Chapter 10

Analyzing Drama

Katharine Walsh

Definition and Overview

The term drama primarily refers to a written work in verse or prose that tells a serious story through the words, actions and interactions of the characters. In general, it is intended to be performed either on the stage or as a television or movie production and thus has an important visual component. Over the course of the year, students will read two dramatic works: Wolfgang von Goethe’s Faust I (Winter Quarter), and Euripides’ Bacchae (Spring Quarter). Both plays are classifiable under the broader genre tragedy, which is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as “a play dealing with tragic events and having an unhappy ending, especially one concerning the downfall of the main character.” Euripides’ play, a classical Greek tragic drama, is a representative example due to its sustained serious tone and tightly unified plot resulting in the death or unredeemed suffering of the members of the house of Cadmus. In contrast, Goethe’s play, completed in 1808 in Germany during the Romantic period, complicates notions of genre classification by including occasional comic moments and concluding with Faust’s redemption, rather than destruction, at the conclusion of the play’s second part. It also contains a much more intricate plotline as well as a rich mixture of metrical forms. Please refer to Dr. Ava Arndt’s chapter on “Genre” for an extended discussion of the term as well as difficulties with genre classification.

Suggestions for Analyzing a Dramatic Text

You should be aware by now that the act of analysis requires you to examine the content and structure of a work for explanatory and interpretative purposes rather than merely to summarize the content. So, though the scope of the analysis will depend on the assignment or parameters given by the section leader, the focus will be on examining why a particular action, interchange or event is significant (rather than merely relating what happens). Despite genre differences, however, the same basic rules apply for all textual analyses of literary works—whether of a novel, a poem or a play. Along with considering each work as a product of a specific historical time frame, you will want to identify the major themes and study how these are conveyed or developed through character delineation and plot movement. As you read each play, it may be helpful to keep in mind the following questions:

1. Where is a particular scene situated?
2. How is the action in the scene contributing to the plot or to character development?
3. Who is speaking and to whom? Conversely, who might be a silent or hidden observer?
4. Is the speaker angry, agitated, excited, frightened, despairing or ecstatic? Why?
5. What stage directions or descriptive elements are provided? How are they helpful in visualizing a scene or constructing meaning?
6. How are key terms, and the use of meter, rhyme, or figurative language impacting or contributing to the interpretive process?

To see how these questions might help initiate an analysis of a play, consider the excerpt below from Sophocles’ Antigone, which many of you read in high school. The lines are spoken by Creon, the newly crowned king of Thebes:

Of course you cannot know a man completely,
His character, his principles, sense of judgment,
not till he’s shown his colors, ruling the people,
making laws. Experience, that’s the test.
As I see it, whoever assumes the task,
the awesome task of setting the city’s course,
and refuses to adopt the soundest policies . . . ,
he’s utterly worthless. So I rate him now,
I always have. And whoever places a friend
above the good of his own country, he is nothing. . . . (194-204)

If merely summarizing the content, much of the passage’s richness could easily be overlooked. The reader would only need to describe what is happening and might simply state that “Creon is addressing his subjects for the first time in order to explain what type of ruler he expects to be and how they will be able to assess his leadership.” While this statement is accurate, the suggested questions remind the reader (or writer) to examine the significance of the stage directions, physical location, the attitude of the speaker(s), the intended audience and why the action is taking place—along with scrutinizing the use of language and meter.

For instance, the stage directions given before this passage begins specify that Creon is addressing his audience in front of the palace. The location is important because the palace itself functions as a symbol of power that in turn helps establish Creon’s own authority. In addition, his choice of words and confident tone promote his belief that he will in fact prove to be the leader who “adopts the soundest policies” and restores order to the city. Thus, the rhetorical purpose of his speech is designed to establish his character (ethos) as a man of integrity who rules for the good of the people rather than out of self-interest; it is also designed to reassure the Elders that he is not aspiring to become a tyrant. Athens was a radical democracy at the time Sophocles wrote the Antigone, and issues of authority and the limits of power would have been of especial importance to his contemporaries.

