Characterization In Theatre Essay

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Drama, topic 5(b)

Consider how playwrights make characters speak in plays which you have studied and say how

the language and tone of these dialogues, conversations or monologues contribute to each play

as a whole.

Characters in plays have real human characteristics and capacities. In fact, the success of a play

may depend on how "real" the characters seem. However, characters in plays, just like

characters in fiction, are like real people, but are not real people. Even in plays such as A

Streetcar Named Desire, Waiting for Godot, and Master Harold and the Boys, which allow for

a great deal of psychological complexity, the characters have been created by their authors to

dramatize specific ideas and themes. With regard to format, the development of characters can

be conducted in several ways. For example, a few plays have narrators. Most, however, rely to

a large extent on the dialogue and action of the characters to give the audience necessary

information.

Just as in fiction, characters may be round or flat. Round characters are usually the main

characters, while flat characters usually have minor roles. A character may act as a foil, that is,

a character whose main purpose is to shed more light on an important character. Mitch, for

example, in A Streetcar Named Desire, clearly acts as a foil to Blanche: through their

interaction and dialogue, we learn much about her past and gain greater insight into her

motives.

The most obvious way to understand character is to pay attention to what a character says. A

monologue is an extended speech by one character while other characters are on stage. A

soliloquy is a speech directed toward the audience, which is not heard by the other characters.

Usually, the character giving the soliloquy is alone on stage. In a short story or a novel, we

would simply see what the character thinks. But on stage, the only way for us to see a

character's thoughts is for him to express them in dialogue or action. Thus, we get Hamlet's

famous soliloquy, in which we see what is going on behind the facade he is presenting to all

the other characters. Another way for a character to let the audience in on information which is

being hidden from the other characters is an aside, a short speech, usually just a line or two, in

which the character speaks directly to the audience or to himself, while turned away from the

other characters; it is clear that the others on stage do not hear this speech.

The dialogue between characters reveals the attitudes, values, and beliefs of the characters. But

an audience must pay attention not only to the words. One must also observe that manner in

which the speech is delivered. For example, is the character's style formal or informal? Much

can be revealed about the character s personality and...

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