“DRAMA”

This Paper is Prepared to Fulfill Course Assignments

“INTRODUCTION TO LITERATURE”

Lecturer:
M. Muklas, M.Pd

Created By:
Dina Sabilah (2288203031)
Ninin Kurniawati (2288203044)

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM

FACULTY OF SCIENCE EDUCATION
NURUL HUDA UNIVERSITY
ACADEMIC YEAR 2023
 FOREWORD

Praise be to the presence of Allah SWT for his grace and guidance, so that this paper with
the theme "Drama" can be completed properly and on time, in order to fulfill the assignment
for the course "Introduction to Literature”.

This paper is made with the hope that those who read it will gain useful knowledge and
open the reader's horizons about the drama itself.

Hopefully this paper can add to our knowledge, especially as writers, we realize that in this
paper there are still many shortcomings in terms of content and writing, for that the authors
apologize profusely and expect constructive criticism and suggestions for the preparation of
future papers. Finally, the author says thank you

Tanah Merah, March 2023

Compiler

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

FOREWORD.......................................................................................................................ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS....................................................................................................iii
CHAPTER I.........................................................................................................................1
PREMILIMINARY.............................................................................................................1
A. Background..............................................................................................................1
B. Form Ulation of the Problem...................................................................................1
C. Purpose....................................................................................................................1
CHAPTER II.......................................................................................................................2
DISCUSSION......................................................................................................................2
1. Definition Of Drama................................................................................................2
2. Element Of Drama...................................................................................................3
3. Further Considerations of the Playwright: Genre/Form..........................................4
4. Style/Mode/Ism.......................................................................................................5
5. Dramatic Structure...................................................................................................5,6-7
CHAPTER III......................................................................................................................8
CLOSING............................................................................................................................8
A. CONCLUSION........................................................................................................8

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 CHAPTER I

PREMILIMINARY

A. Background

Drama is a literary work filled with dialogues and performed on stage. As one of the
literary works staged, then in the performance always refers to the drama script which has
been prepared. Drama script writing is usually taken through events real sourced from
human life and fictitious events namely based on the author's imagination. Drama scripts
are usually written in the form dialogue and staged by actors with the aim of describing
events life through the disputes and conflicts that occur on stage.

In writing drama scripts there are intrinsic elements construct the play script. These
elements include, namely: theme, characters, plot, setting. The character element is one of
the elements that play a role important in writing drama scripts that will be staged.
Because of this element are characters who take part in and experience events, either part
or all of the story. In addition, the role of the elements of this figure In literary works,
drama has important characteristics and positions. Important figures are usually referred to
as major figures, while figures helpers are usually called minor characters. These
characters become story mover that causes the creation of dramatic tension at every stage
events in the play.

B. Form Ulation of the Problem

1. What is the Definition of Drama?

2. What is the Elements OF Drama?
3. Genre/Form?
4. Style/Mode/”Ism”?
5. What is the Dramatic Structure?

C. Purpose
1. To enhance learning about drama.
2. Improve your ability to speak Indonesian properly and correctly. Both orally and in
writing.
3. And in order to increase your skills in appreciating literature.

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 CHAPTER II

DISCUSSION

A. DEFINITION OF DRAMA
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance . The term comes
from a Greek word meaning "action" (Classical Greek: δράμα, dráma), which is derived
from "to do" (Classical Greek: δράω, dráō). The enactment of drama in theatre, performed
by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production
and a collective form of reception. The structure of dramatic texts, unlike other forms of
literature, is directly influenced by this collaborative production and collective reception .
The early modern tragedy Hamlet (1601) by Shakespeare and the classical Athenian
tragedy Oedipus the King (c. 429 BCE) by Sophocles are among the supreme
masterpieces of the art of drama.
The two masks associated with drama represent the traditional generic division
between comedy and tragedy. They are symbols of the ancient Greek Muses, Thalia and
Melpomene. Thalia was the Muse of comedy (the laughing face), while Melpomene was
the Muse of tragedy (the weeping face). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the
dramatic mode has been contrasted with the epic and the lyrical modes ever since
Aristotle's Poetics (c. 335 BCE)—the earliest work of dramatic theory .
The use of "drama" in the narrow sense to designate a specific type of play dates from
the 19th century. Drama in this sense refers to a play that is neither a comedy nor a
tragedy--for example, Zola's Thérèse Raquin (1873) or Chekhov's Ivanov (1887). It is this
narrow sense that the film and television industry and film studies adopted to describe
"drama" as a genre within their respective media. "Radio drama" has been used in both
senses--originally transmitted in a live performance, it has also been used to describe the
more high-brow and serious end of the dramatic output of radio.
Drama is often combined with music and dance: the drama in opera is sung
throughout; musicals include spoken dialogue and songs; and some forms of drama have
regular musical accompaniment (melodrama and Japanese Nō, for example) . In certain
periods of history (the ancient Roman and modern Romantic) dramas have been written to
be read rather than performed . In improvisation, the drama does not pre-exist the moment
of performance; performers devise a dramatic script spontaneously before an audience.

