th Century. “Adam” is the earliest religious play which
depicted the fall of man.
Morality Plays:
The Morality plays developed from the
Miracle and Mystery play. These plays
were educational and religious in nature. The characters were no longer
Biblical figures but incarnate virtues and vices. These plays have characters of an allegorical
or symbolic nature, such as the personifications of various different vices and
virtues. They present on the stage personified Virtues and Vices. These plays were not drawn from the scriptures
or the lives of saints; they were conflict in the human soul. “Everyman” is the
good example of this type of play. Satan
personified as Vice, God or Christ as Virtue, and Death as the Reward of Sin. These plays showed a significant development.
They were used for controversial purpose both by the reformists or the
Protestants and humanists. They were brought more and more in touch with the
real life. “Magnificence” of Skelton was the first attempt to dramatize real
life.
In
Morality plays virtues and vices were presented on the stage as symbolic
creations, mostly of much liveliness. Abstractions such as honesty, pity,
greed, Vice was among the common characters. The important comic character was
vice, whose main duty was to tease the Devil.
As
the ‘Miracle Plays’ passed into the ‘Moralities; so, the ‘Moralities’ gave way to the
‘Interludes’. This type of drama was in
vogue in England at the beginning of Queen Elizabeth’s reign about the middle
of the 16th Century. The ‘Interludes’ were dramatized at feasts and
entertainments which supplies amusement for the court and the nobility.
Types
of Drama (Tragedy, Comedy, Tragic-Comedy, Frace, Melodrama, Heroic drama)
Tragedy:
1. The
tragedy is the tragic story of a good and great man who, on account of a slight
flaw in his character, passes through a narrowing emotional and spiritual
crisis, and finally meets his end or death.
2. Tragedy
is a dramatic work with an unhappy ending portraying a conflict between the
protagonist and destiny or circumstances.
3. Tragedy
is the story which depicts the trouble part of the hero’s life in which a total
reversal of fortune comes upon a person.
4. In
a tragedy the suffering and calamity are incomparable.
5. The
first English regular tragedy “Gorboduc” written by Sackville and Norton and
first acted in 1562.
6. According
to Aristotle, there are six parts of a Tragedy. They are: Plot, Character,
Thought, Diction, Song and Spectacle.
Examples:
I.
Agamemnon by Aeschylus
II.
Anna
Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
III.
Antigone by
Sophocles
- Antony and Cleopatra by Shakespeare
V.
Atonement by
Ian McEwan
VI.
Death of a
Salesman by Arthur Miller
VII.
Eumenides by Euripides
VIII.
Frankenstein by
Mary Shelley
- Hamlet by Shakespeare
- Julius Caesar by Shakespeare
- King Lear by Shakespeare
XII.
Les
Misérables by Victor Hugo
XIII.
Looking for
Alaska by John Green
XIV.
Lord of the
Flies by William Golding
- Macbeth by Shakespeare
XVI.
Oedipus Rex by Sophocles
XVII.
Of Mice and
Men by John Steinbeck
- Othello by Shakespeare
XIX.
Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus
XX.
Tess of the
d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
XXI.
The Bacchae by Euripides
XXII.
The Diary of a
Young Girl by Anne Frank
XXIII.
The Fault in Our
Stars by John Green
XXIV.
The Frogs by Aristophanes
XXV.
The Great
Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
XXVI.
The Hunger
Games by Suzanne Collins
XXVII.
The Iliadby Homer
XXVIII.
The Kite
Runner by Khaled Hosseini
XXIX.
The Odyssey by Homer
XXX.
The
Pearl by John Steinbeck
XXXI.
Wuthering
Heights by Emily Brontë
Comedy:
1. The
comedy is a type of drama which is characterized by romantic
love, humour, pleasantry, light
satire and cross love finally leading to a happy ending.
2. A
comedy is a form of drama, which is generally of a light and humorous kind and
frequently involving misunderstandings that are resolved in a happy ending.
