Reviewing Drama: Genres and Key Aspects

25 min

A novel is finished when the writer puts down the pen. A play is not finished until actors speak it to an audience. Everything in drama follows from that fact: the story is shown, not told; characters reveal themselves through what they say and do; and the writer's only direct voice is the stage directions. Before comparing plays, you need a shared toolkit for describing any play, from Greek tragedy to a Rwandan school production.

Here are three short moments from William Shakespeare's plays, each showing a different way a dramatist lets us into a character's mind:

HAMLET (aside) A little more than kin, and less than kind!
Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 2: Hamlet's first words, spoken to the audience, not to the king beside him

HAMLET To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them.
Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 1: a soliloquy, spoken alone on stage

ROMEO (to the sleeping Juliet) Death, that hath suck'd the honey of thy breath,
Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty.
Romeo and Juliet, Act 5, Scene 3

In the last extract the audience knows what Romeo does not: Juliet is not dead but drugged, and will wake within minutes. That gap in knowledge is dramatic irony, and it makes Romeo's words almost unbearable to hear.

Definition

tragedy: a serious play in which a central character of some greatness falls into suffering or death, often through a tragic flaw (hamartia); the audience feels pity and fear, and a release of emotion called catharsis.
comedy: a play that entertains through humour and usually ends happily, often in marriage or reconciliation.
tragicomedy: a play that mixes serious and comic elements and may end happily after threatening disaster.
satire: drama that uses humour, irony and exaggeration to criticise people or institutions; farce: broad comedy of absurd situations, mistaken identities and fast action.
soliloquy: a speech in which a character alone on stage speaks his or her thoughts aloud; monologue: a long speech to other characters; aside: a brief remark to the audience that other characters on stage are not supposed to hear.
dramatic irony: when the audience knows something that a character does not.
stage directions: the dramatist's instructions, usually in italics, about action, setting, movement and tone.
protagonist, antagonist, foil: the central character; the character or force opposing him or her; a character whose contrast highlights another's qualities.

The shape of a play

In 1863 the German writer Gustav Freytag described the five-part structure of classical and Shakespearean drama, often drawn as a pyramid. Here it is applied to Romeo and Juliet:

Not every play fits the pyramid exactly: many modern plays have one or two acts, and comedies often build to a complication that is untied in the last scene (the dénouement). But asking "where is the turning point?" is always useful.

The key aspects of drama

Aspect	Questions to ask
Genre	Tragedy, comedy, satire, tragicomedy? What does the ending suggest?
Plot and structure	Acts and scenes; exposition, conflict, climax, resolution; subplots
Conflict	Between characters, within a character, between a character and society, fate or the gods
Character	Protagonist, antagonist, foils; how each is revealed (speech, action, others' comments)
Dialogue and language	Verse or prose? Formal or everyday? Soliloquies, asides, songs, proverbs
Setting and staging	Time, place, society; stage directions, props, costume, lighting, music, dance
Themes	The ideas the play explores, such as power, love, justice, tradition and change
Dramatic devices	Dramatic irony, foreshadowing, the play within a play, the chorus

Worked example: writing about a moment as theatre

Question: How does Shakespeare create tension in Romeo's speech to the sleeping Juliet?

The tension comes from dramatic irony. The audience has watched Friar Laurence give Juliet a potion that will make her seem dead for forty-two hours, and knows that the letter explaining the plan never reached Romeo. When Romeo says that death "Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty", he is literally right, because she is alive, yet he draws the wrong conclusion and prepares to die. On stage, every second of his speech is a second in which Juliet might wake; an audience watching her motionless body cannot help hoping she will. The language adds to the effect: personified Death has "suck'd the honey of thy breath", a sensuous image that reminds us how alive she still is. The scene shows how drama can make an audience feel suspense even about an ending they already know.

Tip

Always write about the play as performed. Use words like audience, stage, scene and enters, not only reader and page. Ask: what does the audience see, hear and know at this moment?

Warning

A soliloquy is spoken alone; an aside is spoken while other characters are present. Don't mix them up.
A tragedy is not just a sad play. It traces the fall of a significant figure and asks why it happened.
Don't retell the plot. Use only the events your point needs.

Crash Course Theater: "Thespis, Athens, and the Origins of Greek Drama". Watch for how tragedy grew out of religious festivals, and note the terms chorus and catharsis.

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Practice

Define soliloquy, aside and dramatic irony, giving an example of each from this lesson.
Name the five parts of Freytag's pyramid in order.
What is a tragic flaw? Name one tragic hero you know and his or her flaw.
Explain the difference between satire and farce.
Choose a play you have studied. Identify its genre, protagonist, antagonist and main conflict.
Why is the aside "A little more than kin, and less than kind!" an effective first line for Hamlet?

Show answersHide answers

Soliloquy: a character alone speaks thoughts aloud ("To be, or not to be"). Aside: a brief remark to the audience that others on stage don't hear ("A little more than kin, and less than kind!"). Dramatic irony: the audience knows Juliet is alive; Romeo does not.
Exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, catastrophe (resolution).
A weakness or error of judgement that leads to the hero's fall, e.g. Macbeth's ambition or Oedipus's anger and pride.
Satire uses humour to criticise people or institutions; farce uses absurd, exaggerated situations mainly to make people laugh.
Answers will vary.
It shows at once that Hamlet is at odds with the king (his uncle and now stepfather): too closely related, yet without kindness between them. Spoken to the audience, it makes us his confidants from the start.

Sources and credits

Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare: public domain.
Image: The Globe Stage, Tony Hisgett, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Video: Thespis, Athens, and The Origins of Greek Drama: Crash Course Theater #2, CrashCourse, embedded from YouTube.
Freytag diagram, tables, worked example and practice written by Ganzaa.

1The shape of a play

2The key aspects of drama

The shape of a play

The key aspects of drama