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B. THE ELEMENT OF DRAMA
Most successful playwrights follow the theories of playwriting and drama that were
established over two thousand years ago by a man named Aristotle. In his works the
Poetics Aristotle outlined the six elements of drama in his critical analysis of the classical
Greek tragedy Oedipus Rex written by the Greek playwright, Sophocles, in the fifth
century B.C. The six elements as they are outlined involve: Thought, Theme, Ideas;
Action or Plot; Characters; Language; Music; and Spectacle.
1. Thought/Theme/Ideas
What the play means as opposed to what happens (the plot). Sometimes the theme is
clearly stated in the title. It may be stated through dialogue by a character acting as
the playwright’s voice. Or it may be the theme is less obvious and emerges only after
some study or thought. The abstract issues and feelings that grow out of the dramatic
action.
2. Action/Plot
The events of a play; the story as opposed to the theme; what happens rather than what
it means. The plot must have some sort of unity and clarity by setting up a pattern by
which each action initiating the next rather than standing alone without connection to
what came before it or what follows. In the plot of a play, characters are involved in
conflict that has a pattern of movement. The action and movement in the play begins
from the initial entanglement, through rising action, climax, and falling action to
resolution.
3. Characters
These are the people presented in the play that are involved in the perusing plot. Each
character should have their own distinct personality, age, appearance, beliefs, socio
economic background, and language.
4. Language
The word choices made by the playwright and the enunciation of the actors of the
language. Language and dialog delivered by the characters moves the plot and action
along, provides exposition, defines the distinct characters.
5. Music
Music can encompass the rhythm of dialogue and speeches in a play or can also mean
the aspects of the melody and music compositions as with musical theatre. Each
theatrical presentation delivers music, rhythm and melody in its own distinctive
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 manner. Music can expand to all sound effects, the actor’s voices, songs, and
instrumental music played as underscore in a play. Music creates patterns and
establishes tempo in theatre. In the aspects of the musical the songs are used to push
the plot forward and move the story to a higher level of intensity.
6. Spectacle
The spectacle in the theatre can involve all of the aspects of scenery, costumes, and
special effects in a production. The visual elements of the play created for theatrical
event. The qualities determined by the playwright that create the world and
atmosphere of the play for the audience’s eye.

C. FURTHER CONSIDERATIONS OF THE PLAYWRIGHT: GENRE/FORM

Above and beyond the elements outlined above the playwright has other
major considerations to take into account when writing. Based on the Genre/Form, drama is
divided into the categories of tragedy, comedy, melodrama, and tragicomedy. Each of these
genre/forms can be further subdivide by style and content.
1. Tragedy
Tragedy is an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain
magnitude. The tragedy is presented in the form of action, not narrative. It will arouse pity
and fear in the audience as it witnesses the action. Tragedy is serious by nature in its
theme and deals with profound problems. In classical tragedy we find a protagonist at the
center of the drama that is a great person, usually of upper class birth. He is a good man
that can be admired, but he has a tragic flaw, a hamartia, that will be the ultimate cause of
his down fall. This tragic flaw can take on many characteristics but it is most often too
much pride or hubris. The protagonist always learns, usually too late, the nature of his
flaw and his mistakes that have caused his downfall. He becomes self-aware and accepts
the inevitability of his fate and takes full responsibility for his actions.
We must have this element of inevitability in tragedy. There must be a cause and effect
relationship from the beginning through the middle to the end or final catastrophe. It must
be logical in the conclusion of the necessary outcome. Tragedy will involve the audience
in the action and create tension and expectation. With the climax and final end the
audience will have learned a lesson and will leave the theatre not depressed or sullen, but
uplifted and enlightened.

