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What are the different types of traditional drama?
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Traditional drama, originating with Aristotle, includes tragedy and comedy. Tragedy involves a noble hero's downfall due to a flaw, while comedy rewards good characters and punishes evil ones. Over time, drama evolved to include common people in tragedies, as seen in Arthur Miller's works. Comedy diversified into high comedy, comedies of manners, character, situation, and domestic comedies, as well as satire and farce. Other types include melodrama, mystery drama, and tragicomedy, enriching contemporary drama.
Traditionally, going back to Aristotle, drama was placed into two categories. A tragedy was a drama in which a noble hero, through a tragic flaw such as hubris, experienced a reversal of fortune and a recognition of some profound truth. In a tragedy, everyone typically suffered as a result of the protagonist's flaw or mistake. A traditional comedy was a drama in which the good characters were rewarded and the evil characters were punished—it was not necessarily a humorous story or performance.
Since Aristotle's times, however, drama has grown and changed. In the early eighteenth century in England, tragedies began featuring common men as heroes instead of heroes exclusively of noble birth. In the twentieth century, Arthur Miller continued with that approach to tragedy.
Comedy eventually came to define humorous plays. It includes many sub-genres. High comedy is a sophisticated type of comedy that plays homage to its...
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culture. A type of high comedy would be thecomedy of manners, which portrays an upper-class society and its rules, manners, speech, and idiosyncrasies. Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest falls into this category.
A comedy of character features characters who are funny because of their exaggerated traits or habits. Situation comedies (now known as sitcoms) and domestic comedies are similar in that they take everyday situations and show the humorous actions of characters who must navigate through mix-ups and misunderstandings. Romantic comedies, in which romantic relationship is the center of the plot and humor, are types of domestic comedies.
Satire is a type of comedy that exposes vice or corruption through mockery. It often has a political slant. Farce is a type of low comedy that depends on physical humor and frenetic action to make audiences laugh. Movies featuring the Keystone Cops and Three Stooges are examples of farce.
Melodrama features a complex plot with many twists and turns, clearly defined good and bad guys, and grand spectacle. Mystery drama follows a formula that often includes a crime that needs to be solved, a brilliant detective, an investigation, and a satisfying resolution. Tragicomedy combines elements of tragedy and comedy but has an underlying serious theme.
The changes that have taken place in drama through the centuries have added richness and variety to stage productions. New genres have not supplanted old genres but have come to coexist with them, making contemporary drama a multifaceted art.
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