INTRODUCTION
This unit introduces you to dramatic conventions. By the end of the unit, you should be able to identify them in dramatic texts or explain why the dialogue of one play is in verse while another one is in prose and both of them are accepted.
Apart from the elements of drama and the dramatic technique discussed above, there are also what we refer to as dramatic conventions. The knowledge you gain from this unit will enable you appreciate any play irrespective of the age in which it was written. It is also necessary for you to be familiar with these conventions so that you can identify them in your analysis or criticism of dramatic literature.
3.1 Dramatic Conventions
In drama, the playwright tries to present life as it is lived in the real world. However it is not possible to present real life on stage so he presents an illusion of reality. He needs certain devices to make this illusion as realistic as possible and the audience accepts the devices. In Shakespearean plays, sometimes a character talks to himself and this is called soliloquy. In real life people do not talk to themselves like that but since the public especially in that age accepted it, it becomes a convention. Also in the Classical Age the convention was that the dialogue is presented in verse but in the modern convention in most plays the dialogue is presented in prose. Another good example of dramatic convention is in play production where the convention is that a room has three walls instead of the four walls and the action of a play in which the events take place in various places is presented on a single stage. In the words of Abrams, “conventions are necessary or convenient devices, widely accepted by the public, for solving problems imposed by a particular artistic medium in representing reality” (33). There are also conventions in terms of style. Abrams explains further: “conventions are identifiable elements of subject matter, form, or technique which recur repeatedly in works of literature. Conventions in this sense may be recurrent types of character, turns of plot, forms of versification, kinds of diction and style.” It is not compulsory for every work to conform to preexisting conventions but what matters is how effectively an individual writer makes use of them.
3.2 Prologue
This is the introductory part of the play. It could be an opening scene, a speech or an address. In most cases, it introduces the action and makes a statement on what the audience should expect in the play. In many plays the prologue foreshadows the events in the play and sometimes gives a background to the play as can be seen in the example below taken from Christopher Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus.
[Prologue] Enter Chorus.
Not marching in the fields of Trasimene
Where Mars did mate the warlike Carthagens
Nor sporting in the dalliance of love
In courts of kings where state is overturned, …
The form of Dr Faustus’ fortune, good or bad:
And now to patient judgments we appeal
And speak for Faustus in his infancy.
Now is he born of parents base of stock
In Germany within a town called Rhode;
At riper years to Wittenberg he went
Whereas his kinsmen chiefly brought him up. So much he profits in divinity
That shortly he was graced with doctor’s name
Excelling all, and sweetly can dispute
In th’ heavenly matters of theology;
Till swoll’n with cunning, of a self-conceit,
His waxen wings did mount above his reach
And melting, heavens conspired his overthrow! For falling into a devilish exercise
And glutted now with learning’s golden gifts He surfeits upon cursed necromancy:
Nothing so sweet as magic is to him
Which he prefers before his chiefest bliss— And this the man that in his study sits.
[Exit.]
3.3 Epilogue
This is the direct opposite of the prologue. It is presented at the end of the play. It sums up the action of the play and in some cases, makes a statement (an advice or a lesson to be learnt) on the action or events presented in the play. In Christopher Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus, the chorus comments on the fall of Dr. Faustus and cautions those who “practice more than heavenly power permits.”
Enter Chorus
Cut is the branch that might have grown full straight And burned is Apollo’s laurel bough
That sometime grew within this learned man. Faustus is gone: regard his hellish fall,
Whose fiendful fortune may extort the wise Only to wonder at unlawful things,
Whose deepness doth entice such forward wits To practice more than heavenly power permits.
[Exit]
3.4 Interlude
An interlude in a play is a short piece of entertainment that is presented between the acts or major scenes in a play. It is believed that the term came into drama during the Renaissance Period to describe the dramatic form of early Tudor Period. It was then referred to as Tudor Interlude. Queen Elizabeth loved entertainment, funfair and ceremonies so much that she was accompanied by extravagant display of affluence each time she made public appearance. These displays included some dramatic shows among which the interlude was most popular. It was a short dramatic presentation or a play performed indoors before a small audience. Most of the Mboguo in one of our texts for this course – The Marriage of Anansewa, is an example of interlude.
3.5 Soliloquy
Soliloquy is a speech made by a character when he is alone. The audience hears it but the other characters are not expected to hear it. It is very common in Renaissance plays. Shakespeare in particular made use of soliloquies in his play a lot. Playwrights use this device to reveal the thoughts or the feelings of specific characters in reaction to certain events or situations. “Customarily, the soliloquy is a means of giving expression to a complex state of mind and feeling, and in most cases the speaker is seen struggling with problems of utmost consequence. This accounts for the intensity we find in soliloquys” (Scholes and Klaus 29). Here, the character thinks aloud as he talks to himself. He pretends that the audience is not there. Soliloquy also offers the dramatist a means of providing a point of view on the action of the play. Apart from serving as a means for revealing characters, it is used to make significant commentaries on events of the play. In the first soliloquy in Hamlet, Hamlet presents the state of his mind and his view on the world:
O that this too solid flesh would melt,
Thaw and resolve itself into a dew,
Or that the Everlasting had not fixed
His canon against self-slaughter. O God! God!
How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable
Seem to me all the uses of this world!
