SD - Overview
Shakespearean Drama
Introduction 
Many words and phrases used today such as "swagger" and "eyeball" stem from a popular playwright named William Shakespeare who wrote many dramas in England during the late 1500s. A drama begins as a work of literature but comes alive when performed onstage. William Shakespeare wrote many different types of plays that included creative plots and humor in order to entertain his audience; he still serves as a role model to many playwrights who follow him, and his fame continues to live on in the world of drama. In this module, you will learn about the elements of a drama and the different types of plays Shakespeare wrote. You will also have the opportunity to read and analyze a Shakespearean drama and write your own drama in order to demonstrate a deep understanding of the genre as a whole.
Essential Questions
- Can I determine a theme and/or central idea of a text and break down how the specific details develop the theme?
- Can I break down the similarities and differences of a scene that appears in two different artistic mediums (a scene from a play compared to a painting of the same scene)?
- Can I break down how an author uses material from an outside source in his or her own work (ex: How Shakespeare uses various allusions in his plays)?
Key Terms 
Antagonist: A character or force against which another character struggles.
Act: A major division in a play. An act can be sub-divided into scenes.
Aside: Words spoken by an actor directly to the audience, but not "heard" by the other characters on stage during a play.
Drama: A story written to be performed by actors in front of an audience.
Allusion: A casual or indirect reference to something else such as another work of literature, a historical event, a biblical story, or mythology.
Modern Chorus: A modern chorus (any time after the Greek period) serves a similar function but has taken a different form; it consists of a character/narrator coming on stage and giving a prologue or explicit background information or themes.
Comedy: A dramatic work in which the central motif is the triumph over adverse circumstance, resulting in a successful or happy conclusion.
Comic Relief: Comic relief serves a specific purpose: it gives the spectator a moment of "relief " with a light-hearted scene, after a succession of intensely tragic dramatic moments.
Dialogue: The conversation of characters in a literary work. In plays, characters' speech is preceded by their names.
Monologue: A speech by a single character without another character's response. The character however, is speaking to someone else or even a group of people.
Motivation: The thoughts or desires that actively drive a character to pursue a want or need.
Plot: The sequence of events that make up a story.
Prologue: In later literature, the prologue serves as explicit exposition introducing material before the first scene begins.
Pun: A play on words.
Protagonist: The main character of a literary work.
Scene: A traditional segment in a play. Scenes are used to indicate (1) a change in time (2) a change in location, (3) provides a jump from one subplot to another, (4) introduces new characters (5) rearrange the actors on the stage. Traditionally plays are composed of acts, broken down into scenes.
Soliloquy: A speech meant to be heard by the audience but not by other characters on the stage (as opposed to a monologue which addresses someone who does not respond). In a soliloquy only the audience can hear the private thoughts of the characters.
Stock Character: A recognizable character type found in many plays. Comedies have traditionally relied on such stock characters as the miserly father, the beautiful but naïve girl, the trickster servant.
Exposition: The first stage of a fictional or dramatic plot, in which necessary background information is provided.
Rising Action: An event, conflict or crisis or set of conflicts and crises that constitute the part of a play's plot leading up to the climax.
Climax: The turning point of the action in the plot of a play and the point of greatest tension in the work.
Falling Action: This is when the events and complications begin to resolve themselves and tension is released. We learn whether the conflict has been resolved or not.
Denouement: Literally the action of untying. A denouement (or resolution) is the final outcome of the main complication in a play. Usually, the denouement occurs AFTER the climax (the turning point or "crisis"). It is sometimes referred to as the explanation or outcome of a drama that reveals all the secrets and misunderstandings connected to the plot.
Flat Character: A character whose personality can be described as having one or two personality traits and who does not change. throughout the play
Round Character: A complex character with many personality traits and who changes or develops throughout the play.
Static Character: A character who does not undergo any type of inner change (personality/attitude) throughout the play.
Dynamic Character: A character who does undergo a type of inner change (personality/attitude) throughout the play.
Foil Characters: A character who creates a contrast to a different character in order to highlight particular qualities of the other character (good appears more "good" when evil is present).
Key Terms Review
In order to for you to talk about drama, you need to become familiar with some dramatic terms. Practice with the various dramatic terms below:
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