Elements of drama

Catharsis- The purging of the feelings of pity and fear that, according to Aristotle, occur in the audience of tragic drama. The audience experiences catharsis at the end of the play, following the catastrophe.

Character- An imaginary person that inhabits a literary work. Literary characters may be major or minor, static (unchanging) or dynamic (capable of change).

Climax- The turning point of the action in the plot of a play or story. The climax represents the point of greatest tension in the work.

Conflict- A struggle between opposing forces in a story or play, usually resolved by the end of the work. The conflict may occur within a character as well as between characters.

Denouement- The resolution of the plot of a literary work.

Dialogue- The conversation of characters in a literary work. In fiction, dialogue is typically enclosed within quotation marks. In plays, characters' speech is preceded by their names.

Diction- The selection of words in a literary work. A work's diction forms one of its centrally important literary elements, as writers use words to convey action, reveal character, imply attitudes, identify themes, and suggest values.

Dramatic monologue- A type of poem in which a speaker addresses a silent listener. As readers, we overhear the speaker in a dramatic monologue.

Dramatis personae- Latin for the characters or persons in a play.

Exposition- The first stage of a fictional or dramatic plot, in which necessary background information is provided.

Falling action- In the plot of a story or play, the action following the climax of the work that moves it towards its denouement or resolution.

Monologue- A speech by a single character without another character's response.

Narrator- The voice and implied speaker of a fictional work, to be distinguished from the actual living author.

Parody- A humorous, mocking imitation of a literary work, sometimes sarcastic, but often playful and even respectful in its playful imitation.

Pathos- A quality of a play's action that stimulates the audience to feel pity for a character. Pathos is always an aspect of tragedy, and may be present in comedy as well.

Plot- The unified structure of incidents in a literary work.

Point of View- The angle of vision from which a story is narrated. A work's point of view can be: first person, in which the narrator is a character or an observer, respectively; objective, in which the narrator knows or appears to know no more than the reader; omniscient, in which the narrator knows everything about the characters; and limited omniscient, which allows the narrator to know some things about the characters but not everything.

Rising Action- A set of conflicts and crises that constitute the part of a play's or story's plot leading up to the climax.

Soliloquy- A speech in a play that is meant to be heard by the audience but not by other characters on the stage. If there are no other characters present, the soliloquy represents the character thinking aloud.

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. Modern playwrights, including Ibsen, Shaw, Miller, and Williams tend to include substantial stage directions, while earlier playwrights typically used them more sparsely, implicitly, or not at all.

Media Res- The narrative starts in the middle of the story instead of from its beginning. The characters, setting, and conflict are often introduced through a series of flashbacks or through characters relating past events to each other.

Tragic Flaw- A weakness or limitation of character, resulting in the fall of the tragic hero