Drama Essay, English homework help

. Carefully read the following sections and fiction titles from Portable Literature: Reading, Reacting, Writing:

Chapter 25: Understanding Drama

• Kirzner & Mandell
  • “Dramatic Literature”, “Origins of Modern Drama”, “Defining Drama”, “Recognizing Kinds of Drama”

• Anton Chekhov, The Brute

Chapter 26: Drama Sampler: Ten-Minute Plays

• Kimberly Pau, Magic 8 Ball
• Harold Pinter, Applicant

Chapter 27: Plot

• Kirzner & Mandell
  • “Plot Structure”, “Plot Development”

• Susan Glaspell, Trifles
• Henrik Ibsen, A Doll House

Chapter 28: Character

• Kirzner & Mandell
  • “Characters’ Words”, “Characters’ Actions”, “Stage Directions”, “Actors’ Interpretations”

• Paul Dooley and Winnie Holzman, Post-its
• William Shakespeare, Hamlet

Chapter 29: Staging

• Kirzner & Mandell
  • “Stage Directions”, “The Uses of Staging”

• Michael Salomon, The Date
• Sophocles, Oedipus the King

Chapter 30: Theme

• Kirzner & Mandell
  • “Titles”, “Conflicts”, “Dialogue”, “Characters”, “Staging”

• August Wilson, Fences

When citing drama, page numbers are not used in the parenthetical reference (unless the play has only one act, as in the student essay in your literature book).  Usually, the act, scene, and line numbers are used; for example, (I.ii.25-27) or (1.2.25-27) would denote Act I, Scene 2, lines 25-27 as the reference for the quote it followed. Either choice, the use of Roman numerals or Arabic numerals, is workable as long as you stay consistent throughout the essay. However, Ibsen’s play contains three acts and no scenes; each spoken entry is numbered as a paragraph, not as a line.  For the purposes of this assignment then, include the act number and entry number of your citations, separated by a period, within your parentheses  [(3.220), for example, would show Act 3, speaker entry #220—Helmer, in this instance].

Be sure to block and identifydialoguebetween two or more characters when you are citing.  The following example comes from theMLA Handbook, page 85:

A short time later, Lear loses the final symbol of his former power, the soldiers who make up his train:

  GONERIL.  Hear me, my lord.  What need you five-and-twenty,

 ten or five,

  To follow in a house where twice so many

  Have a command to tend to you?

  REGAN.  What need one?

  LEAR.  O, reason not the need!  (2.4.254-58)

[Note that this example is used to show blocking anddialogue.  Since it is an example from Shakespeare’sKing Lear, the parenthetical reference reflects the playwright’s use of acts, scenes, and line numbers, unlike A Doll House.]

If you are only citing one character’s lines and it is clear to the reader through your introduction of the quotation, no identification is needed.

Writ Essay   750-1000  Words

Drama Essay

 should use these terms and concepts in your essays (attached)