Drama: Definition and Types

• ETI 264-BRITISH AND AMERICAN CULTURE AND LITERATURE

Drama Definition

• Drama is any work meant to be performed on a stage by actors.
• It is a mode of fictional representation through dialogue and performance
• Drama is one of the literary genres and an imitation of action
• In simple terms, drama is a composition in verse or prose presenting a story through performance or dialogue
• It contains conflict of characters, especially those performing in front of an audience
• The writer of drama for stage directions is known as a "dramatist" or "playwright"

Types of Drama/Plays

• Tragedy
• Comedy
• Sentimental Comedy
• Melodrama
• Farce
• Theatre of the Absurd
• Comedy of Manners
• Plays can be serious or funny, with some containing funny scenes and others having serious messages or themes. Plays exist on a continuum from serious to comedic. Each play can be classified by its characteristics, similar to classifying foods by their ingredients.

Tragedy

• Tragedy is one of the oldest types of drama, dating back to the Great Greek Playwrights Sophocles, Aeschylus, and Euripedes.
• In general usage, tragedy means something sad, but in the study of drama, it has a more specific meaning.

Aristotle defines Tragedy

• Tragedy definition includes the following elements
• The play must be serious in nature, intending to provide emotional catharsis by arousing deep feelings of horror or pity.
• The play must adhere to three unities of Time, Place, and Action, meaning the story must take no longer than one day, occur in one location, and not be interrupted by sub-plots.
• The play must feature a tragic hero (Protagonist): a person of exalted state (meaning a person of some importance in the world) who is essentially a good man but has a tragic flaw, such as excessive pride.
• Fate or destiny brings the tragic hero to a crisis point where they must choose between two equally undesirable courses of action.
• Ultimately, the hero is destroyed by their choice.

Comedy

• Comedy is generally defined as a literary work written to amuse or entertain
• In a comedy, characters may experience misfortune, but situations typically have positive outcomes
• In 486 BCE comedy was presented competitively in Athens onwards at the Lenaea winter festival.
• Greek comedy combined popular entertainment, mime, phallic rites, and revelry in honor of Dionysus.

Sentimental Comedy

• Sentimental comedy is a dramatic genre of the 18th century, in which middle-class protagonists triumphantly overcome a series of moral trials.

Melodrama

• Melodrama, a popular-culture manifestation of Romanticism, was a prevalent 19th-century dramatic form as Dion Boucicault's "The Octoroon" [1859]
• Melodrama uses music extensively
• The portrayal of the protagonist and antagonist truly defines it; the protagonist suffers much but triumphs, while the antagonist suffers, embodying strict poetic justice wherein the evil are punished, and the good rewarded.
• The hero is usually rescued from very dangerous circumstances at the last possible moment
• The melodramatic hero is typically a one-dimensional figure who pursues a goal straightforwardly.

Farce

• Farce is often called "low comedy"
• The emphasis is almost entirely on plot, with bawdy/rude jokes and physical humor.
• Elements include exaggerated physical action, character, absurd situations, improbable events, surprises, and slapstick (pratfalls, slipping on banana peels, etc.)
• Character and dialogue are subservient to plot and situation.
• Slapstick humour is based on simple actions, such as people hitting each other or falling down

Theatre of the Absurd

• Theatre of the absurd contains elements of many other types
• It is defined by its underlying theme of the meaningless nature or absurdity of life.
• The structure of the play reinforces this idea, as in Beckett's "Waiting for Godot."

Comedy of Manners

• Comedy of Manners is a “high comedy" category.
• The emphasis is on cleverness and witty dialogues
• The characters are usually members of the upper class
• Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest" fits in this style.

ROBERT BOLT'S A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS

• Robert Bolt was born to a middle-class family in the North of England.
• He fought in World War II in the Royal Air Force
• After returning home, he trained as a teacher and began writing
• During the 1950s, he wrote several radio plays for the BBC, some adapted into stage plays
• His first commercial success was the 1956 play, "The Critic and the Heart," and in 1960 with "A Man For All Seasons" and "The Tiger and the Horse."

Historical Context of A Man for All Seasons

• The action covers roughly six years, from Thomas More's appointment as Lord Chancellor in 1529 to his death in 1535.
• Henry VIII became King in 1509 after his brother's death, seeking a male heir.
• By the mid-1520s, he was involved with Anne Boleyn
• The Catholic Church would not allow divorce from his wife Catherine
• Henry separated England from the Catholic Church and installed himself as its head, instead of the Pope.
• England's separation from the Catholic Church occurred during the Protestant Reformation and Henry passed the Act of Supremacy, declaring himself head of the church.
• Most of Parliament and the nobility signed it, but Thomas More would not, setting in motion events dealing with More's refusal to acknowledge the new Church of England.

