Module 3
in Europe and the Mediterranean
THE GENRE OF DRAMA
DRAMA
- Drama is a type of literature telling
a story, which is intended to be
performed to an audience on the
stage
- Generally, while drama is the
printed text of a play, the word
theatre often refers to the actual
production of the text on the
stage. Theatre thus involves action
taking place on the stage, the
lighting, the scenery, the
accompanying music, the costumes,
the atmosphere, and so on.
- Drama tries to present life as
realistically as possible on stage.
This Is why we say that drama
mirrors life.
ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF DRAMA
GREEK DRAMA
- Drama is generally thought to have
started in Greece between 600 and
200 BC, although some critics trace
it to Egyptian religious rites of
coronation.
- In Greece, dramatic performances
were associated with religious
festivals. The Greeks produced
different types of drama, mainly
tragedy and comedy. Famous
Greek tragedians include Aeschylus,
Sophocles, and Euripides. The best
writer of comedy was Aristophanes
ROMAN DRAMA
- The Romans inherited the drama
traditions from the Greeks. The
expansion of the Roman Empire
helped spread drama to many places
world. Seneca is the most important
Roman tragedian.
MEDIEVAL DRAMA
- The Middle ages start with the fall
of the Roman Empire. Most
Classical learning was lost inn
medieval times. The Middle Ages
were dominated by religion and the
study of theological matters. The
Christian Doctrine and Christian
values were the measure of
everything. During the Middle
Ages, drama was looked down upon
as evil and a means of corruption.
However, faced with the need to
spread the word of God to the
illiterate masses, the Church came to
devise some form of dramatic
performance to help in teaching
Christian beliefs and biblical stories.
in which the characters personify
moral qualities (such as charity or
vice) or abstractions (as death or
youth) and in which moral lessons
are taught.
- The three main types of medieval
drama are mystery plays, about
Bible stories, miracle plays about
the lives of saints and the miracles
they performed, and morality plays,
in which the characters personify
moral qualities (such as charity or
vice) or abstractions (as death or
youth) and in which moral lessons
are taught.
THE RENAISSANCE
- The Renaissance is the period that
followed the Middle Ages. It started
in Italy in the fourteenth century and
spread to other parts of Europe. The
word Renaissance is a French word
which means rebirth. The
Renaissance period witnessed a new
interest in learning and discovery of
the natural world. The works of the
Greek and Roman writers were
rediscovered. The invention of the
printing press helped make the
production of books easier and
cheaper, hence, available to more
people.
- HUMANISM: The humanist
movement stressed the role of man
and reason in understanding the
world and rejected the
predominance of religious thinking.
- During the Renaissance, the works
of Greek and Roman dramatists
were rediscovered and imitated.
Plays were no longer restricted to
religious themes. This happened
first in Italy and spread then to other
parts of Europe.
- In England, drama flourished during
the reign of Queen Elizabeth I
(1558- 1603), who was a patron of
literature and the arts. Theatres were
built in London and people attended
plays in large numbers. The most
important dramatists were William
Shakespeare and Christopher
Marlowe.
WRITING DRAMA
- Playwriting is an exciting discipline
in the performing arts. You may see
it as an easy job, thinking that
anybody can write dialogues, round
up some friends to act, and gather an
audience to watch a dramatic
performance. Later on, you realize
that it is rather difficult and tedious.
To be a successful writer of plays,
you need to know where ideas for
plays come from. You have to be
observant about how people
converse with each other, how to
develop an active storyline, how to
write effective dialogues, how to
illustrate full dimensional
characters, and how to bring the
story to a substantial close.
ELEMENTS OF DRAMA
1. Plot: The events in a play.
2. Setting: The time and place of a
literary work.
3. Characters: People or creatures in a
play.
4. Dialogue: Conversation in a play.
5. Theme: The central thought of a
play; the idea or ideas with which a
play deals.
6. Scenery: The various elements that
are used to create a particular visual
setting for a play
MAJOR DRAMATIC ATTITUDE
- Realism is an accurate, detailed, and
life-like description in a play where
things are presented as real as can
be set in actual life, with dialogues
sounding like day to – day
conversation.
- Non-realism is method of
presentation identified as something
stylized or theatricalized whereby
artist uses his feral imagination in
projecting his ideas
 TYPES OF DRAMA
COMEDY
- Comedy is a type of drama intended
to interest and amuse the audience
rather than make them deeply
concerned about events that happen.
The characters overcome some
difficulties, but they always
overcome their ill fortune and find
happiness in the end.
TRAGICOMEDY
- TragiComedy is a play that does not
adhere strictly to the structure of
tragedy. This is usually a serious
play that also has some of the
qualities of comedy. It arouses
thought even with laughter.
