CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION
A. Background

Literature is basically a creation, a creation is not merely an imitation.

Literary work as a form and result of a creative work, in essence is a medium
that utilizes language to express about human life. Therefore, a literary work, in
general, contains the problems that surround human life. The emergence of
literature was born against the background of a basic human impulse to express
his existence.

Drama / theater is one of the most popular literature until now. Even in
this era there has been a very rapid development in the field of theater.

Based on the above review, the authors make this paper to help readers
who want to pursue the world of drama. In addition to understanding and
elements of drama, this paper also contains notes about the benefits of drama
and also comes with guidance on how to act well.

B. Formulate of the problem

1) What is drama?

2) What are the characteristics of the drama?

3) Mention and explain the drama elements?

4) What types of drama are there?

C. Purpose

1) To find out the meaning of drama.

2) To find out the characteristics of the drama.

3) To find out what the elements of the drama.

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 CHAPTER II
DISCUSSION

A. THE DEFINITION OF DRAMA

The Definition Of Drama

A drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in perfomance a opera

and performed in a theatre . Drama also is a work of literature or a

composition which delineates life and human activity by means of presenting

various actions of-and dialogues between a group of characters. Drama is

furthermore designed for theatrical presentation, in fact, drama is designed to

be acted on the stage.

1. Text and Theatre

Dramatic texts one has to bear in mindthat drama differs

considerably from poetryor narrative in that it is usually written for being

perfomed on stage. Although plays exist which were mainly written for a

reading audience, dramati texts are generally meant to be transformed

into another mode of presentation or medium: the theatre.

Dramatic texts even look different compared to poetic or narrative

texts. One distinguishes between the primary text is the main body of the

play spoken by the characters, and secondary texts is all the texts

surrounding or accompanying the main texts title, dramatis personal,

scene descriptions, stage directions for acting and speaking.

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 Depending on whether one reads a play or watches it on stage, one

has different kinds of access to dramatic texts. As a reader, one receives

first-hand written information (if it is mentioned in the secondary text) on

what the characters look like, how they act and react in certain situations,

how they speak, what sort of setting forms the background to a scene,

etc. However, one also must make a cognitive effort to imagine all these

features and interpret them for oneself. Stage performances, on the other

hand, are more or less ready-made instantiations of all these details. In

other words: at the theatre one is presented with a version of the play

which has already been interpreted by the director, actors, costume

designers, make-up artists and all the other members of theatre staff, who

bring the play to life.

Stage perfomance offers a multi-sensory access to plays and they

can make use of multimedia elements such as music, sound effects,

lighting stage props. While reading is limited to the visual perception and

thus draws upon one primary medium : the play as text

This needs to be kept in mind in discussion of dramatic texts, and

the following introduction to the analysis of drama is largely based on the

idea that plays are first and foremost written for the stage.

2. Information Flow

In drama there is usually no narrator who tells us what is going on

in the story-world (except for narrator figures in the epic theatre and other

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 mediators) the audience has to gain information directly from what can be

seen and heard on stage. Information can be conveyed both linguistically

in the character speech or non linguistically as in stage props, coustumes,

the stage set, etc.

B. THE TYPES OF THE DRAMA

1. TYPES OF COMEDY DRAMA

a. Romantic Comedy Drama deal with a romantic relationship, almost

always between a young woman and a young man. The comedy

derives from their clumsy efforts to get together – usually they like

each other, but each is unsure that the other likes them back, and their

behavior is nervous and awkward, resulting in situational comedy.

b. Satiric Comedy Drama has a critical purpose. It usually attacks

philosophical nations or political practices as well as general

deviations from social norms by ridiculing characters.

c. A farce Drama is a comedy so silly and over-the-top that it just

doesn’t make any sense and you have to laugh. Farces usually use an

extremely exaggerated combination of physical comedy and

situational comedy, and are usually thick with plot twists, hidden

identities, and confusing surprises.

d. Comedy of Manners Drama also satirical in its outlook ad it takes

the artificial and sophisticated of the higher social classes under closer

security. The plot usually revolves around love or some sort of

amorous intrigue and the language is marked by witty repartees and

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 cynicism.Comedy of Humours Drama, in this type of drama

characters are marked by one of these predispositions which cause

their eccenitricity or disorted personality. An example is Ben Jonson’s

Every Man in His Humour.

e. Melodrama is a type of stage play which became popular in the 19th

century. It mixes romantic or sensational plots with musical elements.

