4.1 History of English Drama - Class 11 English Textbook Full Explanation in Hindi

Key Concepts:

• Drama: Performance art involving actors, dialogue, and action, presented on stage, radio, or television.
• Elements of Drama: Plot, Character, Characterization, Dialogue, Setting, Stage Direction, Conflict, and Theme.
• Types of Drama: Tragedy, Comedy, and Tragicomedy.
• Types of Comedy: Romantic Comedy, Sentimental Comedy, Classical Comedy, Comedy of Humors, and Comedy of Manners.
• Plot: The sequence of events in a play, with a beginning, middle, and end.
• Character: The individuals portrayed in a play, including the protagonist (main character) and other major, minor, static, and dynamic characters.
• Characterization: The process of revealing the personalities and traits of the characters.
• Dialogue: The conversation between characters, including monologues and soliloquies.
• Stage Direction: Instructions for actors, including movement, setting, lighting, music, and costumes.
• Conflict: The central struggle or problem in a play.
• Theme: The main idea or message of a play.
• Willful Suspension of Disbelief: The audience's willingness to accept the unrealistic for the sake of enjoyment.
• English Theatre History: Evolution from folk theatre to Elizabethan, Restoration, Modern, and Indian theatre.
• One-Act Play: A complete story performed on stage within a limited time, characterized by simplicity, quick effects, and limited characters.
• Round Character: A character that develops and changes throughout the story.
• Flat Character: A character that remains the same throughout the story.

History of English Drama:

Introduction:

• Drama is a performance art that combines audio and visual elements.
• The audience must be able to see and hear the actors on stage.
• "Willing suspension of disbelief" allows the audience to accept unrealistic elements for enjoyment.
• Drama is a medium of expression where performers artistically express themselves based on a script.
• Drama differs from novels and poetry in its form of presentation.

Definitions of Drama:

• Shorter Oxford Dictionary: Drama is a composition in words or prose to be acted on stage, relating a story through dialogue and action, with gestures, costumes, and scenery.
• A Glossary of Literary Terms by M.H. Abrams: Drama is a composition designed for performance in the theater, where actors take on roles, perform actions, and speak written dialogue.

Elements of Drama:

• Plot: The series of events in a play, with a beginning, middle, and end.
  • It is a plan, scheme, or pattern.
• Character: The individuals portrayed in a play.
  • The protagonist is the main character.
  • Other characters can be major, minor, static, or dynamic.
• Characterization: Revealing the peculiarities of the characters and gaining insight into their personalities.
• Dialogue: The conversation between characters.
  • Involves two speakers.
  • Monologue: Speaking to oneself.
  • Reveals the nature of characters and their relationships.
• Stage Direction: The performance of the actor, use of set, lighting, music, and costumes.
  • Guidelines and suggestions given by the dramatist.
• Conflict: The essence of drama.
  • Enlivens life and grants dignity and worth to human life.
• Theme: The main idea or point of a play.
  • Stated as a generalization.

Introduction to English Theatre:

• Drama originated in folk theatre.
• Drama is a multiple art form using words, scenic effects, music, gestures, and the talents of a producer.
• The dramatist must have players, a stage, and an audience.
• The beginnings of drama in England are obscure.
• Romans established amphitheaters in England, but these disappeared when the Romans left.
• By the 10th century, rituals of plays had something dramatic in them.
• Between the 13th and 14th centuries, drama started having themes separate from religion.
• The words were spoken in English, and long dramatic scripts were called "miracle plays."
• Religious dramas were followed by morality plays, which featured abstract vices and virtues.

Elizabethan and Restoration Theatre:

• Secular morality plays have direct links with Elizabethan plays.
• The Renaissance imposed a classical tradition with themes of education, moral problems, and secular politics.
• Plays had nothing to do with religion.
• Examples of both comedy and tragedy existed.
• Thomas Kyd, Christopher Marlowe, and William Shakespeare were the prime dramatists of this era.
• Kyd discovered how blank verse could be converted into a useful theatrical medium.
• Shakespeare used blank verse brilliantly in all his plays.
• By the 1590s, the theatre in England was fully established.
• Public theatres of the 16th century differed from modern theatres.
  • They were open to the sky without artificial lighting.
  • The stage was a raised platform supported by pillars.
  • There were no curtains.
  • The main platform was surrounded on three sides by the audience.
• In the 17th century, enclosed theatres gained importance.
• Shakespeare's era came into existence in the 16th century.
• Shakespeare wrote for the contemporary theatre, manipulating the Elizabethan stage.
• Ben Jonson was a classicist, moralist, and reformer of drama.
• The closing of theatres by the Puritans in 1642 brought this period to an end.
• No theatres existed between 1642 and 1660 due to the Civil War.
• After the Restoration, a different kind of dramatic theatre appeared.
• Chapman, Thomas Middleton, Webster, and Dekker were at the forefront.
• When Charles II came back in 1660, the theatres were reopened.
• Restoration comedy achieved its peculiar excellence.
• Drama developed into classical drama with upper-class ethos.
• In the early 18th century, comedy declined into sentimentalism and became the comedy of manners.
• George Etherege was its most important exponent.
• Oliver Goldsmith and Richard Sheridan rescued drama from such depths.
• Sheridan brought back some of the brilliance of Restoration dialogue into comedy.

