Romeo and Juliet NOTES

NOTES:
Dramatic Foil – A foil is a secondary character who contrasts with a major character as a way to bring out personality traits.
In Romeo and Juliet, the Nurse, the Frair, Benvolio, Mercutio are all dramatic foils.

Act A major division in the action of a play. The ends of acts are typically indicated by lowering the curtain or turning up the houselights. Playwrights frequently employ acts to accommodate changes in time, setting, characters onstage, or mood. In many full-length plays, acts are further divided into scenes, which often mark a point in the action when the location changes or when a new character enters.
Scene In drama, a scene is a subdivision of an act. In modern plays, scenes usually consist of units of action in which there are no changes in the setting or breaks in the continuity of time. According to traditional conventions, a scene changes when the location of the action shifts or when a new character enters.
Drama Derived from the Greek word dram, meaning "to do" or "to perform," the term drama may refer to a single play, a group of plays ("Jacobean drama"), or to all plays ("world drama"). Drama is designed for performance in a theater; actors take on the roles of characters, perform indicated actions, and speak the dialogue written in the script. Play is a general term for a work of dramatic literature, and a playwright is a writer who makes plays

FIVE ELEMENTS OF TRAGEDY:
1) Play must have a tragic hero
2) The hero must be fated to fall
3) The hero must have dramatic foils
4) The hero must have internal and external conflicts
5) The play raised some question about the nature of existence

ELEMENTS OF A TRAGIC HERO:
1) The tragic hero is a man of noble stature. Usually he is of noble birth
2) The tragic hero is good, though not perfect, and his fall results from his committing what Aristoltle calls “an act of injustice” either through ignorance or from a conviction that some greater good will be served. This act is, never-the-less, a criminal one ad the good hero is responsible for it even if he is totally unaware. Translated: the hero is usually virtuous in many ways, loyal to friends and family, has high moral standards, but some flaw in personality and it is this flaw that causes his downfall.
3) The hero’s misfortunate is not wholly deserved and the punishment far exceeds the crime. The audience leaves saddened by the sense of waste of human potential.
4) Though the hero may be defeated, he has dared greatly, and he gains understanding from his defeat and must become an example for others.
(Simplified: 1) Noble birth and of noble character; 2) Virtuous and loyal; 3) Has a tragic flaw; 4) Tragic flaw causes downfall; 5) The audience learns something through the characters failing).