FARCE
- Farce is a play that brings laughter
for the sake of laughter, usually
making use grossly embellished
events and characters. It has very
swift movements, has ridiculous
situations, and does not stimulate
thought
TRAGEDY
MELODRAMA
- Melodrama shows events that
follow each other rapidly but seems
to be governed always by chance.
The characters are victims in the
hands of merciless fate.
GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS OF A
PLAY
- The best traditional symbol of
drama is a pair of masks, one sad
and mournful (signifying tragedy)
and one happy and joyful
(indicating comedy). This emblem
signifies that tragedy and comedy
are close relatives. The major
achievement of a play is its capacity
to transform the written form into a
public performance. And much of it
is worked out principally by means
of dialogue and conversation
because the way to unravel the plot
of the play is to understand the
words spoken by the characters. The
playwright (the writer of plays) may
sometimes permit his characters to
think aloud (these are sometimes
called asides or soliloquies), but
they must be used carefully
especially in modern drama.
Viewers of modern drama prefer to
see characters who perform active
action, not passive.
- Tragedy refers to a play that
portrays a conflict between human
beings and some greater or larger
overwhelming force. It is a play of
great intensity, with disturbing or
upsetting situations and sequences.
The protagonist experiences
disaster, and this state prevails until
the closing of the play. Several
closing situations happen to the
protagonist: either s/he learns or
realizes a painful lesson that would
place him/her in a sorry state, or
s/he dies in the end, or vanishes and
is never heard of again. The success
 of a tragedy is principally due to the
fact that virtue gets its reward,
epiphanies are realized, and
situations-no matter how painful
they are to embrace – are reinstated,
and the audience leave the theater
with all their emotions purged.
- Many of our ideas of tragedy go
back to ancient Greece. The plays of
the Greek dramatists Aeschylus,
Sophocles, and Euripides exemplify
the art of tragedy. Aristotle, in his
Poetics, defines tragedy as “an
imitation of an action of high
importance, complete and of some
amplitude; in language enhanced by
distinct and varying beauties; acted
not narrated; by means of pity and
fear affecting its purgation of these
emotions.” Aristotle believed that
the hero or protagonist of a tragedy
is a person of “high state,” a king, a
queen or another member of the
royal family who falls from grace or
power because of the wretched
circumstances that plague his/her
existence.
- The tragic hero is fallible. He is not
cut out to be a superhero. His
downfall is the result, as Aristotle
declared, of his hamartia: his
mistake or lapse emanating from his
flaw or weakness of character. This
tragic flaw is said to bring the hero
clown to a bad end. In some
classical tragedies, transgression is a
weakness which the Greeks called
hubris, meaning extreme pride
leading to overconfidence. The
hero's suffering leads to the
purgation (or what the Greeks called
catharsis) of the audience. The
pent-up emotions of the audience
are released and their feelings are
purified. After witnessing the
tragedy of the fallen hero or heroine,
we, the average viewer, feel better
and our emotions are elated.
SOME EXAMPLES OF TRAGEDIES
ARE:
1. Classical tragedies written by, about,
or in the style and form of the
ancient Greeks and Romans;
2. Romantic tragedies which are not
classical but include many of the
tragedies written _ during the period
of Elizabethan England;
3. Revenge tragedies which are
characterized by plot lines of
revenge and sensationalized
murders; and
4. Domestic tragedies where the main
characters are everyday people who
undergo circumstances common to
many.
COMEDY
- The word comedy originated from
the Greek komos which means “a
revelry or celebration." This may
have been due to the festivities that
the Greeks celebrated to rejoice the
coming of spring and to ritual
presentations in praise of Dionysus,
the god of wine and fertility. The
term comedy is encompassing to
mean either a classification of an
entire play, a comic situation, or a
character in a play.
- Comedy is divided into two
varieties - “high" and “low.” High
comedy relies more on wit and
wordplay than on physical action for
its humor. It attempts to lecture on
the pretensions and hypocrisy of
human behavior. An example of this
is the comedy of manners, a funny
 satire about the misgivings and
misappropriations of the elite
society
- Low comedy places greater
emphasis on physical action and
visual gags, and its visual and verbal
jokes do not require high intellect to
be appreciated. Classic examples of
this are the burlesque (a parody or
travesty of another play), commedia
dell’arte (a theater popularized by
comedians who traversed from town
to town in country fairs and
marketplaces), and slapstick (a farce
that involves pie throwing,
head-swatting, and other violent
actions intended to be humorous).
- A regular comedy is a play of one to
five acts, which is light and half
serious, with interjections of humor
and wit. The play is not intended to
be heavy and the conversations are
witty and filled with comicality.
