Type of Drama Elements:

1. Textual elements:

 Plot: sequential and structured events

 Characters:

Main (protagonist, antagonist), secondary, flat, dynamic,

statis, stock.

Standard:

1. Role in the story: main vs. minor

2. Type of personality: flat (simple, can be understood easily)
vs. round (complex, hard to understand)
3. Change: Static (doesn’t change ta the end) vs. Dynamic
(changes during the story, play)
4. Novelty: stock vs. new type

Are these types exclusive?

Tragic Hero

Foils

 Setting
 Theme
 Dialogue
 Stage instructions: instructions for the actors and director, for
example, (exit all, enter a character, he laughs…)

2. Technical Elements: Sound, spotlight, background music,

visual effects, special types of movement
3. Performative elements: related to the performance of the
actors and the directing style, acting style, costumes “dress”.

Tragedy Comedy
Simple / ordinary
Language Elevated Language
language
 Light topic (love,
Serious (death,
Topic / Themes marriage, social
power, authority)
problems)
Characters Royal (Prince / King) Ordinary people
Tragic (the death or
Happy (celebration,
Ending death of the
reunion…etc)
hero)Tragic hero

Tragic hero: He dies or falls at the end. To teach us a lesson.

He falls as a result of a flaw (weakness)

For example, Hamlet falls because he is hesitant and didn’t take

action.

Elements of a play:

1. List of Characters (Dramatis Personae)

2. A play is divided into acts and scenes (usually 5 acts)
3. Stage Instructions
Why is drama a hybrid genre? Because it combines literature with
other art forms such as acting, sound, music, and visual design.

Sure Thing

 In each social situation, there are multiple possibilities or

outcomes depending on different factors
 Theme
 Factors that can change the outcome

1. Tone of voice
2. Body language
3. Facial expression
4. The physical environment
5. The appearance
6. Education and information
7. Choice of words (how you say the thing)
8. The approach
 1. Review of “Sure Thing”

 What is the thematic significance of repeating he situation?

 To show that in each social situation, we have multiple
possibilities / outcomes
 Which technical element is most important in the play and
why? What is its function?
 Ringing of the bell, divide the different “versions”
“repetitions”, it has structural function, it is like a sign that we
go back in time.
 Can we have the same plot of the play in a story of novel?

2. Review of the assignment

3. Intro about the biography of Shakespeare and his works
4. Intro to King Lear

Interesting Facts about

Shakespeare:
- Added 3000 words to English.

- 23rd of April 1564 – died in 1616

 He was a prolific writer

o Renaissance or Elizabethan Age (Queen Elizabeth I)
o He was a writer, actor and businessman
o He wrote 4 main types of works (sonnets, tragedies,
comedies, histories)
o 37 plays
o Built the Globe
o Most quoted writer (2nd only to
the Bible)
Why is Shakespeare
universal?


o He described the human
condition, universal themes.
King Lear

Intro:

King Lear, written by William Shakespeare around 1605-1606, is

one of his saddest and most meaningful plays. It’s set in ancient
Britain and tells the story of King Lear. He makes a big mistake by
deciding to share his kingdom among his daughters based on who
loves him most. This decision leads to a lot of trouble, like betrayal
and madness. There's also another story about Gloucester and his
kids, which adds more depth to the play's themes about family,
pride, and power.

In the bigger picture of Shakespeare's work, King Lear is seen as

one of his best tragedies. It teaches us about the ups and downs
of life, showing how fragile power can be and how complicated
family relationships are. King Lear's character is complex, and the
play gives us a lot to think about when it comes to understanding
people. That's why it's considered so important in literature.

Two disguises: Kent as a servant, Edgar as a beggar

Pairs of characters (foils: contrasted characters)

Edmund Edgar
Gloucester Kent
Goneril Regan
Kent Edgar
Lear The Fool

The symbolism of the storm:

 It is both physical and emotional, psychological

 At this point, end of act II, beginning of act III, Lear is
entering a physical and emotional storm in his life.
 Soliloquy: monologue, when the actor is alone on stage and
talks to himself or to the audience.

Ironic: when Lear loses his mind or starts to act mad, he becomes
wiser.
Another irony: the fact that those that he expelled (Cordelia and
Kent) turn out the honest ones, and those that he rewarded (His
daughters Reagan and Goneril) turned out evil or ingrateful.

If we compare Lear’s judgment of hid daughter Cordelia at the

beginning of the play and now with Edgar “the Beggar”, what is the
difference?

We should not judge people by appearance

Appearance can be deceiving

The meaning of suffering, types of suffering:

Who is suffering? Physical and mental

Foils: contrasted characters

Edgar Lear
Lost everything Lost everything
Evil brother Ingrateful daughters
homeless Homeless
Both physical and mental /
Only physical
psychological

Violence:

1. The hanging of the fool

2. Blinding of Gloucester

Violence as punishment, another type of suffering

Blindness

Blindness and sight

Life is not always fair

Two different reactions: acceptance and patience or rejection and

despair