BA SEM.

II CCE III
Dramatic Design
Introduction: Every drama follows a design as it develops. A full length play is divided into five
acts and the story of a play develops in these five acts. Dramatic design thus helps to
understand the growth and development of plot and character.
In drama, if it is a tragedy, there is a conflict; there are ups and downs, clashes
between characters. The conflict increases until it reaches a decisive turn in one side
or another for good or bad. Fro this point the problem is resolved and final conclusion
is brought out. This is called dramatic design. Freytag gives a pyramidal structure of
dramatic design which is given below.
d
c

a Exposition
b Initial Action
c Rising Action/Complication
d Climax/Turning Point
e Falling Action/Denouement/Resolution
f Catastrophe/Conclusion
a. Exposition: The conflict pre-supposes certain existing condition of things and certain relations
among the characters who are to come into collision. These conditions of conflict and
relations of the characters have to be explained to the reader/audience. This takes
place in exposition. W. H. Hudson says, The purpose of the introduction or
exposition is to put the spectator in possession of all such information as is necessary
for the proper understanding of the play he is about to witness. At the outset the
spectator meets number of people in whose fortune he is interested. The spectator

wishes to know who and what they are, their relation, etc. Thus, the opening scene of
drama is largely occupies=d with explanatory matter.
This is done through prologue wherein a character comes and narrates or through
dialogues of the characters. Good exposition is always in the form of dialogue. The
exposition should be clear, brief, dramatic, vitally connected with the first movements
of the plot and it should leave natural impression on the audience. It is truly said that
the art of a dramatist lies in his power of conducting the exposition.
b.

Initial Action: -

After exposition there is the genesis of action in some incident that gives rise to
conflict. Freytag terms it as the exciting force. This incident is found in the purpose
formed suddenly or gradually in the mind of one of the characters whose subsequent
efforts carry out the design and thus become motive principle of the plot. Thus initial
incident covers mental processes as well as external events.
The conflict in the initial action can be between two opposed individuals, passions or
interests. The clash is between good and evil as embodied respectively in the hero and
the villain. This collision may be waged by the hero against fate or circumstance;
against the conventions of society, with outer antagonistic forces or even with the
nature of the man himself i. e. at war with himself.
c.

Rising Action: -

With the initial incident one enters the real business of the play, the first portion of
which comprises the complication to its crisis. Here the dramatists workmanship is
tested by clearness and logical consistency. W. H. Hudson notes, Given the
characters and their circumstances, then every event should appear to grow naturally
out of what preceded it; that which is essential should never be obscured by
unimportant details The play of motives should be obviously sufficient to account
for what is said and done. It should also maintain proper relations between character
and action. Moreover, every scene should occupy a definite place in the evolution of
the drama either by developing the plot or adding to the audiences or readers
knowledge of characters or in both ways.
During rising action those elements in the conflict will already be indicated which at
the crisis are to come into prominence for good or evil as the chief agents bringing
about the catastrophe. If the conflict is mainly between persons, then the first part of
the play should familiarize one with the characters who are to dominate the second
part; if it lies mainly in the mind of the hero, then by the presentations of those

qualities which will lead him to happiness or disaster. In this way, the foundation of
the subsequent action will be firmly laid.
d.

Crisis: -

The crisis is the reversal or the turning point in the fortunes of the protagonist. The
principal law of crisis is that it should be the natural and logical outcome of all that
has gone before. It should convincingly lead to the catastrophe. It may be condensed
into a single incident or group of incidents. Critical change in the events should be
made so clear that no doubt prevails in the mind of the reader.
e.

Falling Action: -

Falling action or denouement is that part of drama where the conflict is to be brought
to its conclusion. The conduct of the denouement depends on whether the play is to
have happy or unhappy ending. In comedy it takes the form of gradual withdrawal of
the obstacle, the clearing away of the difficulties and misunderstandings which had
been a hurdle to the good fortune of the hero and the heroine. In tragedy it consists of
the removal of the resisting elements which held the power of evil in check. As
denouement removes uncertainty, the interest then is in sympathizing with the
characters. But the problem is how to keep the interest alive after the spectators come
to know about the resolution. The answer is that catastrophe can be delayed by the
interposition of events which interrupt the progress of the falling action and thus
revive uncertainty. In tragedy it can be demonstrated by aversion of fate and in
comedy by employing unexpected obstacle to the happy course of things.
f.

Catastrophe: -

It is the final outcome, an ultimate stage of the plot. There is a sense of finality and
completeness. Catastrophe should not leave loose threads. It must obey the law of
causality; and should have natural and logical outcome of the action. Hudson quotes
Aristotle in this regards, It is therefore evident that the unraveling of the plot, no less
than its complication, must arise out of the plot itself Within the action there must
be nothing irrational. That is, an ending cannot come out of an accident. It should
grow inevitably out of the characters and actions. Thus, in comedy there will be a
happy ending; in tragic-comedy or the recent melodrama the plot is largely tragic but
the Fate smiles on all good characters at the end. In tragedy darkness is broken by a
suggestion that virtue has not suffered.
Thus, dramatic design gives a composite structure for drama.