Personal and Social Identities in Robert Bolt's A Man for All Seasons

• Sir Thomas More, son of a wealthy lawyer, studied law at Oxford, became Under-Sheriff of London, and later Lord Chancellor
• He was a prominent English humanist, scholar, and author, writing about religious and governmental affairs and expressed hatred for religious outcasts.
• A milestone in his life was being appointed as Lord Chancellor by Henry VIII
• The king expected More to endorse his divorce from Queen Catherine and the break with the Catholic Church
• More faced a dilemma: loyalty to the king or to his conscience and personal self.
• Robert Bolt's play explores how More tried to overcome this dilemma, being a man with an adamantine sense of self and knowing where he could compromise.
• More tried to continue his existence without abandoning his personal beliefs by reconciling his conscience with the desires of social and political authorities.
• Robert Whittington, a contemporary of More, described him as “a man for all seasons"
• More could adapt his personal self to the spirit of the time through his unique identity of "gentleness,” “lowliness," "affability,” “mirth" and "gravity"
• Erasmus believed More tried to negotiate between his personal and social identities.
• In "A Man for All Seasons," More's identity shows variety, being a man, husband, father, Englishman, conservative Catholic, and Lord Chancellor.
• He does not give up his principles, even knowing he should abandon them for his own benefit.
• More struggles to reconcile his personal identity with his social identity
• As a statesman, More should side with the king on the divorce but, as a Catholic, he cannot be convinced.
• The king, representing socio-political power, is dissatisfied with More's reluctance to act as the Chancellor and reminds him not to disapprove of his decision.
• The king thinks More should distinguish between his personal and political identities regarding his marital affair.
• Henry makes it clear that More, as his Chancellor and social inferior, has no right to oppose the monarchy.
• More assumes different identities under different climates, being careful not to confuse them.
• He is a gentle, caring husband in domestic affairs, but, when informing his wife of his resignation as Lord Chancellor, he becomes a traditional, authoritarian man.
• Alice expects More to be an ordinary man active in the social sphere, supporting his family
• Initially humorous, More's tone becomes aggressive and patronizing when Alice is serious, reflecting a typical oppressive husband.
• More asserts his identity as a man of law when Lady Alice, daughter Margaret, and Roper want him to arrest Richard Rich, whom they suspect of spying for the Mores
• More prefers to act according to laws.
• As demands he act according to laws, he feels the necessity to act as a statesman
• In the divorce matter, there is no legal obligation, so More does not feel obliged to act as a politician
• He tells his daughter he will be a hypocrite if he swears on the act, defying the laws of man and religion.
• More does not want you swear to the Act of Succession
• Margaret relays “God more regards the thoughts of the heart than the words of the mouth"
• More responds 'What is an oath then but words we say to God?'
• The fact that More struggles to preserve his personal values does not mean he sees himself as a pure individualist which prevent attacking his principles, remaining at peace with society and the authorities.
• His conduct neither in the divorce matter or in giving an oath it can be interpreted as a protest against the king, but More's disagreement that Henry wants to be what he thinks to be false.
• More resigns as the Lord Chancellor because he doesn't want to express on Henry's affairs
• More says “I have made no statement. I've resigned, that's all. On the King's Supremacy, the King's divorce which he'll now grant himself, the marriage he'll then make-have you heard me make a statement?"
• He is glad his silence will no longer be disturbed regarding the king's conducts: "[W]hen they find I'm silent they'll ask nothing better than to leave me silent; you'll see"
• More remains loyal, not giving support the Spanish diplomat to fight against Henry
• He looks after his country’s benefits and rejects Charles of Spain

• More reacts says "From King Charles! I will not lay a finger on it. The Queen Catherine divorce matter " (Bolt, p. 83)

• Identities are inflicted on individuals because his punishment, More consider the benefit of his country Identities are inflicted on individuals, even if someone act as an in-group

• Portraying more’s punishment

• society forces identities on people

• when he first appears he only a common man that adopts a costume to adopt a distinct identity

• costumes parallel adopting an identitiy

• Each costume imposes new identities on The Commona and he becomes a sailor, a juryman.

• Identities are established for you because of society

• He’s is forced the be a headsman. The decapitation of more power

• Identity has notions for both personal and social notions