Drama Literary Devices

1. Drama Literary Devices

2. Standard: ELABLRL1 DRAMA • Identifies and analyzes dramatic elements, (i.e., monologue, soliloquy, aside, foil, satire, stock characters, dramatic irony). • Identifies and analyzes how dramatic elements support and enhance the interpretation of dramatic literature.

3. Drama • literature written to be performed • Macbeth & Hamlet • Action: List at least three other dramas

4. Monologue • extended speech by one character • Queen Mab speech • Action: List three movies where you have observed a monologue

5. Soliloquy • a speech in which a character, alone on the stage, addresses himself or herself; it is a dramatic means of letting the audience know the character's thoughts and feelings. • Romeo and Juliet: courtyard scene • Action: Describe a moment in your life where a soliloquy would be beneficial.

6. Aside • brief comments by an actor who addresses the audience but is assumed not to be heard by the other characters on the stage. • Action: When have you observed an aside in your lifetime?

7. Foil • A character who contrasts and parallels the main character in a play or story. • Mercutio:Romeo, Donkey: Shrek, Watson: Sherlock • Action: Who is a foil in your life? How?

8. Satire • A literary work that criticizes human misconduct and ridicules vices, stupidities, and follies • Thumb biting from Romeo and Juliet • Action: Why is Family Guy considered a satire?

9. Stock Characters • Stock characters draw from widely known cultural types for their characteristics and mannerisms, and are often used in parody. Every culture has its own set of stock characters. • The Simpsons: Nelson the bully; Romeo and Juliet: the servants; Fairy godmother; Gangstalicious and Thugnificent from Boondocks • Action: Who would your stock characters be in your modern movie?

10. Dramatic Irony • a situation that depends on the audience's knowing something that a character has not realized, or on one character's knowing something other characters do not know • Everyone knows Juliet is dead but Romeo

11. Dialogue • the lines spoken by the characters

12. Stage Directions • words in a dramatic script--generally italicized--that define an actor's (apart from his/her dialogue) actions, movements, attitudes and so forth throughout the play

13. Tragedy • a type of drama--as opposed to comedy--that depicts the causally related events that lead to the downfall of the protagonist (in classic tragedy this person should be of unusual moral, intellectual, or social stature)