Although the villain or antagonist is
introduced as the one who is
winning initially, before the play
closes, the protagonist gets the
better of him/her and comes out as
the victor. The plot or the story is
not predominantly intense but the
sequences or plot situations are
mind boggling. In the end, all’s well
that ends well. The plot conflict is
resolved and the character's
humanity is restored.
- In order to be a good playwright,
you must have cultivated a love for
the theater, for watching plays. If
you are a frequent moviegoer, don’t
write plays. You will realize that the
stage has many limitations. You
cannot showcase big battle scenes or
extreme car chases or massive
explosions. If you want to become a
good writer of plays, you have to
watch more plays to see how scenes
are mounted on stage. You will
witness that some acts, which are
difficult to stage, could be done so,
with stark imagination and
proficient skills of people who are
involved in the theater
- The success of the musical Miss
Saigon is not only because of the
timely and engaging love story
between an American soldier
(Chris) and a Vietnamese bar girl
(Kim) but also because of its
breathtaking production design
mounting even a gigantic helicopter
filled with people that is ready to
take off during the historic fall of
Saigon. The limitations of space,
time, and live action are often
present in a play. However, some
plays could be pulled off from these
limitations because of the creativity
and ingenuity of the people involved
in the production.
- Successful plays usually begin in
medias res, meaning “right in-the
middle of the action.” This device
cuts unnecessary details about the
story and controls the narrative
tension of the play, which can be
laboriously present in a novel. In
Alberto Florentino's The World Is an
Apple (the entire text of the play is
found in this book), we find Mario,
the protagonist, coming home to be
met by his wife, Gloria. He is laid
off from his work and does not
immediately tell his wife about it.
This is a brilliant device for
presenting the exposition and
conflict of the play. In the first
scenes of the play, we learn about
the relationship of Mario and Gloria,
 their poverty, and the life they had
in the past. Because of this device;
we, the viewers, are instantly driven
into the action. In watching a play,
the audience must be kept engaged
in what is happening to the
characters.
- As opposed to either a novel or a
short story, a play is a genre of
literature that tells a story that is
mounted on a stage and actors
represent the characters. Therefore,
the story does not unfold to readers
but to spectators who come to the
theater to watch. The performance
of live actors on stage creates an
impact that words on a page cannot.
You can actually hear and feel the
anger, or joy, or despair in their
voices and in their facial and bodily
expressions as you watch them,
something that you cannot achieve
while reading a book or paper. This
is why writing a play or drama is
quite different from writing a short
story or novel, even if they all have
similar elements like characters,
plot, and setting.
- The sense of immediacy one gets
from watching a play takes its origin
from the word drama which means
“deed” or “action” from the Greek
dran which literally means “to do.”
Drama was already present as far
back as the ancient Greek Dionysian
religious ceremonies. In recent
times, modern drama emerged as an
off-shoot of Western European
medieval drama, a new form that
was established from the Christian
church ritual in the ninth century
LITERARY TERMS
- Playwright: The writer of plays
(dramatist)
- Stage directions: Instructions
written in the script of a play,
describing the setting and indicating
actions and movements of the
actors.
- Soliloquy (Monologue): A speech
in a play in which a character,
usually alone on the stage, talks to
himself or herself so that the
audience knows their thoughts.
- Protagonist: The main character in
a play.
- Antagonist: The character opposing
the main character.
- Tragic hero: A character of high
repute, who, because of a tragic flaw
and fate, suffers a fall from glory
into suffering.
- Tragic flaw: A weakness or
limitation of character, resulting in
the fall of the tragic hero.
- Dramatis Personae: "People of
Drama" in Latin; a list of the
characters in a play, usually found
on the first page of the script.
- Blank Verse: Unrhymed iambic
pentameter verse. It is the
preeminent dramatic verse in
English (as in the plays of
Christopher Marlowe and William
Shakespeare).
- Chorus: The course in Greek drama
is a group of actors who speak or
sing together, commenting on the
action. In Elizabethan drama, the
course consisted of one actor who
recites the prologue and epilogue to
a play and sometimes comments on
the action (As in Doctor Faustus).
- Comic Relief: Humorous episodes
in a play that is mainly tragic
PLOT AND THE DRAMATIC
STRUCTURE
- When we talk about the dramatic
structure of a play, we refer to the
plot, just like in novels or short
stories.
- The physical format of a play is
divided into three major divisions or
acts. A three-act play has three acts,
showcasing a fuller and longer
exposition of the theme and conflict.
While a one act play has one unit of
time, one unit of place, and one unit
of action.
- Just like in a prose narrative, the
plot of a drama revolves around a
conflict:
A. Person vs himself/herself
B. Person vs another person
C. Person vs group/society
D. Person vs nature
E. Person vs God/universe
- Each sequence is organized in a way
that the action is built up and
tension is achieved, creating an
impact to the audience.
- Although plays are written in
several forms and formats, a typical
structure consists of the exposition
and introduction; conflict; rising
action or complication; turning
point/ climax or crisis; falling
action; and denouement or
resolution.
EXPOSITION AND INTRODUCTION
- This is sometimes called the status
quo. When the play opens, you are
introduced to the characters and the
setting is established. Sometimes the
introduction right away begins with
the conflict. This is called in medias
res (in the middle of the action). At
times, you are given hints of the
impending conflict. But whatever
the structure of the play, the opening
scene establishes the circumstances
that involve the characters to the
conflict and sets the tone of the play.
CONFLICT
- This is the point where you
recognize the threat or challenge
that besets the protagonist (main
characters). These threats may come
from another person, a group of
society in general, nature,
environment, God, or even from the
protagonist himself/ herself.
Sometimes referred top as the
exciting force, the conflict launches
the rising action of the play.
Recognizing the conflict in the
structure of drama is significant
because it provides the characters
motivation for their actions and the
audience motivation to feel and care
for these characters.
The following is a list of the common
conflict used in plays:
1. Conflicts between a person and
another person which may arise
between love, hate, rivalry or
 competition, strong pursuit or
obsession, or betrayal.
2. Conflicts between a person and a
group or society in general where
the exciting forces could be
rebellion, revenge, persecution, or
war.
3. Conflicts between a person and
environment or nature which may
arise from a catastrophe, rescue,
survival, or grief over death or loss.
4. Conflicts between a person and God
or the universe where the exciting
force may be about the protagonist’s
faith or his/her lack of it, the
triumph of good over evil, and the
search for life’s meaning.
5. Conflicts between a person and
himself/ herself which may arise
from self-sacrifice, self destruction,
greed, or ambition.
RISING ACTION OR COMPLICATION
- As immediately as the conflict sets
the action in motion, the play
figures a dramatic tension that
builds up toward a confrontation.
This dramatic tension fluctuates,
providing emotional tension
between the characters, and the
audience learns further details about
them that were not initially provided
in the introduction and conflict.
Furthermore., the conflict becomes
even more complicated at this point
TURNING POINT, CLIMAX, OR
CRISIS
- The turning point of the story, this is
the highest point where the
protagonist comes face to face with
and struggles against the main
conflict and we, the audience, are
kept at the edge of our seat. Will the
protagonist come out successful, or
will he or she be beaten by the
conflict?
FALLING ACTION
- Generally, the falling action is more
fleeting and short-lived than the
rising action, but may still cover
some gripping moments in the play.
This part gives the audience a sense
of conclusion, with several unsettled
questions at work within the plot,
giving some sense of resolution to
the play.
DENOUEMENT OR RESOLUTION
- This is the concluding part of the
ending of the play. We see this part
whether the protagonist has won or
lost, order is brought back, and
problems are resolved.
STRUCTURAL FACTORS
How the structure is utilized by the
playwright is dependent on various factors.
Among these are:
1. The length of the play.
2. The intended audience
3. The use of dramatic element s
4. The settings
5. The genre of the play
DRAMATIC ELEMENTS
- A playwright’s understanding of structure
is not complete without a sense of awareness
of the many techniques and devices -
dramatic elements-available to create
various effects. Here are a few:
● Action - It is what the characters
say or do to achieve their objective.
● Antagonist - It is the character or
situation that stands against the
protagonist.
● Arc - Sometimes called spine or
through time, it is the play’s
storyline—what the audience wants
to find out.
● Aside - When an actor speaks
directly to the audience, the other
actors on stage are supposedly
unable to hear what he or she says.
It was used during the Renaissance
drama as a way of letting the
audience know the actors’ inner
feelings. In the19th century, it was
used to interject comedy or
melodrama.
● Backstory - It pertains to the
events that happened in the past. •
Complications - These are the ones
that cause conflicts with the
introduction of new characters,
information, or events.
● Conflict - It pertains to the problem
caused by the opposing objectives
of the protagonist and antagonist.
● Deus ex machina - It refers to the
Greek practice of physically
lowering a “god” to the stage at the
end of the play to solve all the
problems. Today, it is regarded as a
contrived way of doing so.
● Discovery - It is what is achieved
when the main characters finally
realizes the reality of the situation.
● Double Plots - It refers to the sue of
a subplot or second plot in the
weaving in and out of the main plot,
especially evident in the Elizabethan
drama.
● Dramatic Convention - It is what
the audience is willing to accept as
real for the sake of the story: actors
presenting the characters of the
story, the stage set representing a
real location in time and space,
suspended time or that which jumps
forward or backward, Italians in
Italy speaking English, other
conventions.
● Flashback - It refers to the
description or enactment of past
events for the purpose of clarifying
the situation, usually as it relates to
the conflict.
● Foreshadowing - It is the use of
hints at the future in order to build
anticipation in the audience.
● Inciting incident - It refers to the
event that launches the protagonists
and gets the plot going.
● In Medias Res - It refers to the
opening scene in the middle of
action.
● Intrigue - It pertains to a scheme
designed by one of the characters.
The success of this scheme depends
on another character’s innocence or
ignorance of the situation. This
usually results in a complication in
the plot.
● Music - It is a mainstay of a musical
drama. Early tragedies even had
both dancing and choral singing. As
in television and movies, music is
used on the stage to set the drama’s
mood and tone. It can also be used
to psychologically set the setting:
classical for a period play. Native
drums for Africa, Cajun music for
New Orleans, and Irish bagpipes for
Ireland
● Monologue - It is an actor’s speech
delivery in the presence of other
characters who do not speak but
listen.
● Protagonist - Is the main character
of the story. He or she is the
 character with a mission or is
involved in a quest.
● Reversal – It happens when the
main character either fails or
succeeds. It is also called as peripety
● Scenes - These are the portions of
an act, sometimes triggered by the
clearing of the stage for the next
“scene”. Some scenes are relief
scenes (widely used in English
drama). Those scenes allow the
audience to relax briefly in the
tension of the drama or to add a
sense of poignant sadness.
● Soliloquy - It is a speech delivered
by an actor when he or she is alone
to express thoughts.
● Stakes – These are what the
characters stand to gain or lose if
they succeed or not.
● Surprise - It is something that
happens out of the audience’ s
expectations.
● Suspense - It consists of events that
create a sense of uncertainty
concerning what will happen to the
characters.
● Three units - French and Italian
critics of the 16th and 17th centuries
believed that a play needs three
unities to achieve verisimilitude
(believability): unity of action (first
suggested by Aristotle), unity of
place (a single location), and unity
of time (the play portraying no
longer than 24 hour period)
TONE IN DRAMA
- Drama is very similar with prose,
specifically with the narrative form,
in terms of the elements utilized by
the writer in setting the tone such as
the use of language and revelation
of the characters. However, drama
possessed one distinct feature that
can mark the time, both the
individual elements as well as the
entirety of the play: drama is
designed to be mounted on stage by
performers. Therefore, the writer
can include stage directions
concerning the tone of the voice,
gestures, and facial expressions for
the delivery of dialogues.
SETTING
- Understanding and knowing a plot
are not the only major
considerations in playwriting. A
playwright has to recognize the
value of a setting in a play that he or
she studies or writes. Setting refers
to the place or the locale where the
story of the play is situated. The
date, the time, and the action all add
up to the setting of the play.
- Basically, a play can be categorized
as either realistic or non-realistic.
REALISTICS PLAYS
- Realistic plays are those whose
conventions fall under the realistic
plane and are drawn out from real
people, objects, and situations. The
setting, like realism in fiction, is
aimed at faithfully reproducing the
external presence of life, especially
those of the commonplace people in
everyday situations. The key to
presenting realistic plays is always
 representational because they are
mostly domestic dramas and
traditional plays. The setting
mounted on stage would be sections
of a house, an office, a park, a street,
a garage, an abandoned building, or
a staircase.
- A good example is Henrik Ibsen’s A
Doll’s House, which is considered
by many dramatists as a pioneering
work of realism. The play became
popular because of its ability to
identify with its characters and the
lives they live. The setting of the
play is Mr. Torvald Helmer’s house.
NON-REALISTIC PLAYS
- Realistic plays are those whose
conventions do not fall under the
realistic plane and are drawn out
from stylized and unconventional
situations. The characters are not
real people, but are either allegorical
or symbolic such as ghosts, devils,
animals, or human representations
of virtues or vices. The setting,
therefore, is also non-realistic. It
could be a dream-like forest, a
barren and deserted mountain, a
dark alley, the underworld, a
fictional spot. The key to presenting
a non-realistic play is always
presentational because the
playwright has to devise ways to
mount the setting on stage
stylistically.
- A good example is William
Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Although
Hamlet is a prince and the other
characters are drawn out from real
people, the presence of his father's
ghost” and the pressing attacks of
his guilt and conscience should be
figuratively seen on stage.
CHARACTER
- As previously discussed in fiction, a
character is a person (or an entity
given the characteristics of a person)
who acts, speaks, narrates, or is
referred to in a literary work. He/
she may either be a major (or
principal) or a minor (supporting)
character depending on the role
he/she plays in the story. Because of
the grand scale of tragedies and
comedies that have been performed
in the past, characters in drama have
been traditionally classified as
follows:
● Hero or heroine- The main
or leading character in the
story who exhibits superior
qualities. Her/his conflict is
also the play’s main
conflict. The hero or
heroine. Is sometimes
referred to as the
protagonist.
● Villain or villainous-
Character who is often
characterized as evil and
always in opposition to the
hero(ine).
● Superhero or
superheroine- A
larger-than-life character,
always possessing
supernatural powers
● Anti Hero or antiheroine-
A character who is more
ordinary than the traditional
hero(ine).
- In modern drama, the classification
of the characters is more lifelike and
caters more to contemporary
landscape and demands of
 playwriting. Some of these
characters are flat, round, stock,
type, and stereotype.
- Creating characters in drama is
always crucial to the success of a
play. Motivation is the key to an
effective characterization. The
characters must have a strong
motivation and a solid need or
desire that will propel them to take
risks and do everything to get what
they earnestly yearn for. This
motivation justifies why they do
what they do.
- A good play says something to
humanity about humanity. Love,
death, family, the need to belong,
the pain of learning something, the
passion of living one’s ambition,
and the fear of betrayal are all
themes that resonate with the
audience, no matter where they
come from.
- The characters in your play must be
fully developed, as close to real
people as they can be. The
following are considerations in
creating plausible characters.
● Gender - Men and women
react differently to certain
issues and events.
● Class -People of the middle
class speak a different lingo
from poor people.
● Age - The elderly and the
young do not have the same
language and expression.
● Education - An educated
person will have a
dissimilar outlook or view
from an out-of-school
person.
● Relationships -People who
are married or are in
committed relationships
usually behave and think
differently from single and
uncommitted ones.
● Work - People are governed
by their work and earnings.
Their actions are justified
because of the nature of
their occupation.
● Race/ethnicity - People of
different upbringings make
different choices in given
situations.
● Politics – Political
DIALOGUE
- Dialogue is the primary and most
significant component in a play. The
action of the play moves because of
the dialogue. In a novel or other
forms of narrative, a writer can use
other devices to advance the action
like descriptive details and
flashbacks but in a play, it is only
through the dialogue.
- After all, it is what the audience
ultimately hears and sees in a
performance. Therefore, it is
important that the dialogues sound
like a natural conversation. This also
reveals the characters’ motivations
and intentions, his or her aspirations
and frustrations.
- Drama lacks the more direct
communication between the writer
and the reader usually found in
works that are not designed to be
acted out. In a novel or a short story,
the writer can simply describe the
characters or the general narrative.
In drama, it is quite different. Since
drama is performative in nature, the
tone of the play and the characters
 are revealed through the dialogues
between the characters. For
example, a change in the character’s
attitude or reactions, whether the
character gets ecstatic or surprised
can only be known only in the
character's dialogue and relationship
with other characters.
- Dramatic action defines the
behavior and disposition of the
characters in establishing whether
s/he is static (unchanging) or
developing (changing). The
audience can actually witness the
characters onstage and see their
personality traits through their facial
expressions, bearing, and body
language
Pointers to Consider in Writing
Dialogues:
- Characters should not talk
perfectly- In reality, people do not
speak in perfect English or Filipino.
They also do not speak in complete
sentences like a teacher would
require a student to speak in front of
a class. In Beth Henley’s Crimes of
the Heart, some characters use
ungrammatical sentences and
incomplete expressions because
they are not academic persons.
- Characters should not use clichés-
Clichés like “honesty is the best
policy” or “God is good” are trite
expressions. They make dialogues
sound dull, uninspired, and
meaningless.
- Characters should not overuse
character names- In real life,
people do not address one another
by always mentioning their names
because it sounds silly and irritating.
- Characters should not speechify-
Try to avoid having characters
deliver kilometric lines interruption.
In real life, people usually alternate
remarks in a communication
exchange, even cutting in on one
another
- Keep the agenda out of the
dialogue- The theme of the play
should be naturally conveyed to the
audience through the series of
events happening in the play, and
not through the dialogues of the
characters. If you have to reveal the
theme in the dialogue, it means that
the play is not effective or working
well as it should.
Module 4
THE GENRE OF POETRY
What is Poetry?
- A literary work in which special
intensity is given to the expression
of feelings and ideas by the use of
distinctive style and rhythm; poems
collectively or as a genre of
literature. (Oxford Dictionaries)
- A literature that evokes a
concentrated imaginative awareness
of experience or a specific
emotional response through
language chosen and arranged for its
meaning, sound, and rhythm.
(Britannica.com)
- The language of imagination
expressed in verse.(Webster’s
Dictionary)
- It can be defined as ‘literature in
metrical form’ or a ‘composition
forming rhythmic lines’.
- A poem follows a particular flow of
rhythm and meter.
 - Compared to prose, where there is
no such restriction, and the content
of a piece flows according to story, a
poem may or may not have a story,
but definitely has a structured
method of writing.
ELEMENTS OF POETRY
- Elements of poetry can be defined
as a set of instruments used to create
a poem. Many of these were created
thousands of years ago and have
been linked to ancient storytelling.
They help bring imagery and
emotion to poetry, stories, and
dramas.
STANZA
- A unit of lines grouped together.
- Similar to a paragraph in prose.
- A Stanza consists of two or more
lines of poetry that together form
one of the divisions of a poem.
- The stanzas of a poem are usually of
the same length and follow the same
pattern of meter and rhyme and are
used like paragraphs in a story.
- Some different types of stanzas are
as follows:
- Couplets- stanzas of only two
lines which usually rhyme.
- Tercets - stanzas of three lines.
The three lines may or may not have
the same end rhyme. If all three
lines rhyme, this type of tercet is
called a triplet.
- Quatrain- stanzas of four lines
which can be written in any rhyme
scheme.
Types of Quatrains
- Alternating Quatrain- a four line
stanza rhyming "abab." FromW.H.
Auden's "Leap Before YouLook“
- Envelope Stanza- a quatrain with
the rhyme scheme "abba", such that
lines 2 and 3 are enclosed between
the rhymes of lines 1 and 4. Two of
these stanzas make up the Italian
Octave used in the Italian sonnet.
This is from Auden's "Look Before
YouLeap"
RHYME SCHEME
- It is the pattern in which the end
rhyme occurs.
- Rhymes are types of poems which
have the repetition of the same or
similar sounds at the end of two or
more words most often at the ends
of lines.
- This technique makes the poem easy
to remember and is therefore often
used in Nursery Rhymes.
RHYTHM
- The pattern of beats or stresses in a
poem.
- Poets use patterns of stressed and
unstressed syllables to create a
regular rhythm
ALLITERATION
- The repetition of consonant sounds
at the beginnings of words
ONOMATOPOEIA
- Imitating natural sounds of things
IMAGERY
- Representation of the five senses:
sight, taste, touch, sound, and smell.
- Creates mental images about a
poem’s subject
TYPES OF IMAGERY
- Visual imagery: visual descriptions
so vivid they seem to come to life in
the reader's mind when they are
read, as in the description of a very
old fish in Elizabeth Bishop's poem
titled "The Fish":
- Auditory imagery: descriptions of
sound so vivid the reader seems
almost to hear them while reading
the poem. For example, Alexander
Pope contrasts the gentle sounds of
a whispering wind and a
soft-running stream with the harsher
sound of waves crashing on the
shore in "Sound and Sense
- Olfactory imagery (Images of
smell): descriptions of smells so
vivid they seem almost to stimulate
the reader's own sense of smell
while reading, as in the poem, "Root
Cellar," by Theodore Roethke:
- Tactile or "physical" imagery:
descriptions conveying a strong,
vivid sense of touch or physical
sensation that the reader can almost
feel himself or herself while
reading, as in Robert Frost's
description of standing on a ladder
in "After Apple Picking“. Or in the
sensation of touch (and possibly
taste) in the fourth stanza of Helen
Chasin's poem, "TheWord Plum''
FIGURES OF SPEECH
- Figures of speech are a special kind
of imagery.
- They create pictures by making
comparisons
- Simile - A comparison using like
or as.
- Metaphor - describes one thing as
if it were another
- Personification - gives human
characteristics to something
non-human.
TONE OR MOOD
- Refers to the writer's attitude
towards the subject of a literary
work as indicated in the work itself.
- One way to think about tone in
poetry is to consider the speaker's
literal "tone of voice": just as with
tone of voice, a poem's tone may
indicate an attitude of joy, sadness,
solemnity, silliness, frustration,
anger, puzzlement, etc.
REFRAIN
- The repetition of one or more
phrases or lines at certain intervals,
usually at the end of each stanza.
- Similar to the chorus in a song.
- The word 'Refrain' derives from the
Old French word refraindre
meaning to repeat.
REPETITION
- A word or phrase repeated within a
line or stanza.
- Sometimes, repetition reinforces or
even substitutes for meter (the beat),
the other chief controlling factor of
poetry
THEME
- The theme of the poem talks about
the central idea, the thought behind
what the poet wants to convey. A
theme can be anything from a
description about a person or thing,
a thought or even a story. In short a
theme stands for whatever the poem
is about
SYMBOLISM
- A poem often conveys feelings,
thoughts and ideas using symbols,
this technique is known as
symbolism.
