Drama Terms

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Drama Terms
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Review Terms
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Plot

• The chain of events that make up the play

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What are the stages of plot?
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Exposition

• introductory part of the play that explains the
  time, place, and situation of the play

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Complications

• Events leading up to the climax

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Climax

• the high point in the action of the play.

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Resolution

• End of the play
• All conflicts are resolved

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What do you call the main character and the
main characters rival?
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Protagonist

• the hero or leading character in the play.

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Antagonist

• character that opposes the leading character the
  one causing conflict

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What do you call the main idea of a piece of
literature?
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Theme

• Important central idea presented by the play

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What do we call the hints that an author gives
along the way?
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Foreshadowing
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• to show beforehand for tell give hints.

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Setting

• The time and place of the action of a story

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Atmosphere

• Mood or feeling

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Tone

• The attitude a writer takes toward a subject

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Motivation

• Reason for a characters beliefs or actions

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Dramatic Irony

• The audience or reader knows something that one
  or more characters do not know.
• Because of that knowledge, the audience has a
  bigger picture of the action.

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Allusion

• A brief reference to something outside the work
  that the reader is expected to know

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Metaphor

• A comparison in which two unlike objects are said
  to be the same but does not use words like or
  as

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Personification

• Human qualities are attributed to an object,
  animal, or idea

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Simile

• A comparison between two things using the word
  like or as

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Drama Terms
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Drama

• literature that develops plot and character
  through dialogue and action literature in play
  form.

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Play

• A story acted out live, using dialogue and action

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Comedy

• Light humorous in tone
• Work that is meant to interest, involve, amuse
  us.
• Ending happily and peacefully

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History

• a dramatic work based on historical facts

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Tragedy

• dramatic representation of serious actions that
  lead to a disastrous end for the protagonist.
• The main characters as well as innocent
  bystanders are destroyed

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Melodrama

• a play designed to arouse immediate emotion by
  fast moving action.

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Act

• a major division in the action of the play.

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Scene

• units of action that have change in place or
  time.

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Dialogue

• conversation between at least two characters

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Soliloquy
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• a speech usually given alone on stage expressing
  the thoughts of the actor.

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Monologue

• A long speech made by one character to one or
  more characters onstage

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Aside

• characters quiet remark to the audience or
  another character that no one else on stage is
  supposed to hear

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Stage Directions

• instructions that help the reader visualize what
  is on stage tells the actors how to move and
  read their lines.

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Farce

• Highly exaggerated humorous play or skit

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Foil

• A character who provides a striking contrast to
  another character

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Comic Relief

• A humorous scene, incident, or speech that
  relieves the overall emotional intensity

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Pun

• A joke that comes from a play on words

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Suspense

• The excitement or tension that readers feel as
  they become involved in the story eager to know
  the outcome of the plot.

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Conflict

• A struggle between opposing forces.
• External conflict
• Between a character and another force
• Internal conflict
• Within a characters heart or mind

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Properties

• The portable items (props) that actors carry or
  handle onstage

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Prologue

• An introduction that gives background information
  about the play.

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Tragic Hero

• refers to a central character who is dignified
  and noble. A tragic hero possess a tragic flaw
  that brings about his or her downfall.

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The flaws can be several things

• poor judgment
• pride
• weakness
• or an excess of an admirable quality

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Tragic Hero

• The tragic hero recognizes his or her flaw and
  the consequences, but only after it is to late to
  change the course of events.

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Blank Verse

• Iambic Pentameter
• a fixed pattern of rhythm, or meter, in which
  most lines contain five unstressed syllables each
  followed by a stressed syllable

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Blank Verse

• Verse Dramas
• plays in which the dialogue consists almost
  entirely of poetry
• Blank Verse
• unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter