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- Act: Major division of a play.
- Anagnorisis: The point at which a character understands his or her situation as it really is. Meaning: recognition.
- Aside: In drama, a line spoken by a character to the audience that the other characters on stage cannot hear.
- Catastrophe: The final resolution that unravels the intrigue and initiates the falling action.
- Comic relief: The use of a comic scene to interrupt a succession of intensely tragic dramatic moments.
- Comedy: A play with a “happy” ending. It doesn’t necessarily have to be humorous.
- Foil: A character who contrasts and parallels the main character in a play or story.
- Fourth wall: The imaginary wall of the box theater setting, supposedly removed to allow the audience to see the action.
- Hamartia: An offense committed in ignorance of some material fact; a great mistake or accident as a result of an error by a morally good person. Meaning: error, sin.
- Hubris: Overwhelming pride that leads to ruin. One of the tragic flaws.
- Monologue: A character speaking aloud to themselves, or narrating an account to an audience with no other character on stage.
- Pathos: A quality of a play’s action that stimulates the audience to feel pity for a character. It is always an aspect of tragedy, and may be present in comedy as well. Meaning: passion.
- Peripeteia (Peripety): A reversal of fortune or a sudden change of circumstance affecting the protagonist. Meaning: reversal.
- Props: Articles or objects that appear on stage during a play.
- Scene: A dramatic sequence that takes place within a single locale on stage.
- Soliloquy: A monologue spoken by an actor at a point in the play when the character believes himself to be alone.
- Stage direction: A playwright’s descriptive or interpretive comments that provide readers (and actors) with information about the dialogue, setting, and action of a play.
- Tragedy: A serious play in which the chief character, by some peculiarity of psychology, passes through a series of misfortunes leading to a final, devastating catastrophe. Aristotle’s definition: “Tragedy is, then, an enactment of a deed that is important and complete, and of [a certain] magnitude, by means of language enriched [with ornaments], each used separately in the different parts [of the play]: it is enacted, not [merely] recited, and through pity and fear it effects relief (catharsis) to such [and similar] emotions” (Poetics VI 1449b 2-3).
- Tragic Hero: A literary character who makes a judgment error that inevitably leads to his/her own destruction.
- Tragic flaw: A fatal weakness or moral flaw in the protagonist that brings him/her to a tragic end.
Major division of a play.
The point at which a character understands his or her situation as it really is. Meaning: recognition.
In drama, a line spoken by a character to the audience that the other characters on stage cannot hear.
The final resolution that unravels the intrigue and initiates the falling action.
The final resolution that unravels the intrigue and initiates the falling action.
A play with a “happy” ending. It doesn’t necessarily have to be humorous.
A character who contrasts and parallels the main character in a play or story.
The imaginary wall of the box theater setting, supposedly removed to allow the audience to see the action.
An offense committed in ignorance of some material fact; a great mistake or accident as a result of an error by a morally good person. Meaning: error, sin.
Overwhelming pride that leads to ruin. One of the tragic flaws.
A character speaking aloud to himself, or narrating an account to an audience with no other character on stage.
A rhetorical appeal to emotion.
A reversal of fortune or a sudden change of circumstance affecting the protagonist. Meaning: reversal.
Articles or objects that appear on stage during a play.
A dramatic sequence that takes place within a single locale on stage.
A monologue spoken by an actor at a point in the play when the character believes himself to be alone.
A playwright's descriptive or interpretive comments that provide readers (and actors) with information about the dialogue, setting, and action of a play.
A serious play in which the chief character, by some peculiarity of psychology, passes through a series of misfortunes leading to a final, devastating catastrophe.
A literary character who makes a judgment error that inevitably leads to his/her own destruction.
A fatal weakness or moral flaw in the protagonist that brings him/her to a tragic end.