From it we learn of his father’s death, the incestuous affair between his mother and his uncle and it foreshadows the catastrophe at the end of the play when he predicts that the affair will come to no good. He continues:
But two months dead- nay, not so much, not two-
So excellent a king, that was to this
Hyperion to a satyr; so loving to my mother
That he might not permit the winds of heaven
Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth, Must I remember? Why, she would hang him As if increase of appetite had grown
By what it fed on. And yet within a month-
Let me not think on it- Frailty, your name is woman- A little month, before those shoes were old
With which he followed my poor fathers’s body, Like Niobe, all tears- why, she-
O God, a beast that wants discourse of reason
Would have mourned longer- married with my uncle, …
She married- O most wicked speed! To post With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!
It is not, and it cannot come to good
Break my heart, for I must hold my tongue. (Act i scene ii)
3.6 Aside
Aside is a dramatic convention in which a character speaks to himself or makes a comment in the presence of another character. However, that other character is not expected to hear the comment but the audience hears it. There is an actual stepping aside of the character who utters an aside from the other characters on the stage. This makes it more unrealistic because it is not possible for him to make the remark in their presence and they will not hear it. An aside is a very brief remark and in most cases it is indicated in the stage direction. Here is an example taken from Hamlet when Hamlet feigns madness and is discussing with Polonius:
POL. [Aside] Though this is madness, yet there is
method in it. Will you walk out of the air my lord?
3.7 Dramatic Illusion
Drama thrives on illusion because what is presented is not reality but an illusion of reality. Whenever you are watching any dramatic presentation, you know very well that they are ‘pretending’ to be what they are not yet you empathize with the characters. Dramatic illusion involves a willing suspension of disbelief. If the play Hamlet is presented on stage or if you buy the film, as you watch the graveyard scene, Ophelia’s burial, for instance, you would see the actress being ‘buried’. In reality, the actress’ name may not be Ophelia; she has not died; the grave is not a real grave; and the grave diggers may be wealthy professionals but you enjoy the play without bothering about whether they are real or not. In other words, you pretend that what you are watching is real.
3.8 The Fourth Wall
The fourth wall refers to the fourth wall of the room that is pulled down for the audience to watch the play. In reality, a room has four walls so if a play, especially events of the play stage performances, is to be presented with the four walls intact nobody can see the action. That is why a good playwright should always have the stage in mind when he is writing his play. The removal of the fourth wall helps to enhance the illusion of reality in drama.
3.9 Chorus /Narrator
The use of chorus is a dramatic convention that was adopted by playwrights, especially in the Classical Age, to comment on the events of the play. In any play that has a chorus/narrator, the playwright uses it to supply the information that could not be woven into the dialogue. In many cases it serves as the authorial voice.
The chorus is not usually part of the main cast so does not participate actively in the action of the play. In most cases they stand or sit by the side of the stage and make their comments at the appropriate time. Some playwrights use the chorus to comment on the events of the play. In Oedipus Rex, the chorus is made up of the elders of Thebes.
The narrator performs the same function as the chorus. The difference is that usually the chorus is made up of two or more characters while the narrator is only one character. Each playwright uses the chorus or the narrator to suit his purpose.
3.10 Structure
The dramatic structure, especially in written a play, is a dramatic convention on the organization of the play. Most classical plays are presented in acts and scenes. The plays are divided in this way for easy presentation and understanding. In a stage performance, a curtain is drawn to signify the end of each scene or act. In the modern stage, and in night productions, light is used to demarcate them. Each scene represents a particular setting. This is to give the actors time to change their costumes. It also gives the stage directors time to change the setting or scene for the next part of the action. During this interval, music or interludes could be used to fill the gap.
3.11 The Three Unities
Classical plays are expected to treat one serious action but later in the sixteenth centuries, dramatic critics in Italy and France added to Aristotle’s recommendation of unity of action, two other unites to constitute the rules of drama known as “the three unites.” It became a dramatic convention then. They contended that for the dramatist to achieve an illusion of reality, the action presented in a play should “approximate” the actual conditions of life being represented in the play. They imposed the “unity of place” (that the action be limited to a single location) and the “unity of time” (that the time represented should be limited to the two or three hours it takes to act the play, or at most to a single day of either twelve or twenty-four hours). Their decision may have been influenced by Shakespearean platys that involved frequent changes of setting and the passage of many years. In the modern period it is no longer a convention but a playwright might still wish to adhere to it.
The three unities are the unities of time place and action. It means the principles of dramatic structure that involves action, time and place. The principle of the unity of action entails that the action of the play should contain one subject. There is no room for sub - themes or sub- plots. The unity of place requires that the action of the play must take place in one location. The unity of time insists that the play should not last for more than one day.
SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
Soliloquy and aside are dramatic speeches; discuss them by highlighting
their similarities and differences
4.0 CONCLUSION
It is difficult to find all the conventions in one play. As a matter of fact, modern playwrights have jettisoned soliloquy and aside. They argue that since drama presents life as it is lived, people do not talk to themselves. It makes drama artificial and unrealistic.
5.0 SUMMARY
In this unit, you have been exposed to various dramatic conventions. It is expected that this knowledge will help you to understand this course more, especially, as you read the recommended plays.
6.0 TUTOR-MARKED ASSIGNMENT
1. What is the difference between soliloquy and aside?
7.0 REFERENCES/FURTHER READING
Abrams, M. H. (1971). A Glossary of Literary Terms. New York: Holt Reinhart and Winston.
Crow, Brian (1983). Studying Drama. Ikeja: Longman.
Okodo, Ikechukwu (1992). The Study of Literary Terminologies and Appreciation. Onitsha: Footmarks.
Leave a comment behind