Drama
A play is not a story with the speech marks removed. It was written to be watched, and the best answers remember that.
Read it as performance
When you read a play, keep asking what an audience would see and hear, not only what they would be told.
This one habit lifts drama answers immediately, because it produces the observations that examiners reward: who is on stage and who is absent, who speaks most, who is silent, what the audience knows that a character does not.
- Who is on stage? A character who is present but silent is doing something. Ask what.
- Who leaves, and when? Entrances and exits are the punctuation of a play.
- What does the audience know? If they know more than a character, every line that character speaks becomes charged.
- What is physically happening? An object handed over, a door closed, a light dimmed — stage action carries meaning that dialogue does not have to state.
- Where does the act or scene end? Writers end scenes at their most uncomfortable moment. Ask why this one.
Dramatic techniques
- Dramatic irony
- The audience knows something a character does not. Everything that character then says takes on a second meaning.
- Example: Ask what the audience feels — pity, dread, amusement — and say so. That feeling is the effect you are being asked to explain.
- Soliloquy
- A character alone on stage speaks their thoughts aloud.
- Example: It gives the audience direct access to a mind. Ask whether what is said matches how the character behaves in company.
- Aside
- A short remark heard by the audience but not by the other characters.
- Example: It creates complicity between a character and the audience, and often reveals a hidden intention.
- Conflict
- The opposition that drives the play — between characters, within a character, or between a character and their circumstances.
- Example: Identify which kind. Many plays run two conflicts at once, one external and one internal.
- Stage directions
- The author's instructions about setting, movement, gesture and tone.
- Example: They are part of the text and may be quoted. A direction such as she does not look at him can be worth a paragraph.
- Climax
- The point of highest tension, after which the direction of the play changes.
- Example: Locate it precisely. Many essay questions are really asking about the approach to it or the fall from it.
- Tragedy and comedy
- Broad forms shaping expectation: tragedy moving towards loss, comedy towards restoration.
- Example: A play that mixes them does so deliberately. Comic relief in a serious play usually sharpens what follows rather than softening it.
- Symbolism on stage
- An object, a place or a piece of costume that carries meaning beyond itself.
- Example: Because an audience sees it repeatedly, a stage object gathers meaning through the play.
Writing about dialogue
In a play, everything you know about a character comes from what they say, how they say it, what they avoid saying, and what others say about them.
When you quote dialogue, comment on how it is spoken as well as what it means. Is the line short or long? Is it a question, an order, an evasion? Does the character interrupt, or get interrupted? Does the character ever fall silent?
A character who answers a direct question with another question is telling you something. Say what.
A phrase worth using
Get into the habit of writing the audience rather than the reader when answering on drama: "the audience is made to feel…", "the audience already knows…", "the audience watches him promise something we know he cannot do."
It is a small change that makes an answer sound like the work of someone who understands what a play is.
A full study guide to this play
RCF Publications produces a comprehensive study guide to Twilight of a Crane, covering plot, characters, themes, symbolism and examination answers.
Twilight of a Crane: Full Study Guide with Model AnswersSee it in RCF Publications