LITERARY ANALYSIS: DRAMA (Group)
TITLE____________________________________ AUTHOR___________________________
GROUP MEMBER 1:
THE PLAYWRIGHT AND HIS TIMES: Born/died; biographical background relevant to understanding the play; important family, community, national, & world events that influenced playwright and work.
POINT OF VIEW (Narrative Perspective): Drama is almost always 3rd person objective (dramatic) POV, although characters may address the audience in the 1st person and perform narrative duties: Ex. Eugene in Brighton Beach Memoirs and Stage Manager in Our Town. Sometimes a character may reflect the views of the playwright. Discuss what the writer wants to show/tell us and how he/she structures the play to do this.
FORM, STRUCTURE, AND PLOT: What is the organizational structure? Five acts? Two acts? Ten scenes? Prologues? Epilogues? Discuss techniques such as the use of chorus, flashbacks or dream scenes, chronological order of events, off-stage actions, multiple or single plot, complex or simple plot. Then outline the events in the plot labeling the exposition, initial incident, rising action, crisis/climax, and falling action/denouement--with one or two sentences to describe each.
MEMORABLE QUOTES: Select 4 key quotes, citing line & page, and explain significance to the work.
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS AND ANALYSES: Did you enjoy the play? Why or why not? Strengths and weaknesses? What questions do you have? Does this play remind you of another work you've read or seen?
GROUP MEMBER 2:
CHARACTER: General comments: flat/round characters? Believable? How revealed? How complex? Protagonist, antagonist, supporting. Then describe 3-6 central characters: name, age, three descriptive adjectives, appearance, personality, function in play, and two quotes from character or about character and what each quote reveals.
SETTING: Describe the set. Any symbols in set or props? Ex. In Death of A Salesman, the house is surrounded by encroaching industry. What atmosphere is created by the set?
THEMES: Select a major theme and several sub-themes. What universal truths is the playwrightconcerned with? (Jealousy destroys; love is omnipotent and irrational.) Express the theme in a sentence, not a single word. Discuss how the playwright develops the theme through examples.
STYLE OVERVIEW: How does the playwright make his ideas come alive? What are the most important techniques? Make a few general comments before delving into the specifics below.
Note any motifs or leitmotifs (terms describing recurrent themes or patterns of imagery.)
CLOSE READING STYLE ANALYSIS: Select one short passage from the central character. Do a complete close-reading style analysis that includes tone, diction, syntax and the use of sonic, ironic, and metaphoric devices.
MEMORABLE QUOTES: Select 4 key quotes, citing line & page, and explain significance to the work.
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS AND ANALYSES: Did you enjoy the play? Why or why not? Strengths and weaknesses? What questions do you have? Does this play remind you of another work you've read or seen?
GROUP MEMBER 3:
DICTION: Analysis of work choices. First discuss the work in general: Is the language formal, neutral, or informal? Does the playwright use lots of imagery, metaphoric or ironic figures? Is the language plain or flowery, precise or rambling, lewd or shrewd? Does diction indicate social status, education, or region? Are the sounds cacophonous (k,t,p,ch,ow) or euphonious (m,s,sh,l,ah,oo)? Is the diction poetic (Shakespeare, Greeks)? Focus on HOW diction choices influence meaning.
SYNTAX: Analysis of sentence and phrase patterns. Like diction, make some general observations: do characters ramble on, string together phrases? Speak in fragments or form their thoughts carefully? Are the sentences simple or complex, loose, periodic, inverted? Does the playwright use stichomythia at dramatic moments? Focus on HOW syntax choices influence meaning.
CLOSE READING STYLE ANALYSIS: Select two short passages from a central character. Do a complete close-reading style analysis that includes tone, diction, syntax and the use of sonic, ironic, and metaphoric devices.
MEMORABLE QUOTES: Select 4 key quotes, citing line & page, and explain significance to the work.
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS AND ANALYSES: Did you enjoy the play? Why or why not? Strengths and weaknesses? What questions do you have? Does this play remind you of another work you've read or seen?
GROUP MEMBER 4:
IMAGERY: Words or phrases that appeal to the five senses--most commonly visual. Look for recurrent images in the play. Ex: light/darkness or clothing images in Macbeth. Offer direct quotes from the play and describe how they are used.
SYMBOLISM: When an image is used to suggest complex or multiple meanings. Ex.: a hawk for war, the unicorn in The Glass Menagerie. Point out images in the play that are used as symbols. Discuss how they are used: for what effect? Is the work highly symbolic: like an allegory?
FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE (TROPES): Language that is not literal. Metaphoric devices link meaning. Most common are metaphor, simile, and personification. Implied metaphors occur in allusions. Point out patterns and examples using quotes.
IRONIC DEVICES: Seek to obscure meaning; often employed in comedy and satire. Most common are verbal, situational, and dramatic irony, paradox, oxymoron, hyperbole, understatement, and litotes. Point out patterns and examples using quotes.
CLOSE READING STYLE ANALYSIS: Select one short passage from the central character. Do a complete close-reading style analysis that includes tone, diction, syntax and the use of sonic, ironic, and metaphoric devices.
MEMORABLE QUOTES: Select 4 key quotes, citing line & page, and explain significance to the work.
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS AND ANALYSES: Did you enjoy the play? Why or why not? Strengths and weaknesses? What questions do you have? Does this play remind you of another work you've read or seen?
GROUP MEMBER 5:
TONE: Author's attitude toward the subject, characters, and audience. Ex. playful, angry, ironic, somber, of jovial. A playwright could deal with the same subject, plot, and characters, but by adopting different tones, achieve completely different plays. Describe the tone and undertones and discuss how the playwright creates his tones and what effect it has. Your response should take the form of an essay on tone.
LITERARY CRITICISM: Xerox or print out a body of criticism of the play and playwright. Highlight the important facts and make margin notes. Write a capsule analysis of criticism.
MEMORABLE QUOTES: Select 4 key quotes, citing line & page, and explain significance to the work.
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS AND ANALYSES: Did you enjoy the play? Why or why not? Strengths and weaknesses? What questions do you have? Does this play remind you of another work you've read or seen?
NOTE: some of the works we read are translations, but accept this and deal with the language of the translation. Identify the translator (i.e. Medea by Euripedes, translated by Robinson Jeffers.)