Melodrama aims at a violent appeal to audience emotions and usually

has a happy ending.

2. TYPES OF TRAGEDY DRAMA

There are several types of tragedy drama as in the following part :

a. Senecan Tragedy

Precursors of tragedic dramas were the tragedies by the Roman

poet Seneca (4 BC – 65 AD). His tragedies were recited rather than

staged but they became a model for english playwrights entailing the

five-act structure, a complex plot and an elevated style of dialogue.

b. Revenge Tragedy/ Tragedy of Blood

This type of tragedy represented a popular genre in the Elizabethan

age and made extensive use of certain elements of the senecan

tragedy such as murder,revenge, mutilations and ghosts. Typical

examples of this sub-genre are Christopher Marlowe’s The Jew of

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Malta, Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus and Thomas Kyd’s The

Spanish Tragedy, These play were written in verse and, following

Aristotelian poetics, the main characters were of a high social rank

(the higher they are, the lower they fall). Apart from dealing with

violent subject matters, these plays conventionally made use of

dumb shows or play-within-the-play, that is a play perfomed as part

of the plot of the play as for example ‘The Mousetrap’ which is

perfomed in Hamlet, and feigned or real madness in some of the

characters. In line with a changing social system where the middle

class gained increasing importance and power, tragedies from the

18th century onward shifted their focus to protagonists from the

middle or lower classes and were written in prose. The protagonist

typically suffers a domestic disaster which is intended to arouse

empathy rather than pity and fear in the audience. An example is

George Lillo’s The London Merchant: or, The History of George

Barnwell (1731). Modern tragedies such as Arthur Miller’s The

Death of a Salesman (1949) follow largely the new conventions set

forth by the dosmetic tragedy (common conflict, common characters,

prose) and a number of contemporary plays have exchanged the

tragic hero for an anti-hero, who does not display the dignity and

courage of a traditional hero but is passive, petty and ineffectual.

Other dramas resusciate elements of ancient tragedies such as the

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 chorus and verse e.g., T.S.Eliot’s The Murder in the

Cathedral(1935).

c. Tragicomedy

The boundaries of genres are often blurred in drama and

occasionally they lead to the emergence of new sub-genres, e.g., the

tragicomedies, as the name suggests, intermingle conventions

concerning plot, character and subject matter derived from both

tragedy and comedy. Thus, characters of both high and low social

rank can be mixed as in Shakespeare’s the merchant of venice

(1600), or a serious conflict, which is likely to end in disaster,

suddenly reaches a happy ending because of some unforeseen

circumstances as in John Flether’s The Faithful

Sherpherdess(c.16090). plays with multiple plots which combine

tragedy in one plot and comedy in the other are also occasionally

referred to as tragicomedies (e.g., Thomas Middleton’s and William

Rowley’s The Changeling. 1622)

Let us consider Cyril Tourneur’s The Revenger’s Tragedy

(c.1607). the tittle as such as already allocates the play to a spesific

genre, the so-called revenge on the lecherous duke who killed

Vindice fianccec because she resisted his advances. In a rhetorically

powerfull speech.

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 The topic and rhetoric is reminiscent of Hamlet’s philosophical

contemplations but this serious tone is not maintained throughout the

scene when Vindice disguises the skull of his dead fiancee.

The Revenge’s tragedy can easily be perfomed in a comical

manner because there is great comical potential in the way the

subject matter is rendered linguistically and plot-wise.

Tourneur’s play is not exceptional for its time.a number of play in

the Elizabethan and Jacobean period somehow waver between being

comedies or tragedies, and difficulties in classifying plays as

‘either/or’ already induced contemporary authors to speak about

their play as tragicomedies (e.g., John Flatcher in the preface to his

play the faithful shepherdess). This show thatgeneric terms are

somewhat arbitrary and dependent or cuturally defined conventions,

which one needs to know in order to be able to discuss plays

appropriately in their context.

C. DESCRIBING THE WORLD OF THE PLAY

1. The Types of the play.

These plays can be divide into four types :

a. Tragedies – these plays focus on a tragic hero ( or couple, as in romeo and

Juliet ) whose downfall is brought about through weakness or misfortune

of some kind. This play ends with the death of central character but also

involves the death of a number of other characters.

