Dramatic Devices Flashcards
Act
A major division in a play.
Antagonist
A character or force against which another character struggles.
Apron
The part of a proscenium stage that sticks out into the audience in front of the proscenium arch.
Aside
Words spoken by an actor directly to the audience, but not “heard” by the other characters on stage during a play.
Blocking
Movement patterns of actors on the stage. Usually planned by the director to create meaningful stage pictures.
Box set
A set built behind a proscenium arch to represent three walls of a room
Catharsis
The purging of the feelings of pity and fear.
Character
An imaginary person that inhabits a literary work.
Chorus
A traditional chorus in Greek tragedy is a group of characters who comment on the action of a play without participating in it
Climax
The turning point of the action in the plot of a play and the point of greatest tension in the work.
Comedy
A dramatic work in which the central motif is the triumph over adverse circumstance, resulting in a successful or happy conclusion
Comic Relief
Comic relief serves a specific purpose: it gives the spectator a moment of “relief” with a light-hearted scene, after a succession of intensely tragic dramatic moments.
Conflict
The conflict between opposing forces in a play can be external (between characters) or internal (within a character) and is usually resolved by the end of the play.
Complication
An intensification of the conflict in a play
Convention
Literary conventions are defining features or common agreement upon strategies and/or attributes of a particular literary genres.
Denouement / Resolution
A denouement (or resolution) is the final outcome of the main complication in a play.
Deus Ex Machina
When an external source resolves the entanglements of a play by supernatural intervention.
Dialogue
The conversation of characters in a literary work
Diction
In drama diction can (1) reveal character, (2) imply attitudes, (3) convey action, (4) identify themes, and (5) suggest values.
Dramatic Irony
A device in which a character holds a position or has an expectation reversed or fulfilled in a way that the character did not expect but that the audience or readers have anticipated because their knowledge of events or individuals is more complete than the character’s
Dynamic Character
Undergoes an important change in the course of the play- not changes in circumstances, but changes in some sense within the character in question – changes in insight or understanding or changes in commitment, or values.
Exodos
The final scene and exit of the characters and chorus in a classical Greek play
Exposition
The characters have to expose the background to the action indirectly while talking in the most natural way
Falling Action
This is when the events and complications begin to resolve themselves and tension is released. We learn whether the conflict has or been resolved or not
Flashback
An interruption of a play’s chronology (timeline) to describe or present an incident that occurred prior to the main time-frame of the play’s action
Flat Characters
Flat characters in a play are often, but not always, relatively simple minor characters
Foil
A secondary character whose situation often parallels that of the main character while his behavior or response or character contrasts with that of the main character, throwing light on that particular character’s specific temperament
Foreshadowing
Foreshadowing is a literary technique that introduces an apparently irrelevant element is introduced early in the story; its significance becomes clear later in the play
Fourth Wall
The imaginary wall that separates the spectator/audience from the action taking place on stage
Gesture
The physical movement of a character during a play
Hubris
This negative term implies both arrogant, excessive self-pride or self-confidence, and a lack of some important perception or insight due to pride in one’s abilities. This overwhelming pride inevitably leads to a downfall
Linear Plot
A traditional plot sequence in which the incidents in the drama progress chronologically; in other words, all of the events build upon one another and there are no flashbacks
Monologue
A speech by a single character without another character’s response
Motivation
The thought(s) or desire(s) that drives a character to actively pursue a want or need
Point of attack
The point in the story at which the playwright chooses to start dramatizing the action
Plot
The sequence of events that make up a story
Proscenium Arch
An architectural element separating the performance area from the auditorium in a theater
Prologue
The prologue is either the action or a set of introductory speeches before the first entry of the chorus
Props
Articles or objects that appear on stage during a play
Protagonist
The main character of a literary work
Repertory
A system of producing plays in which a company of actors is assembled to stage a number of plays during a specific period of time
Resolution
The sorting out or unraveling of a plot at the end of a play, novel, or story
Reversal or Peripeteia
The point at which the action of the plot turns in an unexpected direction for the protagonist- from failure to success or success to failure
Rising Action
An event, conflict or crisis or set of conflicts and crises that constitute the part of a play’s plot leading up to the climax
Round Characters
A round character is depicted with such psychological depth and detail that he or she seems like a “real” person
Satire
A literary work that criticizes human misconduct and ridicules vices, stupidities, and follies
Scene
A traditional segment in a play
Scenery
The physical representation of the play’s setting (location and time period)
Strophe (& Antistrophe)
A portion of a choral ode in Greek tragedy followed by a metrically similar portion, the antistrophe
Soliloquy
A speech meant to be heard by the audience but not by other characters on the stage (as opposed to a monologue which addresses someone who does not respond).
Stage Direction
A playwright’s descriptive or interpretive comments that provide readers (as well as actors and directors) with information about the dialogue, setting, and action of a play
Staging
The spectacle a play presents in performance, including the position of actors on stage, the scenic background, the props and costumes, and the lighting and sound effects
Static Character
A literary or dramatic character who undergoes little or no inner change; a character who does not grow or develop
Suspension of Disbelief
You accept something as real or representing the real when it obviously is not real
Stock Character
A recognizable character type found in many plays
Subplot
A subsidiary or subordinate or parallel plot that coexists with the main plot
Theatre of the Absurd
A type of drama and performance that conveys a sense of life as devoid of meaning and purpose
Tragedy
A type of drama in which the characters experience reversal of fortune, usually for the worse
Tragic flaw
A weakness or limitation of character, resulting in the fall of the tragic hero
Tragic hero
A privileged, exalted character of high repute, who, by virtue of a tragic flaw and/or fate, suffers a fall from a higher station in life into suffering
Unity of time, place, and action (“the unities”)
Limiting the time, place, and action of a play to a single spot and a single action over the period of 24 hours.
