Few Terms used

 in Drama

a.   Hamartia

It is a term that derived from Greek word, hamartanein that means error in judgment.  Aristotle has coined this term in Poetics in describing tragic hero. It is called as a tragic flow, inherent defect or shortcoming in the hero of tragedy. It reverses a protagonist’s fortune from good to bad. It includes the character flaws like excessive ambition, greed or pride, which result in tragic consequences. Example

Othello’s fatal flaw is his jealousy. Fueled by Iago’s lies, Othello flies into a jealous rage and murders his wife. Having discovered that she is in truth innocent, he kills himself as well

The love that Othello has caused jealousy that has drive him to extremes.

Hamartia is important in drama as it shapes tragic plot. It contributes in the downfall of a protagonist to make a drama as a tragedy. It helps to flow catharsis to the audience. It helps to cast the moral lesson.

 

b. Peripeteia: It is a sudden change in a story, which results in a negative reversal of circumstance. It is also known as turning point in drama after which the plot moves steadily to its denouement. It is a term used by Aristotle in Poetics. He defines it as the shift of the tragic protagonist’s fortune from good to bad. It surprises the audience as it makes them know tp follow as  a result of a character’s previous action or mistakes.

Aristotle views it is single most important and powerful element of plot in a tragedy. It creates fear and pity in the audience upon witnessing the tragic twist of fate. It helps to twist the plot and changes the protagonist’s life forever.

 

c. Anagnorisis

It is a moment in a plot or story in a tragedy wherein the main character recognizes or identifies his true nature of situation and recognizes other character’s true-identity and nature. It helps to get resolution in the story.  It is a moment of insight in the story where protagonist shifts from ignorance to awareness. It is a realization of characters’ self., their actual relationship with another character. It is used as a turning point in the plot of story or play that leads to a resolution. Though it is used in tragedy, sometimes it can be used as a source of humor.

Aristotle has coined this term. He discussed its meaning as recognition in Poetics. He defines, “A change in literary work from ignorance to knowledge, creating love or hate between the individuals doomed by the poet for bad or good fortune”. He views it supports complex narrative and characterization.

 

 

d. Dramatic Irony

Dramatic irony involves a situation in a play or a narrative, in which the audience or reader shares with the author’s knowledge of present or future circumstances of a character that is ignorant. In that situation, the literary character unknowingly acts in a way we recognize to be grossly inappropriate to the actual circumstances, or expects the opposite of what we know that fate holds in store, or says something that anticipates the actual outcome, but not at all in the way that the character intends. It is a literary device which helps audience to understand the events, and individual in a work that surpasses the characters. It is a form of irony that is expressed through a work’s structure. Dramatic irony is also sometimes equated with tragic irony, situational irony, and structural irony.  

 

 

e. Blank Verse

It is an unrhymed iambic pentameter. It is preeminent dramatic and narrative verse in English and standard form of
Italian drama. Divisions in blank verse poems, used to set off a sustained passage, are called verse paragraph.