Drama terms
{Many of these terms are applicable to both drama and fiction.}
For terms left undefined here, see them already defined in Short Story Unit Syllabus
Act: major division in the action of a play. In many full-length plays, acts are further divided into scenes, which often mark a point in the action when the location changes or a new character enters.
Antagonist
Aside: A speech directed to the audience that supposedly is not audible to the other characters onstage at the time.
Catastrophe: the final resolution in a poem or narrative plot, which unravels the intrigue and brings the piece to a close. In comedies, this may be a marriage between main characters; in tragedies, it may be the death of one or more main characters. It is the final part of a play.
Catharsis: Meaning “purgation,” describes the release of the emotions of pity and fear by the audience at the end of a tragedy. In his Poetics, Aristotle discusses the importance of catharsis. The audience faces the misfortunes of the protagonist, which elicit pity and compassion. Simultaneously, the audience confronts the failure of the protagonist, thus receiving a frightening reminder of human limitations and frailties. Ultimately, however, both of these negative emotions are purged, because the tragic protagonist’s suffering is an affirmation of human values rather than a despairing denial of them.
character
dynamic
flat
round
static
stock
climax
Comedy: a work intended to interest, involve, and amuse the audience, in which no terrible disaster occurs and that ends happily for the main characters. High comedy refers to verbal wit, such as puns, whereas low comedy is generally associated with physical action and is less intellectual. Romantic comedy involves a love affair that meets with various obstacles (disapproving parents, mistaken identities, deceptions, or other misunderstandings) but overcomes them to end in a blissful union.
Comic relief: humorous scene or incident that alleviates tension in an otherwise serious work. In many instances these moments enhance the thematic significance of the story in addition to providing laughter (Hamlet and the gravediggers).
conflict
crisis
denouement
Deus ex machina: Latin for “god out of the machine”: plot device whereby a seemingly inextricable problem is suddenly and abruptly solved with the contrived and unexpected intervention of some new character, ability, or object.
Epilogue: narration at the end of a work used to bring closure to the work
exposition
falling action
Farce: form of humor based on exaggerated, improbable incongruities. Often involves slapstick comedy and extravagant dialogue.
Foil
Hamartia: term coined by Aristotle to describe “some error or frailty” that brings about misfortune for a tragic hero. Closely related to the tragic flaw: both lead to the downfall of the protagonist in a tragedy. May be an internal weakness in a character (like greed or passion or hubris), or may also refer to a mistake that a character makes not based on personal failure, but on circumstances outside the protagonist’s personality and control.
Hero
Hubris: excessive pride or self-confidence that leads a protagonist to disregard a divine warning or to violate an important moral law. In tragedies, hubris is a common form of hamartia.
Monologue: In literary terms, a monologue is a long speech spoken by a character in the presence of others, as opposed to a soliloquy, which is a long speech delivered when the speaker is alone.
Dialogue: written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people
Prologue: Opening of a story that provides setting and background details relevant to the story that follows
protagonist
rising action
Scene: in drama, subdivision of an Act. According to traditional conventions, a scene changes when the location of the action shifts or when a new character enters.
Soliloquy: dramatic convention by means of which a character, alone onstage, utters his or her thoughts aloud. (Hamlet’s “To be or not to be” is probably the most famous)
Tragedy: story that presents courageous individuals who confront powerful forces within or outside themselves with a dignity that reveals the breadth and depth of the human spirit in the face of failure, defeat, and even death. The revenge tragedy is a type of drama that can be traced back to Greek and Roman plays. These basically consist of a murder that has to be avenged by a relative of the victim. Typically, the victim’s ghost appears to demand revenge, and invariably madness of some sort is worked into subsequent events, which ultimately end in the deaths of the murderer, the avenger, and a number of other characters. Hamlet subscribes but transcends these basic ingredients of the revenge tragedy.
Tragic flaw: an error or defect in the tragic hero that leads to his downfall, such as greed, pride, or ambition.