The Proposal

Drama

1st Year

By

Walaa A. Kheir

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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.

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.  It allows for an arousal of this pity and fear and creates an affect of purgation or catharsis of these strong emotions by the audience.  Tragedy is serious by nature in its theme and deals with profound problems.  These profound problems are universal when applied to the human experience.  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.

Comedy

Comedy should have the view of a “comic spirit” and is physical and energetic.  It is tied up in rebirth and renewal, this is the reason most comedy end in...