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Drama is literature written to be performed. Analysing a play differs from analysing a novel. Elements of drama : Plot : exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution (Freytag's pyramid). Conflict : character vs character, character vs society, character vs self, character vs fate. Dialogue : how characters speak reveals personality, relationships, power. Stage directions : physical actions, setting, mood indicated by the playwright. Dramatic techniques : Dramatic irony : audience knows something characters don't. Soliloquy : character speaks their inner thoughts alone on stage. Aside : character speaks to audience without other characters hearing. Tragic flaw (hamartia) : the fatal weakness that causes the hero's downfall. Catharsis : emotional release experienced by the audience at the end of a tragedy. Plays often studied : Shakespeare (Macbeth, Othello), Beckett (Waiting for Godot), Aimé Césaire (Une Tempête), Arthur Miller (Death of a Salesman).
Exercise 1 : Read this extract and answer.
'GODOT: (off stage) Estragon! Vladimir! We shall not come today. But we shall come tomorrow.'
1. Who are Vladimir and Estragon waiting for?
2. What does this line suggest about the nature of their wait?
3. How does this illustrate the theme of the absurd?
Exercise 2 : Write a short dramatic scene (15-20 lines of dialogue) between two characters in conflict over a moral dilemma. Include at least two stage directions.
What is dramatic irony and how does it work?
Correction
Dramatic irony occurs when the audience knows something that one or more characters do not. This creates tension, suspense, or dark humour. Example in Macbeth: the audience knows Macbeth plans to murder Duncan; Duncan does not — making his praise of Macbeth's castle deeply ironic. The audience watches with foreknowledge, which intensifies emotional engagement.
What is the difference between a soliloquy and an aside?
Correction
A soliloquy is a longer speech delivered by a character alone on stage, revealing inner thoughts, feelings, and conflicts directly to the audience. An aside is a short remark spoken to the audience while other characters are present — by convention, other characters cannot hear it. Both are techniques for revealing private thoughts in a public medium.
How does Waiting for Godot illustrate the Theatre of the Absurd?
Correction
The play has no conventional plot — two characters wait endlessly for Godot who never arrives. Dialogue is circular and meaningless, action is futile, time seems frozen. This mirrors the existentialist/absurdist idea that human life has no inherent meaning and that we fill time with empty actions while waiting for a purpose that never comes. The form (repetition, non-resolution) enacts the content (absurdity of existence).