English Literature / Unit 20 ENL 1910 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Drama Questions in Review
The idea
Drama is twenty percent of the exam. For a dramatic passage, first identify the kind: tragedy, comedy, comedy of manners, closet drama, realist or absurdist. Second, identify who speaks and whom they address; a soliloquy reveals thought, while dialogue reveals conflict. Third, read for dramatic irony: what the audience knows that a character does not. Fourth, notice verse or prose, since Shakespeare and his contemporaries shift between them for rank and mood. Fifth, for later drama, ask whether the play explains its situation by society or leaves it unexplained. Then answer by citing the speech and its effect on stage.
In practice
Kind, speaker, irony, verse or prose.
Where people slip
Read stage drama as performance. A line's meaning often depends on who hears it.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Unlocks
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