Elements, literary devices, forms, and features in drama

• Act - one of the major divisions of a play or opera
• Exposition - background information regarding the setting, characters, plot
• Conflict - struggle between opposing forces
• Complication - series of difficulties forming the central action in a narrative
• Climax - point of greatest emotional intensity, interest, or suspense in a narrative
• Peripeteia - sudden reversal of fortune from good to bad
• Denouement - the outcome or result of a complex situation or sequence of events
• Characterization - choices an author makes to reveal character's personality
• Protagonist - the character the story revolves around
• Protagonist - the character the story revolves around
• Antagonist - character or force that opposes the protagonist
• Main Plot - main action in a play or story
• Subplot - secondary action that is interwoven with the main action in a play or story
• Imagery - the author's attempt to create mental picture in the mind of the reader
• Motif - recurring theme in a literary work
• Symbolism - when an object is meant to be representative of something or an idea greater than the object itself
• Dramatic Irony - involves the reader (or audience) knowing something about what's happening in the plot, about which the character/s have no knowledge
• Tragic Irony - a character's actions lead to consequences that are both tragic, and contrary to the character's desire and intentions
• Juxtaposition - arrangement of two or more ideas, characters, actions, settings, phrases, or words side-by-side or in similar narrative moments for the purpose of comparison, contrast, rhetorical effect, suspense, or character development
• Comedy - a literary work that is amusing and ends happily
• History - past events relating to a particular thing
• Tragedy - dramatic presentation of serious actions in which the chief character has a disastrous fate
• Tragic-comedy - aspects of both tragedy and comedy are found
• Theatre of the Absurd - form of drama that emphasizes the absurdity of human existence by employing disjointed, repetitious, and meaningless dialogue
• Modern Drama - is the Western development of drama in the late 19th century
• Farce - a type of comedy based on a farfetched humorous situation, often with ridiculous or stereotyped characters
• Melodrama - dramatic work which exaggerates plot and characters in
• Monologue – a form of dramatic entertainment, comedic solo, or the like by a single speaker
• Dialogue – conversation between characters in a drama or narrative
• Soliloquy – dramatic or literary form of discourse in which a character talks to himself or herself
• Aside – an actor’s speech, directed to the audience, that is not supposed to be heard by other actors on stage
• Set – the time, place, physical details, and circumstances in which a situation occurs
• Stage Direction – a playwright’s descriptive or interpretive comments that provide readers (and actors) with information about the dialogue, setting, and action of a play
• Stage Conventions – certain devices used within a performance that are accepted as portraying an event or style without necessarily being realistic
• . Chorus – a group of characters who comment on the action of a play without participation in it
• Dramatic Unites – three unities of time, place, and action observed in a classical drama
• Disguise – to modify the manner or appearance of in order to prevent recognition