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 b. Comedies – this kind of play involves humour and often confusion,

disguise, mistaken indentity etc. Unlike our modern idea of comedy, some

of shakespear’s comedies can be quite “dark” but the main thing is that

they end happily and there are no deaths at the end.

c. Histories – this kind of play is based on historical events and characters,

often on kings or important figures from Roman history.These plays often

have tragic elements too.

d. Romance – there are some of Shakespear’s later play (sometimes called

last plays), and often involve magical worlds and happenings, mysterious

events and moral lessons contained within a ‘happy’ ending. A small

number of his plays, however, do not fit easily into these categories. There

are plays that fall somewhere between tragedy and comedy and contain

dark, unsetting elements but which end ‘happily’ in so far as no one dies.

They are knows as ‘Problem Comedies’ or ‘Dark Comedies’.

2. Setting.

Setting is an environment or surrounding in which an event or story takes

place, it may provide particular information about placement and timing. Setting

could be simply descriptive. Social conditions, historical time, geographical

location, weather, immediate surroundings and timing, are all different aspects of

setting.

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There are two main types of setting :

1. Backdrop Setting.

This setting emerges when its not important of story, and could happen in

any setting. For instance, Winnie the- Pooh could take place in any type of

setting.

2. Integral Setting.

It is when the place and time influences the theme, character, and action of

a story. This types of setting controls the characters. By confining a certain

character to a particular setting , the writers defines the character. The Tail of

Petter Rabbit is an example.

Function of Setting.

The function of setting in a fictional,poetic,and prose work is of great

importance. It has immense effect on plots and characters, as it could act as an

antagonist, post a conflict that characters need to resolve, or shed light upon

charaters. It can also present symbolic,persons,object,place,action, or situations.

Setting can establish the mood or atmosphere of a scene or story, and develop

the plot into a more realistic form, resulting in more convincing characters.

Setting also help the audience relate themselves to the characters in a story.

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3.Theme

The theme of a play refers to its central idea. It can either be clearly

stated through dialog or action, or can be inferred after watching the entire

performance. The theme is the philosophy that forms the base of the story or a

moral lesson that the characters learn. It is the message that the play gives to

the audience. For example, the theme of a play could be of how greed leads to

one's destroyal, or how the wrong use of authority ultimately results in the end

of power. The theme of a play could be blind love or the strength of selfless

love and sacrifise, or true friendship. For example, the play Romeo and Juliet,

is based on a brutal and overpowering romantic love between Romeo and Juliet

that forces them to go to extremes, finally leading them to self-destruction.

4. Characters

Character is a person or other being in a narrative (such as a novel,

play, television series, film, or video game). From this, the sense of "a part

played by an actor" developed. Character, particularly when enacted by an

actor in the theatre or cinema, involves "the illusion of being a human

person".In literature, characters guide readers through their stories, helping

them to understand plots and ponder themes.

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Types of Character

There are many types of the characters which include:

a. Confidante

A confidante is someone in whom the main character confides. He

reveals the central character’s thoughts, intentions, and personality traits.

However, a confidante need not necessarily be a person. An animal can

also be a confidante.

b. Dynamic Character

A dynamic character changes during the course of a novel or a

story. This change in character or his/her outlook is permanent. That is

why sometimes a dynamic character is also called a “developing

character.”

c. Static Character

A static character remains the same throughout the whole story.

Even the events in a story or novel do not change character’s outlook,

perceptions, habits, personality, or motivations.

d. Antagonist

An antagonist is a bad guy, or an opponent of the protagonist or the

main character. The action in the story arises from a conflict between the

protagonist and the antagonist. The antagonist can be a person, an

inanimate object, an animal, or nature itself.

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e. Protagonist

Every story has a protagonist, the main character, who creates the

action of the plot and engages readers, arousing their empathy and interest.

The protagonist is often a hero or heroine of the story, as the whole plot

moves around him or her.

f. Round Character

The round characters are well-developed and complex figures in a

story. They are more realistic, and demonstrate more depth in their

personalities. They can make surprising or puzzling decisions, and attract

readers’ attention. There are many factors that may affect them, and round

characters react to such factors realistically.

g. Flat Character

A flat character does not change during a story. Also, he or she

usually only reveals one or two personality traits.

h. Stock Character

A stock character is a flat character that is instantly recognizable by

readers. Like a flat character, the stock character does not undergo any

development throughout the story.

