Drama - Poem Analysis (original) (raw)

Drama is a composition, either in verse or prose, that tells a story through dialogue and stage directions. Drama contains all the normal plot ,elements including rising action, conflict, and falling action. Usually, there is a central character around which the story revolves and secondary characters that help the story play out. While drama is most commonly associated with plays, it also refers to operas, mimes, ballets, or works performed on stage, radio, or television. Dramatic texts are different than novels, poems, or essays because of their collective nature. They are performed together and received by the audience together. It’s a group activity.

Drama pronunciation: drah-mah

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Drama

Definition of Drama

Drama is a type of production that involves dialogue and performance. Drama features in Aristotle’s famous book Poetics, in which it is contrasted against lyrical and epic modes of writing. The word itself comes from the Greek meaning “action” and “I do.” Until the time of William Shakespeare, according to Wikipedia, the word “play” or “game” was synonymous with “drama.” Now, the word is used in a more narrow way to refer to a play that’s not a tragedy or a comedy. It is also used in this mode when used by film and television creators.

Types of Drama

Examples of Drama

Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare

In this classic Shakespearean comedy, the poet uses many of the elements that are today used to define a comedy. The play tells the story of Count Claudio, Hero, Beatrice, and Benedict. The latter two are convinced that the other is in love with them. Claudio falls in love with Hero, despite the fact that the two never talk on stage until their wedding, and much chaos ensues. Here are a few lines from the play:

What should I do with him—dress him in my apparel and make him my waiting gentlewoman? He that hath a beard is more than a youth, and he that hath no beard is less than a man; and he that is more than a youth is not for me, and he that is less than a man, I am not for him.

This passage appears in Act II Scene 1. Beatrice explains why she’ll never get married and end up alone as an old woman. There’s no man, she asserts, who’s perfect for her. Those with beards are too manly, while those without are too adolescent.

Explore William Shakespeare’s poems.

A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen

Henrik Ibsen’s most famous work, A Doll’s House, is a well-loved play that tells the story of the Helmer family. It’s divided into three acts and premiered in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1879. It focuses on the mother of the family, Nora, and her attempts to save her husband, Torvald. She secretly borrowed a large sum of money that her husband could recover from an illness. She never told him about this and has been paying it back a bit at a time. She’s treated like a doll and disrespected by her husband. She eventually leaves him. This play is a great example of a melodrama. Here are a few lines from the play that depicts its style and method of storytelling:

I believe that before anything else I’m a human being — just as much as you are… or at any rate I shall try to become one. I know quite well that most people would agree with you, Torvald, and that you have warrant for it in books; but I can’t be satisfied any longer with what most people say, and with what’s in books. I must think things out for myself and try to understand them.

Here, Nora asserts her independence from her husband in response to his assertion that before all else, she’s a “wife and a mother.” She knows that she is her husband’s equal and tells him so. She decides she has to think things out for herself rather than depend on him to shuttle her through the world.

Drama Synonyms

Play, dramatic performance, theatre performance, live performance, theatrical, stage show

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