Defining and discussing key terms such as judgment or friend in the context of the passage or play could be vital as well. One of the meanings of judgment is the ability to reach sound conclusions based on a careful assessment of the facts or situation. One’s sense of judgment, if highly developed, also connotes wisdom—a vital trait of an ideal ruler. Creon’s reference to friend, however, actually has negative implications in the context of his speech because he is emphasizing that a ruler must place the good of the many above that of the individual. In other words, knowing that corrupt rulers often practice nepotism, he is careful to reassure his audience that he will not allow friendships to influence his decisions. The passage could also be discussed as an instance of dramatic irony, which occurs when a character’s words have a different meaning for the reader than his or her intended meaning. Comparing Creon’s claims in this speech to his later words and actions reveal a discrepancy between the king he intends to be and the tyrant he seemingly becomes as the action unfolds. Though much more could be said about the passage and the richness of themes and figurative language it contains, what has been touched on in this paragraph and the preceding one mark possible beginning points for analysis.

Since much of the plot of a play progresses through dialogue rather than narration or indirect discourse (though the inner thoughts of a character such as Faust and Dionysus are communicated directly to the audience at times through monologues), viewing or enacting parts of it can greatly enhance the interpretive process. Your section leader may therefore encourage students to do dramatic readings or enactments in class; alternatively, he or she might show a video clip and discuss the impact of staging as a form of interpretation on the part of the director and actors. Many students—especially visual learners—find that comprehension is enhanced by imagining how a scene or section of a play might be staged as it unfolds through the act of reading.

Tips on Citing Drama Using MLA Documentation Style

Whether you are working with presentation slides or composing an essay, it is important to acknowledge the sources of evidence used to support your claims. In formal writing in particular, specific rules apply to formatting and citing quotations from a dramatic work:

1. If quoting three or less lines of text by a single speaker, incorporate the quotation into your own writing and use a slash mark with a space on either side of it to indicate line breaks in the text:

In Dionysus’ opening speech, he explains he has returned to Thebes in disguise “to refute that slander spoken by my mother’s sisters— / those who least had right to slander her” (25-26). The audience is thus privy to vital information that the characters will only learn of when Dionysus’ revenge is complete.

2. There is no need to cite page numbers (unless your section leader requires them), since line numbers are given, and neither Faust I nor the Bacchae contain formal Act or Scene breaks. For plays that do contain Act and Scene numbers, use Arabic numerals and separate each with a period. The following bolded sample specifies that the lines from this play are numbered 21-26 and have been taken from Act 3, Scene 2: 3.2.21-26.
3. When quoting more than three lines, set off the quotation from the rest of your prose and use block format (see the chapter on “Integrating Quotations Stylistically” for additional details). Begin the quotation on a separate line indented 10 spaces or one inch from the left margin and try to duplicate the line structure of the actual text. If a line is too long to fit within the right margin, it should be continued on the next line and indented an additional three spaces. You may reduce the indentation of a quotation to less than one inch from the left margin if this will eliminate the need to carry over text to the next line:

Faust enters into the bet with Mephistopheles, believing himself to be impervious to temptation:
            If you ever lure me with your lying flatteries,
            and I find satisfaction in myself,
            if you bamboozle me with pleasure,
            then let this be my final day!
            This bet I offer you! (1703-1707)

4. To reproduce a dialogue between two or more characters, the lines must be set off from your own prose (as in block format), even if only two lines are reproduced. Each character’s name must be included in capital letters before his or her words are cited and either be placed flush with the left margin or indented one inch (ten spaces); the name is followed by a period. Indent all subsequent lines an additional quarter inch (three spaces); when the dialogue shifts to another character, begin on a new line indented one inch from the left margin and be sure to include each subsequent speaker’s name. Although MLA guidelines specify beginning the quotation on the same line as the speaker’s name, it is also permissible to begin the quotation on the next indented line if that better replicates the page layout of the actual text:

FAUST.
            The essence of the like of you
            is usually inherent in the name.
            It appears in all-too-great transparency
            in names like Lord of Flies, Destroyer, Liar.
            All right, who are you then?
MEPHISTOPHELES.
                                                                        A portion of that power
            which always works for Evil and effects the Good. (1331-1337)

5. One final note: all quotations, whether from a poem, a play, or a text, are double-spaced (even when reproduced in block format); in fact, MLA documentation style specifies double-spacing throughout the entire document—from the header through the Works Cited page.