3. A
comedy is a work in which the material are selected and managed primarily in
order to interest and amuse the readers.
4. The
first regular comedy “Ralph Roister Doister” written about 1550 by Nicholas
Udall.
Examples:
I.
A House for Mr Biswas by V
S Naipaul
II.
A Midsummer Night's Dream by Shakespeare
III.
All's Well That Ends Well by Shakespeare
IV.
An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
V.
As You Like It by Shakespeare
VI.
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
VII.
Love's Labour's Lost by Shakespeare
VIII.
Lysistrata by Aristophanes
IX.
Measure for Measure by Shakespeare
X.
The Comedy of Errors by Shakespeare
XI.
The Devil’s Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce
XII.
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar
Wilde
XIII.
The Merchant of Venice by Shakespeare
XIV.
The Merry Wives of Windsor by Shakespeare
XV.
The Pillowman by
Martin McDonagh
XVI.
Three Men in a Boat by Jerome
K. Jerome
Tragic Comedy:
1. Tragic Comedy is a type of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama which intermingled both the standard characters and subject matter and the standard plot forms of tragedy and comedy.
2. TragicbyComedy is the drama in which the element of both tragedy and comedy are present.
3. An artistic combination of both tragedy and comedy is called TragicbyComedy.
4. It develops as a tragedy to the point of climax, and then takes a happy turn and finally ends into a happy insult.
5. In tragicomedy are people of high as well of low class.
6. Tragicomedy signifies a grave action which exposed a tragic catastrophe to the hero, yet a sudden reverse of situation, twisted out gladly.
Examples:
I.
Cymbeline by William Shakespeare
II.
Marriage à la Mode by John Dryden
III.
Pericles by
William Shakespeare
IV.
The Caretaker by Harold Pinteris
V.
The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov
VI.
The Merchant of
Venice by William
Shakespeare
VII.
The Winter’s Tale by William Shakespeare
VIII.
Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
Frace:
1. A farce is a comedy in
which everything is absolutely absurd.
2. Frace
is an episode inserted within a play to please the lower class of spectators,
or to relieve tragic tension.
3. Frace
is a crude form of comedy.
4. It
seeks to cause overexcited horsebylaughter.
5. A
farce contains many different elements to add to the comedy such as: Absurd plot,
Fast action, Witty characters,Unique character roles etc.
Examples:
I.
Charley’s Aunt by
Brandon Thomas
II.
Comedy of
Errors by Shakespeare
III.
It's Only a Play by Terrence McNally
IV.
La Cage Aux Folles by Jean Poiret
V.
She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith
VI.
Tartuffe by Moliere
VII.
The Comedy of Errors by Shakespeare
VIII.
The Importance of Being
Earnest by Oscar
Widle
IX.
The Taming of the Shrew by Shakespeare
X.
The Taming
of the Shrew by Shakespeare
XI.
Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
Melodrama:
1. The
literary term ‘Melodrama’ is derived from a combination of the Greek word
‘melos’ meaning ‘song’ and French word ‘drame’ meaning ‘drama’.
2. Melodrama is used for all musical plays
combining music and dialogues.
3. Melodrama is a work with exaggerate, exciting
events and characters.
4. Melodrama
or Horror play is a crude type of tragedy.
5. This
is a dramatic work in which characters, plot, or events are sensationalized to
draw out a strong emotional reactions from the readers or audiences.
6. In
the Melodrama marvelous scenes of brutality malice, murders, slaughter, and
physical atrocities dominate.
- Melodrama has
following characteristics: Stereotypical characters, Exaggerated
conflicts, Sensationalized plots, and Highly emotional etc.
Examples:
I.
All That Heaven Allows by
Douglas Sirk
II.
Kitty Foyle by Christopher Morley
III.
Kitty Foyle by
Christopher Morley
IV.
Mildred Pierce by James M. Cain
V.
