Elements of Drama

1. Elements of Drama Terms You’ll Need To Know Before We Read Romeo & Juliet

2. Aside Aside: A dramatic device in which a character speaks to the audience. • The character's speech is unheard by the other characters on stage. • It may be addressed to the audience expressly (in character or out) or represent an unspoken thought.

3. An Aside From Romeo & Juliet ROMEO(aside) She speaks. O, speak again, bright angel! For thou art As glorious to this night, being o'er my head, As is a wingèd messenger of heaven Unto the white, upturnèd, wondering eyes Of mortals that fall back to gaze on him When he bestrides the lazy-puffing clouds And sails upon the bosom of the air.

4. Monologue & Soliloquy Monologue: A speech given by a single person to an audience • might be delivered to an audience within a play or it might be delivered directly to the audience sitting in the theater and watching the play Soliloquy: Aspeech in a play in which a character, usually alone on the stage, talks to himself or herself so that the audience knows their thoughts •  a character delivering a soliloquy talks to herself — thinking out loud, as it were Source: ldoceonline.com

5. Chorus Chorus: A group of characters in Greek tragedy (and in later forms of drama), who comment on the action of a play without participation in it. ` Source: highered.mcgraw-hill.com

6. Act & Scene Act: A division in the performance of a play. Each act may includes multiple scenes. Romeo & Juliet is made up of five acts. Scene: A part of a during which there is no change in time or place. Each act in Romeo & Juliet contains three to six scenes.

7. Stage Directions Stage Directions: A playwright's descriptive or interpretive comments that provide readers (and actors) with information about the dialogue, setting, and action of a play. Some playwrights include substantial stage directions, while others use them more sparsely, implicitly, or not at all. highered.mcgraw-hill.com

8. Prologue Prologue: an opening of a story that sets up the setting and gives a back ground details. • Generally speaking, the main function of a prologue tells some earlier story and connects it to the main story. Similarly, it is serves as a means to introduce characters of a story and throws light on their roles. In its modern sense, a prologue acts as a separate entity and is not considered part of the current story that a writer ventures to tell. Source: Source: http://literarydevices.net

9. Prologues in Elizabethan • A prologue to Elizabethan plays usually served to quiet and settle down audience before the commencement of a play. It then introduced the themes of the play and other particulars to audience making them mentally prepared for the events they were to witness in the performance. Also, it was considered necessary to beg their leniency for any error that might occur in writing of a play or in performances of actors on stage. Usually, the character who uttered the prologue was dressed in black in order to differentiate him from the rest of the actors who wore colorful costumes their performances. For instance, read the following lines from the prologue in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Source: http://literarydevices.net

10. Romeo & Juliet Prologue Chorus: “Twohouseholds, both alike in dignity(In fair Verona, where we lay our scene),From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.From forth the fatal loins of these two foesA pair of star-crossed lovers take their life,Whose misadventured piteous overthrowsDoth with their death bury their parents’ strife.The fearful passage of their death-marked loveAnd the continuance of their parents’ rage,Which, but their children’s end, naught could remove,Is now the two hours’ traffic of our stage—The which, if you with patient ears attend,What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.”

11. Epilogue Epilogue: A short scene which follows the climax and/or resolution of the play. Usually the epilogue provides narration or exposition via monologue/dialogue to explain what ultimately happens to the characters. Sometimes the epilogue is used to provide thoughtful commentary on the play's themes. Source: plays.about.com

12. Epilogue in Romeo & Juliet Prince: A glooming peace this morning with it brings;The sun, for sorrow, will not show his head:Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things;Some shall be pardon'd, and some punished:For never was a story of more woeThan this of Juliet and her Romeo.

13. Tragedy Tragedy: A type of drama in which the characters experiencereversals of fortune, usually for the worse. In tragedy, catastrophe and suffering await many of the characters, especially the hero. Source: highered.mcgraw-hill.com