Literary Devices of Drama

Act - One of the major divisions of a play or opera.

Scene - the place where some act or event occurs.
Exposition - Background information regarding the setting, characters, plot.
Conflict – Struggle between opposing forces.
Complication - A series of difficulties forming the central action in a narrative.
Climax - That point of greatest emotional intensity, interest, or suspense in a narrative.
Denouement - refers to the outcome or result of a complex situation or sequence of events.
Peripeteia - a sudden reversal of fortune from good to bad.
Characterisation - The choices an author makes to reveal a character’s personality, such as
appearance, actions, dialogue, and motivations.
Protagonist - The character the story revolves around.
Antagonist - A character or force that opposes the protagonist.
Main plot – The main action in a play or story.
Subplot - Secondary action that is interwoven with the main action in a play or story.

Form of Drama
Comedy - a literary work that is amusing and ends happily.
History - The past events relating to a particular thing.
Tragedy - a dramatic presentation of serious actions in which the chief character has a
disastrous fate.
Tragic-comedy - a drama in which aspects of both tragedy and comedy are found.
Theatre of the Absurd - A form of drama that emphasizes the absurdity of human existence
by employing disjointed, repetitious, and meaningless dialogue, purposeless and confusing
situations, and plots that lack realistic or logical development. This theatrical style originated
in France in the late 1940's.
Satire - A kind of writing that holds up to ridicule or contempt the weaknesses and
wrongdoing of individuals, groups, institution, or humanity in general.
Farce - A type of comedy based on a farfetched humorous situation, often with ridiculous or
stereotyped characters
Modern Drama - Modern drama is the Western development of drama beginning in the late
19th century
Melodrama - a dramatic work which exaggerates plot and characters in order to appeal to the
emotions.

Features of Drama
Monologue-a form of dramatic entertainment, comedic solo, or the likeby a single speaker
Dialogue - Conversation between characters in a drama or narrative.
Soliloquy - A dramatic or literary form of discourse in which a character talks to himself or
herself or reveals his or her thoughts without addressing a listener
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. (eg costumes)
Chorus - A group of characters who comment on the action of a play without participation in
it.
Dramatic Unites - the 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.
Imagery - the author’s attempt to create a 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 - The 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.