Part IV, Chapter 20: The Dramatic Vision: An Overview, Part 1

Like fiction, drama focuses on one or a few major characters who enjoy success or endure failure as they face challenges and deal with other characters.

Dialogue is the conversation of two or more characters.

A monologue is spoken by a single character who is usually alone onstage.

Stage directions are the playwright's instructions about facial and vocal expression, movement and action, gesture and "body language," stage appearance, lighting, and similar matters.

The protagonist (the first or leading struggler or actor), usually the central character, is opposed by the antagonist (the one who struggles against).

The protagonist (the first or leading struggler or actor), usually the central character, is opposed by the antagonist (the one who struggles against).

A round, dynamic, developing, and growing character, like Shakespeare's Hamlet and Ibsen's Nora, possesses great motivation.

A round, dynamic, developing, and growing character, like Shakespeare's Hamlet and Ibsen's Nora, possesses great motivation.

A round, dynamic, developing, and growing character, like Shakespeare's Hamlet and Ibsen's Nora, possesses great motivation.

A flat, static, fixed, and unchanging character does not undergo any change or growth.

Realistic characters are designed to seem like individualized women and men; the dramatist gives them thoughts, desires, motives, personalities, and lives of their own.

Throughout the ages, drama and other types of literature have relied on stereotype or stock characters—that is, unindividualized characters whose actions and speeches make them seem to have been taken from a mold.

Throughout the ages, drama and other types of literature have relied on stereotype or stock characters—that is, unindividualized characters whose actions and speeches make them seem to have been taken from a mold.

There are also ancillary characters who set off or highlight the protagonist and who provide insight into the action.

The foil is a character who is to be compared and contrasted with the protagonist.

Any of the foregoing types of characters can also be symbolic in the context of individual plays. They can symbolize ideas, moral values, religious concepts, ways of life, or some other abstraction.

Plays are made up of a series of sequential and related actions or incidents.

The actions are connected by chronology—the logic of time—and the term given to the principles underlying this ordered chain of actions and reactions is plot, which is a connected plan or pattern of causation.

The impulse controlling the connections is conflict, which refers to people or circumstances—the antagonist—that the protagonist tries to overcome.

Usually one of these plots is the main plot, but the subplot can be independently important and sometimes even more interesting.

The exposition or introduction brings out everything we need to know to understand and follow what is to happen in the play.

The exposition or introduction brings out everything we need to know to understand and follow what is to happen in the play.

The complication and development mark the onset of the play's major conflicts.

The complication and development mark the onset of the play's major conflicts.

In this second stage, also called the rising action, we see the beginning of difficulties that seem overwhelming and insoluble...

The crisis or climax is the culmination of the play's conflicts and complication—the intense moments of decision.

The crisis or climax is the culmination of the play's conflicts and complication—the intense moments of decision.

The falling action—a time of avoidance and delay—forms the downward slope of the pyramid, as complicating elements defer the play's conclusion.

In the dénouement ("unraveling") or resolution ("untying"), also called the catastrophe ("overturning"), all tragic protagonists undergo suffering or death, all mysteries are explained, all conflicts are resolved, all mistakes are corrected, all dastardly schemes are defeated, all long-lost children are identified, all obstacles to love are overcome, all deserving characters are rewarded, and the play ends.

In the dénouement ("unraveling") or resolution ("untying"), also called the catastrophe ("overturning"), all tragic protagonists undergo suffering or death, all mysteries are explained, all conflicts are resolved, all mistakes are corrected, all dastardly schemes are defeated, all long-lost children are identified, all obstacles to love are overcome, all deserving characters are rewarded, and the play ends.