Mildred Pierce by James
M. Cain
VI.
Now Voyager by Olive Higgins Prouty
VII.
Now Voyager by Olive
Higgins Prouty
VIII.
Pygmalion by
George Bernard Shaw
IX.
Still Life, Brief
Encounter by Noel
Coward
X.
Still Life, Brief Encounter by
Noel Coward
XI.
The Count of Monte Cristo by
Alexandre Dumas
XII.
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
XIII.
Wuthering Heights by
Emily Bronte
Heroic Drama:
1. Heroic
drama was mostly written in the Restoration Age.
2. The term 'heroic drama' was coined by John
Dryden in 1670 to describe his play from that year, titled The
Conquest of Granada. So Dryden
was the leading exponent of heroic drama, it was Sir William D’Avenant who
first established the mode.
3. Heroic drama, also known as the heroic tragedy
4. They
are mostly written by Dryden.
5. It
tried to imitate the dimension of Epic or Heroic poetry.
6. The
hero of ‘Heroic Drama’ is always a great warrior who fate affect the fate of an
empire.
7. Heroic drama had larger than life heroes and
heroines, highly rhetorical dialogue and exotic locales.
Examples:
I.
The
Conquest of Granada by John
Dryden
II.
The
Indian Emperours by John
Dryden
III.
The Black Prince by Roger Boyle
Elements
of Drama (Plot, Character, Setting, Dialogue, Conflict, Theme, Spectacle)
Plot:
1.
Plot means the ‘arrangement of incidents’.
2.
Plot is the sequence in which the author
arranges events in a story.
3.
Plot is the story or sequence of events in
something such as novel, play and film etc.
4.
Plot is the order of organized events within the story of a
narrative literary work such as play, novel, film, epic etc.
5.
According to E.M. Forster a story is a “narrative of events arranged in their
timebysequence,” whereas a plot organizes the events according to a “sense of
causality.”
6.
Plot means the organization of events and actions in a
narrative or dramatic piece of work.
7.
Plot is the order of events that make up a story, whether
narrated orally, written, filmed, or sung.
8. The plot of a story
gives details about what, how and why of the story.
9. Plot is a key element
of novels, plays, and most works of nonfiction.
10. The pyramid, also known as "Freytag's
triangle", is a straightforward way of organizing a tragic narrative into
a beginning, middle, and ending, and is comprised of five distinct parts;
introduction, rise, climax, return, and catastrophe.
11. Plot is different from the “story” as in story
it seeks to establish causal links between different elements of the narrative,
rather than simply recounting a sequence of events.
12. The plot a play mostly includes the rising
action, the climax, the falling action, and resolution.
13. Normally the plot is
divided into five Acts, and each Act is further divided into several Scenes.
Character:
1. The
term was inaugurated by Theophrastus, a Greek author the 2nd Century
BC, who wrote a book called “Characters”.
2. Characters
are men and women who act. The hero and heroine are two important figures among
the characters.
3. Character
is a person, or anything presented as a person, such as: a spirit, object,
animal, or natural force, in a literary work.
4. Character
is a witty, sketch in prose of a distinctive type of person.
5. Animals
who figure mostly in movies of live drama are considered characters.
6. The
plot may have a protagonist called hero and antagonist called villain.
7. A
plot may include flashback and also subplot.
Setting:
1.
The
setting of literature deals with the time and place in which the story takes
place.
2.
Setting is a literary tool which is used by writers for storyline to establish the
time, location, and environment.
3.
The setting in literature provides the framework in which the
story takes place and is includes three elements; time, place, and social
environment.
4.
Setting is the time and place i.e.it is where and when a
story or scene takes place.
5.
A setting is background or the time and geographic position inside a story.
6.
Setting is one of the five vital elements of a story. It establishes the mood, reveals characters and
conflicts, and gives clues to a story's theme.
7.
The setting is very
important for a story. It can have vast effects on the plot and the characters
within a story.
