Types and Elements of Drama

• Drama is derived from a greek word drao which means ”to do”.
• Drama is categorized into two, comedy and tragedy.
• These general categories are represented by the two masks, the laughing face for comedy and the weeping face for tragedy.
• These two masks are the symbols of the Greek muses, Thalia, the muse of comedy, and Melpomene, the muse of tragedy.
• Comedy ends with a happy ending.
• Tragedy ends with a sad or unhappy ending.
• Other types of drama are Satire, Chronicle Plays, Fantasy and Farce.
• Satire is a play which aims to ridicule public institutions, figures, and activities. This play employs slapstick comedy and iron of situation.
• Chronicle Plays deal with historical scenes and figures which aim to make the audience learn from the past.
• Fantasy aims to tickle the audience’s imagination by allowing impossible things to happen without much regard to reality.
• Farce aims to entertain the audience by means of unlikely, extravagant and improbable situations, which may include word play which most of the time disregards human values.
• The elements of Drama are Theme, Plot, Characters, Dialogue and Spectacle.
• Theme is the central idea of the play.
• Plot is the order of event that occurs in the story.This connects and relates all the characters and their decisions to the events in the entire story.
• Characters is the element that gives life to the entire play by acting out the scenes and delivering the dialogues.
• Dialogue is the element where the success of the play highly depends.
• Spectacle is the visual element that trigger the imagination of the audience.
• The Literary Terms in Studying Drama are Allusion, Aside, Comic Relief, Foreshadow and Soliloquy.
• Allusion is an indirect reference to historical, biblical, or mythological figures or events for emphasis of the dialogue and message.
• Aside is a dialogue delivered by one character intended for the audience only.
• Comic Relief is giving hints to the audience of what might happen in the future.
• Foreshadow is a sign of something to come.
• Soliloquy are lines in a drama in which a character reveals his thoughts to the audience by speaking as if to himself.