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 Function of Character

The main function of a character in a story is to extend or prolong the

plot, make it readable and interesting. Many stories use multiple characters,

and every story has a main character that affects the plot a great deal. The main

character could be a protagonist, an antagonist, a dynamic, a static, a flat, or a

round character. Readers feel that the characters given in the literary pieces

exist, and they enjoy reading their real and lifelike figures and actions.

5. Plot

Definition of Plot

Plot is a literary term used to describe the events that make up a story, or

the main part of a story. These events relate to each other in a pattern or a

sequence. The structure of a novel depends on the organization of events in

the plot of the story.

Plot is known as the foundation of a novel or story, around which the

characters and settings are built. It is meant to organize information and

events in a logical manner. When writing the plot of a piece of literature, the

author has to be careful that it does not dominate the other parts of the story.

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Primary Elements of a Plot

There are five main elements in a plot.

a. Exposition or Introduction

This is the beginning of the story, where characters and setting are

established. The conflict or main problem is introduced as well.

b. Rising Action

Rising action which occurs when a series of events build up to the

conflict. The main characters are established by the time the rising action

of a plot occurs, and at the same time, events begin to get complicated. It

is during this part of a story that excitement, tension, or crisis is

encountered.

c. Climax

In the climax, or the main point of the plot, there is a turning point

of the story. This is meant to be the moment of highest interest and

emotion, leaving the reader wondering what is going to happen next.

d. Falling Action

Falling action, or the winding up of the story, occurs when events

and complications begin to resolve. The result of the actions of the main

characters are put forward.

e. Resolution

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 Resolution, or the conclusion, is the end of a story, which may

occur with either a happy or a tragic ending.

Function of Plot

A plot is one of the most important parts of a story, and has many different

purposes. Firstly, the plot focuses attention on the important characters and

their roles in the story. It motivates the characters to affect the story, and

connects the events in an orderly manner. The plot creates a desire for the

reader to go on reading by absorbing them in the middle of the story, ensuring

they want to know what happens next.

The plot leads to the climax, but by gradually releasing the story in order

to maintain readers’ interest. During the plot of a book, a reader gets

emotionally involved, connecting with thse book, not allowing himself to put

the book down. Eventually, the plot reveals the entire story, giving the reader

a sense of completion that he has finished the story and reached a conclusion.

The plot is what forms a memory in readers’ minds, allowing them to

think about the book and even making them want to read it again. By

identifying and understanding the plot, the reader is able to understand the

message being conveyed by the author, and the explicit or implicit moral of

the story.

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6. Sources

The sources here refer to the references of the drama or play is created.

Commonly, the particular story of the play is taken from the sources of other

story, such as, based on true story, inspired by the fairy tale, legend, or folktale.

Sometimes, it also is taken from the story that was written by the other

playwrights in the previous period that the play is modified or added by

something improved.

7. Style

The style here means the using of playwright who uses the language style

through the dialogue which spoken by characters. If discussing about style is

not only focusing on the language but also about the diction, the use of

figuratitve language, pattern of imagery, electorical devices, emphasis or even

logical order. And, if there something outstanding in the style, for example, the

using of extended allegory or irony it should be noted in the opening definition

of the play.

8. Outstanding features of the play

When there is the aspect of the play that is conspicuous in some sense it is

called as the outstanding features of the play. And when there is the

outstanding features of the play it should be highlighted in the beginning of

definition of the play. The examples of the outstanding features in the play,

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 such as, in Othello that Desdemona’s handkerchief, which keeps changing

hand throughout the play. In Onelill’s The Iceman Cometh that it runs some six

hours when perfomed, or several hour longer than most plays.

CHAPTER III

CONCLUSION

Drama is an imitation of an action. It is a branch of literature which is both

literary art and representational art. As a literary art, it deals with fiction or an
imagery story that is presented through characters and dialogue. However, it is a
special kind of fiction because it is designed to be acted our rather than narrated.
When we read a novel or short story, we understand and appreciate the story,
through the narrator or author but in drama the characters live out the story for us.
The playwright does not comment or explain anything. So, drama gives us a direct
presentation of life experiences. That is why we say that it is a representational
art. Drama, therefore, uses language in the form of gesture or dialogue to present
or to re-present an action. Characters are used to present the story. These
characters are called actors

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