Drama terms H-P

Question 1

Define HUBRIS

Answer 1

• this NEGATIVE term implies both:
  1) ARROGANT, excessive self-pride or self-confidence
  2) a LACK of some important perception or insight due to pride in one’s abilities

This overwhelming pride inevitably leads to a DOWNFALL

Question 2

Define INCITING INCIDENT

Answer 2

• the FIRST incident leading to the rising action of the play
• sometimes it is an event that occurred somewhere in the character’s past & is revealed to the audience through EXPOSITION

Question 3

Define IRONY

Answer 3

• has a range of meanings
• ALL of them involving some sort of DISCREPANCY/ INCONGRUITY between what is expected or understood and what actually happens or is meant
• is used to suggest the difference between APPEARANCE & REALITY, between EXPECTATION and FULFILMENT, and thus, the complexity of experience

Question 4

Define VERBAL IRONY

Answer 4

• the OPPOSITE is said from what is intended
• DIFFERENT to sarcasm: sarcasm is simply language designed to wound or offend
• aka rhetorical irony
• is sometimes viewed as a FIGURE OF SPEECH, since it’s a rhetorical device that involves saying one thing but meaning the OPPOSITE
• most common kind of irony
• characterised by a discrepancy between what a speaker says and what he truly believes to be true

Question 5

Define DRAMATIC IRONY

Answer 5

the CONTRAST between what a character believes and/ or says and what the audience KNOWS to be true
- aka TRAGIC IRONY
- may be used in a situation in which the character’s own words come back to HAUNT him/ her
However, usually involves a DISCREPANCY between a character’s perception and what audience knows to be true

Question 6

Define IRONY OF SITUATION

Answer 6

• discrepancy between appearance and reality, or between expectation and fulfilment, or between what is and what would seem APPROPRIATE
• this includes BOTH dramatic and cosmic irony

Question 7

Define COSMIC IRONY

Answer 7

• aka IRONY OF FATE
• characterised by 4 ELEMENTS:
  1) involves a powerful deity (or fate itself) with the ability and desire to MANIPULATE events in a character’s life
  2) The character subject to this believes in FREE WILL
• THUS, whether or not the character acknowledges the deity’s existence, he or she PERSISTS in attempting to CONTROL, or at least effect, events
  3) The deity “TOYS” with the character in such a way that the outcome is clear to the observer but the character hopes for ESCAPE
• The deity may permit, or even ENCOURAGE, the character to believe in SELF-DETERMINATION, thereby raising FALSE HOPES that the audience knows will be crushed
  4) always involves a TRAGIC OUTCOME. Ultimately, the character’s struggle against destiny will be in VAIN

Question 8

Define LINEAR PLOT

Answer 8

• A traditional plot sequence in which the incidents in the drama progress CHRONOLOGICALLY; i.e. all of the events build upon one another and there are NO FLASHBACKS
• usually based on CAUSALITY (one event causes another to occur)

Question 9

Define MONOLOGUE

Answer 9

• a speech by a single character WITHOUT another character’s response
• However, UNLIKE a soliloquy, the character is speaking to someone else

Question 10

Define MOTIVATION

Answer 10

The thoughts or desires that DRIVE a character to actively pursue a want or need
- this want/ need aka the OBJECTIVE
- a character generally has an OVERALL OBJECTIVE or LONG TERM GOAL in a drama but may change his/ her objective from scene to scene when confronted with various obstacles

Question 11

Define PROSCENIUM ARCH

Answer 11

• an ARCHITECTURAL element SEPARATING the performance area from the auditorium in a theatre
• functions to MASK stage machinery and helps create a “FRAME” for the stage action