8.
Settings
help to explain a given story’s themes and help to
understand a character’s worldview through how they think about their surrounds.
9. In many stories setting can act nearly as a nonhuman
character, affects the characters.
10. Setting gives background to the
characters’ actions in a story line. It provides environment for other story elements such as
plot, characters, and theme.
11. There are two types of setting: Backdrop
setting and Integral setting
12. There are four types of setting: physical,
social, historical and psychological.
Dialogue:
1.
The
term ‘dialogue’ is combination of two
words ‘di’ means ‘two’ and ‘log ‘means ‘speak’ . In this sense, two
people are speaking to create dialogue.
2. Plato initially used the term ‘dialogue’ to
describe Socratic dialectic works. These works feature dialogues with Socrates,
and they were proposed to speak philosophical ideas.
3.
Dialogue
is a spoken exchange that includes at least two characters.
4.
Dialogue includes any case of two or more characters speaking
to each other directly or indirectly.
5. In prose writing, lines of dialogue are
typically identified by the use of quotation marks and a dialogue tag. In
plays, lines of dialogue are preceded by the name of the person speaking.
6. Dialogue is important
for moving the plot of a story ahead, and can be a great way of turning over
main information about characters and the plot.
7.
Dialogue can precede
the plot; expose a character's thoughts or feelings.
8. Dialogue can be written or spoken. It is found
in prose and also
some times in poetry.
9. Dialogue can be used for story, thoughtful,
or educational purposes.
10. Dialogue is used for explanation and description.
11. A dialogue as a
writing tool has numerous basic functions such as Mood, Characters, Setting,
Development of the plot.
12. Dialogue is of
different types such as: Directed Dialogues,
Misdirected Dialogue, Modulated Conversation, Interpolation Conversation,
Internal Dialogue and Outer Dialogue.
Conflict:
1. The
plot may have a protagonist who is opposed by antagonist, crating what is
called as conflict.
2. Conflict is a literary element that involves a
struggle between two opposing forces, generally a hero and a villain.
3. Conflict is a described by a
struggle between two differing forces. It creates a vital tension in any story
and is used to drive the narrative forward..
4.
Main types of literary conflict are:
internal and external, Character
vs. Self, Character vs. Character, Character
vs. Nature, Character vs. Supernatural, Character vs. Technology, Character
vs. Fate and Character vs. Society
Theme:
1. A
literary theme is the main idea or underlying meaning a writer explores in a
book.
2.
Theme is a general thought, lesson, or meaning investigated
throughout a work.
3.
Themes has the universality, it conveys detailed truths
about human practice that readers can relate with his life.
4.
Theme is a literary device which shows deeper connotation of
a written work.
5.
Themes can extend a greater understanding of the work itself
and can apply this understanding beyond the literary work as a means of
grasping a better sense of the world.
6.
Theme is often what creates an excellent and important practice
of a literary work for the reader.
7. The
theme of a story can be conveyed using characters, setting, dialogue, plot, or
a combination of all of these elements.
8. Theme
may be a moral or message or sometimes more imprecise investigation of some basic
aspect of society at large.
9.
Themes are usually common in nature, and relate to the situation
of man.
10. Major themes are repeated throughout the text and are significant
to a variety of character interactions and plot developments.
11. Common themes in literature are: Good
vs. evil, Love, Redemption, Courage, perseverance, Coming of age and
Revenge.
Spectacle:
1. The
Spectacle is theatrical effect presented on the stage.
2. The
decoration of the stage is the major part of the spectacle.
3. The
spectacle includes scenes of physical torture, loud lamentations, dances,
colorful garments of the main characters, etc.
4. The
jocular appearances of the subordinate characters or of the Fool on the stage
are included in the Spectacle.
5. Spectacle has all features of the tragedy that
added to its sensory effects such as: costumes, view, the gestures of the actors, the sound of the music and
the quality of the actors' voices.
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