Modern Theatre:

• Modern theatre has a picture frame stage, actresses taking female parts, movable scenery, and artificial lighting.
• There was a clear influence of France in theatre, audience, and themes.
• The drama of the early 19th century was on the way to decline.
• The theatre was home to irregular spectacles, melodramas, and farces.
• The audience of the 19th century theatre did not have the intelligence or imagination of the Elizabethan audience.
• The 19th-century theatre was unrelated to the life of the time.
• Changes in the structure of society had modified the human personality.
• Henrik Ibsen, the great Norwegian dramatist of the 19th century, dominates modern drama.
• He developed modernist, realist, social, and psychological dramas like "A Doll's House," "Ghosts," and "An Enemy of the People."
• George Bernard Shaw was deeply influenced by Ibsen's innovations.
• Shaw was determined that his own plays should also be a vehicle for ideas.
• The responsibility of elevating English drama fell with Oscar Wilde and G.B. Shaw in the late 19th and 20th centuries.
• T.S. Eliot experimented with Greek tragedy in the early 1940s.
• Other dramatists of the modern era include John Osborne, Kingsley Amis, Anton Chekhov, Bertolt Brecht, Eugene O'Neill, Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, Eugene Ionesco, Samuel Beckett, and Harold Pinter.

Indian Theatre:

• The earliest seeds of modern Indian drama can be found in the 4th century AD.
• Mahabharata provides a feasible date for the beginning of theatre in India.
• Natya Shastra by Bharat Muni is the most complete work of dramaturgy.
• It gives a mythological account of the origin of theatre.
• Modern Indian drama has influences from all over the world, as well as Sanskrit and Urdu traditions.

History of Drama Table:

• Medieval Period (11th-15th Century):
  • Types of Plays: Didactic plays, Mystery plays (Miracle plays), Cycle plays, Morality plays.
  • Classic Plays: Robin Hood, Everyman.
• Renaissance Period (1600-1700):
  • Types of Plays: Tragic comedy, Melancholy, Revenge plays.
  • Classic Plays: Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Henry IV, Doctor Faustus, The Jew of Malta, Duchess of Malfi, The Changeling.
• Restoration Period (1660 Onward):
  • Types of Plays: Heroic drama, Pathetic drama, Restoration comedy.
  • Classic Plays: All for Love, The Way of the World.
• Victorian Period (1837-1901):
  • Types of Plays: All types of plays.
  • Classic Plays: The Importance of Being Earnest, Candida, A Doll's House, An Enemy of the People.
• Modern Period (1901-1945):
  • Types of Plays: Stream of consciousness, Absurd plays, Poetic drama, Radio drama.
  • Classic Plays: Pygmalion, Murder in the Cathedral.
• Post-Modern Era (1945-2000):
  • Types of Plays: All types of drama, Kitchen sink drama.
  • Classic Plays: Look Back in Anger, Waiting for Godot.

One-Act Play:

• A one-act play is a complete story performed on stage in a limited time.
• It has its own features and characteristics.
• The action is confined to a single place, and the number of characters is limited.
• Simplicity of design and quick effects are its features.

Features of a One-Act Play:

• Plot: Limited to a single interesting episode.
• Theme: The central idea around which the plot revolves.
  • Directly stated through instructions, dialogues, and other features.
  • Can be implicit or explicit.
• Setting: The place where the story takes place.
  • Unity of time, place, and action must be considered.
• Language: Words are the weapons of a writer.
  • Non-verbal communication can be very effective.
  • Dialogues should be witty, pungent, and concise.
  • Poetic devices add to the impact.
  • The tone of the dialogue can be comic, ironic, sad, serious, etc.
• Characters: Limited number of characters.
  • Main characters and supporting characters.
  • Round characters develop through experience.
  • Flat characters remain the same throughout the story.

Characteristics of a One-Act Play:

• Has one or more scenes.
• Concise in manner.
• Has a single dominant theme.
• Treats problems of everyday life.
• Has a beginning, middle, and end.
• Gives introduction of stage direction.
• Creates mood or atmosphere.
• Has unity of time, place, and action.
• Has simplicity of plot, concentration of action, and unity of impression.
• Has limited characters.

Creativity:

• The course book aims at understanding and studying the given genre and being creative.
• Learners should try to produce the given content in their own language.
• They are expected to add their own imaginative beginnings or ends.
• It will be an aid to create citizens having linguistic proficiency.
• Learners are expected to study as well as enjoy exploring the riches of the language.

Conclusion:

The history of English drama is a rich and varied tapestry, evolving from religious rituals to complex social commentaries. Understanding the elements of drama, the different types of plays, and the historical context in which they were created provides a valuable framework for appreciating this art form. The one-act play, with its concise structure and focus on a single theme, offers a unique opportunity for creative expression and linguistic exploration. The goal is to foster creativity and encourage students to engage with the language and literature in a meaningful way.