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 2. Comedy
Comedy should have the view of a “comic spirit” and is physical and energetic. In
comedy there is absence of pain and emotional reactions, as with tragedy, and a replaced
use of mans intellect. The behavior of the characters presented in comedy is ludicrous and
sometimes absurd and the result in the audience is one of correction of behaviors. This
correction of behaviors is the didactic element of comedy that acts as a mirror for society ,
by which the audience learns “don’t behave in ludicrous and absurd ways.” The types of
comedies can vary greatly; there are situation comedies, romantic comedies, sentimental
comedies, dark comedies, comedy of manners, and pure farce. The comic devices used by
playwrights of comedy are: exaggeration, incongruity, surprise, repetition, wisecracks,
and sarcasm.
3. Melodrama
Melodrama is drama of disaster and differs from tragedy significantly, in that; forces
outside of the protagonist cause all of the significant events of the plot. All of the aspects
of related guilt or responsibility of the protagonist are removed. In melodrama we have
clearly defined character types with good guys and bad guys identified. Melodrama has a
sense of strict moral judgment. All issues presented in the plays are resolved in a well-
defined way. The good characters are rewarded and the bad characters are punished in a
means that fits the crime.
4. Tragicomedy
Tragicomedy is the most life like of all of the genres. It is non-judgmental and ends
with no absolutes. It focuses on character relationships and shows society in a state of
continuous flux. There is a mix of comedy and tragedy side by side in these types of plays.
D. STYLE/MODE/ “ISM’
The shaping of dramatic material, setting, or costumes in a specific manner. Each play
will have its own unique and distinctive behaviors, dress, and language of the characters. The
style of a playwright is shown in the choices made in the world of the play: the kinds of
characters, time periods, settings, language, methods of characterization, use of symbols, and
themes.
E. DRAMATIC STRUCTURE
Dramatic structure involves the overall framework or method by which the playwright
uses to organize the dramatic material and or action. Understanding basic principals of
dramatic structure can be invaluable to the playwright. Most modern plays are structured
into acts that can be further divided into scenes. The pattern most often used is a method
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by where the playwright sets up early on in the beginning scenes all of the necessary
conditions and situations out of which the later conditions will develop. The basic
Characteristics of the cause to effect arrangement are:
 Clear exposition of situation
 Careful preparation for future events
 Unexpected but logical reversals
 Continuous mounting suspense
 An obligatory scene
 Logical resolution

1. Point of Attack
The moment of the play at which the main action of the plot begins. This may occur in
the first scene, or it may occur after several scenes of exposition. The point of attack is
the main action by which all others will arise. It is the point at which the main
complication is introduced. Point of attack can sometimes work hand in hand with a play’s
inciting incident, which is the first incident leading to the rising action of the play.
Sometimes the inciting incident is an event that occurred somewhere in the character’s
past and is revealed to the audience through exposition.
2. Exposition
Exposition is important information that the audience needs to know in order to follow
the main story line of the play. It is the aspects of the story that the audience may hear
about but that they will not witness in actual scenes. It encompasses the past actions of
the characters before the play’s opening scenes progress.
3. Rising Action
Rising action is the section of the plot beginning with the point of attack and/or
inciting incident and proceeding forward to the crisis onto the climax. The action of the
play will rise as it set up a situation of increasing intensity and anticipation. These scenes
make up the body of the play and usually create a sense of continuous mounting suspense
in the audience.
4. The Climax/Crisis
All of the earlier scenes and actions in a play will build technically to the highest level
of dramatic intensity. This is the moment where the major dramatic questions rise to the
highest level, the mystery hits the unraveling point, and the culprits are revealed. This

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should be the point of the highest stage of dramatic intensity in the action of the play. The
whole combined actions of the play generally lead up to this moment.
5. Resolution/Obligatory Scene
The resolution is the moment of the play in which the conflicts are resolved. It is the
solution to the conflict in the play, the answer to the mystery, and the clearing up of the
final details. This is the scene that answers the questions raised earlier in the play. In this
scene the methods and motives are revealed to the audience.

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 CHAPTER III

CLOSING

A. CONCLUSION
Drama is a form of art play that tells a story through the conversations and actions of
the characters. However, the conversation or dialogue itself can also be seen as an
understanding of action, in a drama story, of course, there are elements that will support a
drama story, these elements are theme, plot, characters, setting, and message. To create an
interesting drama, of course, there must be a foundation that is arranged in an orderly
manner, starting from exposition, rising action, complication, climax, and resolution. To
compose a drama story, the steps are; determine the theme, determine the problem
(conflict), make a synopsis (story summary), determine the framework of the story,
determine the protagonist, determine the way of resolution, then write.