Elements of Drama

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Elements of Drama

Drama is a display of emotions, a representation of relationships and the portrayal of the different phases of human life. It sketches different personalities and represents a wide variety of emotions through the different characters it portrays. Which of its components are identified as the elements of drama? Let us see.

Aristotle, a philosopher who wrote on a variety of subjects like poetry, theater, music, rhetoric and handled subjects like biology, physics, logic and politics, writes that there are six elements of drama, According to him, plot, theme, character, dialogue, music and the visual element of a play make up the six elements of drama. Let us look at each of them.

Theme: The theme of a drama refers to the central idea of the play. It can either be clearly stated through dialogue or action or can be inferred after watching the entire performance.

Plot: The order of events occurring in a play is referred to as the plot of the drama. It is the basic storyline that is narrated through a play. The entertainment one derives from a play depends largely on the sequence of events that occur in the story. The logical connection between the events and the characters, which enact the story form an integral part of the plot of drama.

Characters: The characters that form a part of the story are interwoven with the plot of the drama. Each character in a play has a personality of its own and has a distinct set of principles and beliefs. Actors who play various roles in a drama have the very important responsibility of bringing the characters to life.

Dialogue: The story of any play is taken forward by means of the dialogue. The story is narrated to the audiences through the dialogue written by the playwright. The success of a drama depends hugely on the contents of the dialogue and the quality of dialogue delivery by the actors of the play.

Music: This element of drama comprises of the melody in the use of sounds and rhythm in...
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