- Poetry has developed over hundreds
of years, certain symbolic meanings
have attached themselves to such
things as colors, places, times, and
animals.
- You cannot merely plug these
meanings into a poem and expect to
understand the poem completely.
Your own knowledge, associations,
and experience are what will lead
you to a deep and personal
connection to any poem.
GENRES OF POETRY
LYRICAL POETRY
- It expresses Personal thoughts and
emotions. It is a short poem which
has the characteristics of a song. It
pertains to a single mood or feeling
and is more personal in nature.
Sonnet, Elegy, and Ode are types of
Lyrical Poetry.
- Sonnet- The Name sonnet derives
from the Italian word sonetto which
means little song.
- It is a relatively short poem
consisting of merely fourteen lines.
It is known to follow a strict pattern
of rhyme
- It is classified into Petrarchan,
Shakespearean, Spenserian and
Miltonic sonnets.
- Elegy- This is a lyric poem which
expresses lament and mourning of
the dead, feeling of grief and
melancholy.
- Ode- This is a poem of nobeling
feeling, expressed with dignity and
praise for some persons, objects,
events or ideas.
- It is exalted in tone and formal in
structure and content.
NARRATIVE POETRY
- Types of poets that narrates a story
through the use of poetic diction
either real or imaginary. Narrative
poems have special appeal. This
form of poetry describes events in a
vivid way, using some of the
elements as short stories, plot
characters and dialogue.
Epic
- This is a long and narrative poem
that normally tells a story about a
hero or an adventure.
- Epics can be oral stories or can be
poems in written form.
- Popular or ancient poetry is
usually without a definite author and
slow in development.
- Modern epic poetry has a definite
author
5 Greatest examples of epic poem:
- Beowulf by Anonymous -This is an
Old English language heroic epic
poem of anonymous authorship,
dating as recorded in the Nowell
Codex manuscript from between the
8th to the 11th century and relates
events described as having occurred
in what is now Denmark and
Sweden.
- Metamorphoses by Ovid -This is a
narrative poem in fifteen books that
describes the creation and history of
the world.
- The Odyssey by Homer -The poem
is, in part, a sequel to Homer’s Iliad
and mainly centers on the Greek
hero Odysseus and his long journey
home to Ithaca following the fall of
Troy.
- Epic of Gilgamesh by Anonymous
-This is an epic poem from Ancient
Mesopotamia and is among the
earliest known works of literary
fiction. • The Iliad by Homer -
oldest extant work of literature in
the ancient Greek language, making
it the first work of European
literature.
Ballad
- It also tells a story, like epic poems
however, ballad poetry is often
based on a legend or a folk tale. -
- Most ballads are written in four six
stanzas and have regular rhythms
and rhyme schemes.
- A ballad often features a refrain-a
regular repeated line or group of
lines.
Social Poem
- This is either purely comic or tragic
and pictures the life of today. - It
may aim to bring changes in social
conditions.
DRAMATIC POETRY
- It has elements related closely to the
drama. It uses a dramatic technique
and may unfold a story. It
emphasizes the character rather than
the narrative.
DRAMATIC MONOLOGUE
- This is a combination of drama and
poetry.
- It presents some line or speech of a
single character in a particular but
complicated situation and
sometimes in a dilemma.
SOLILOQUY
- The speaker of the poem or the
character in a play delivers a
passage.
- The thoughts and emotions are
heard by the author and the audience
as well.
ORATION
- This Is a formal address elevated in
tone and usually delivered on some
notable occasion.
CHARACTER SKETCH
- This is a poem in which the writer is
concerned less with the elements of
the story.
- He presents his observations and
comments to a particular individual.
NAME POEM
- A special type of poetry belongs to
descriptive poetry that uses an
adjective to describe a person that
begins with each letter of that
person's name.

OTHER SPECIAL TYPES OF POETRY By: Marc T.

HAIKU
- Special type of poetry which
originated from Japan.
- It’s the shortest type of poem and,
often, the most difficult to
understand.
- It consists of three lines that
generally do not rhyme. The lines
should have five, seven, and five
syllables in them.

CINQUISM
- This is a five-line poem which also
originated in Japan.
- There are many different variations
of cinquain including American
Cinquains, didactic cinquains,
reverse cinquains, butterfly
cinquains and crown cinquains.

FREE VERSE
- A loosest type of poem.
- It can consist of as many lines as the
writer wants and either rhyme or not
and has no fixed metrical pattern.
- This type of poem openly called as
“Poem with no rules.”