drama

ENG 260 GUIDE TO READING

AND WRITING ABOUT

LITERATURE



Presentation 4:

Drama



ENG 260—Literature of Sports, Spring 2002

ENG 260 Guide to Reading and Writing about Literature

Presentation 4, Slide 2





This presentation will discuss



• what drama is

• play conventions

• how to read a play

• questions you should ask yourself as you

read a play

• writing about plays

ENG 260--Literature of Sports,

Spring 2002

ENG 260 Guide to Reading and Writing about Literature

Presentation 4, Slide 3



What is drama?



• realistic, lifelike representation of fictional

events for an audience

• can be performed in plays, movies, TV

shows, radio programs, etc.

• the written form of drama can be in the form

of plays or scripts

• in this course, we will deal only with

written plays as dramatic literature

ENG 260--Literature of Sports,

Spring 2002

ENG 260 Guide to Reading and Writing about Literature

Presentation 4, Slide 4





Conventional structure of plays



• division into acts and scenes

 most plays have two or three acts, some only one

 most acts have several scenes—a scene may or

may not have different scenery, props and

characters from preceding one





more . . .

ENG 260--Literature of Sports,

Spring 2002

ENG 260 Guide to Reading and Writing about Literature

Presentation 4, Slide 5





• elements of all plays:



 characters: identified by name and possibly other

details (sex, age, occupation, emotional makeup,

costumes etc.)--dialog reveals the most about the

characters

 dialog: words characters speak (assigned to each

character by SMALL CAPS), either to each other or

ostensibly to themselves (soliloquies) which are

heard completely by the audience

more . . .

ENG 260--Literature of Sports,

Spring 2002

ENG 260 Guide to Reading and Writing about Literature

Presentation 4, Slide 6





 stage directions: usually written in italics or in

some way to be separate from dialog; can be

extensive ones at the beginning of the whole play,

an act or a scene, or short or long notes before

individual parts of dialog (lines) of characters

 stage directions can specify props, sets, scenery,

physical or emotional attributes of characters, or

directions for how actors are supposed to portray

characters at certain points in the play





ENG 260--Literature of Sports,

Spring 2002

ENG 260 Guide to Reading and Writing about Literature

Presentation 4, Slide 7





How to read a play



• try to read the whole play at one sitting, or

at least read whole acts; reread the play at

least a few more times, especially if you

plan to write about it (you can also focus on

individual acts or scenes)



more . . .



ENG 260--Literature of Sports,

Spring 2002

ENG 260 Guide to Reading and Writing about Literature

Presentation 4, Slide 8





• try to visualize the action of the play;

pay as much attention to stage

directions as dialog

• in written forms of plays, much is left

to the interpretation of the reader—no

“one” way the play should be

interpreted or performed



ENG 260--Literature of Sports,

Spring 2002

ENG 260 Guide to Reading and Writing about Literature

Presentation 4, Slide 9





Questions to ask about the play:



• general point: point of view is never

first person, but always third person or

“dramatic”; characters’ thoughts and

feelings never revealed directly but

only through dialog and action

more . . .

ENG 260--Literature of Sports,

Spring 2002

ENG 260 Guide to Reading and Writing about Literature

Presentation 4, Slide 10





• What is the setting of the play? How is it

significant to what happens in the play?

• Who is the main character (protagonist) or

main characters? (Note: usually plays don't

focus as much on just one character as short

stories and novels do.)

• What is the main plot? Are there any

subplots?

more . . .



ENG 260--Literature of Sports,

Spring 2002

ENG 260 Guide to Reading and Writing about Literature

Presentation 4, Slide 11





• What is the main conflict in the play? What

other conflicts are there?

• What are the motivations of the characters?

• Are any of the characters foils for other

characters, i.e. do the contrasts between

them help to define each character?

• Do some actions or themes seem to keep

recurring?

more . . .



ENG 260--Literature of Sports,

Spring 2002

ENG 260 Guide to Reading and Writing about Literature

Presentation 4, Slide 12





• Is there any symbolism in the props,

costumes, sets or scenery used in the

play?

• Is there any imagery or symbolism in

the dialog?

• Do any of the characters change in the

course of the play?



ENG 260--Literature of Sports,

Spring 2002

ENG 260 Guide to Reading and Writing about Literature

Presentation 4, Slide 13





Writing about plays

conventions:

• if writing by hand, underline play

titles

• if writing with a word processor,

underline play titles or put them in

italics

more . . .

ENG 260--Literature of Sports,

Spring 2002

ENG 260 Guide to Reading and Writing about Literature

Presentation 4, Slide 14

• give parenthetical references for quoted play dialog



 traditional style (for classic plays available in many

editions with numbered lines):

 act number in capital Roman numerals

 period

 scene number in lower case Roman numerals

 period

 line number(s)

example: line 20 of the third scene of the second act:

(II.iii.20)

 for plays without line numbers (like ours): just give

page number

ENG 260--Literature of Sports,

Spring 2002