Lecture 10 - Structure of a Play

This is the second part of two programs talking about the structure of the play and how a playwright develops a play. We introduced this topic last time and discussed the plot, which refers to the arrangement of incidents within a play and the sequence of events. At that point, we started discussing how the playwright introduces us to the plot and how they let us know what will happen and how it will be developed in the play. We looked at some factors that playwrights need to consider in the opening scene, and how the opening scene must immediately attract the audience. Now, let's examine a couple of opening scenes in plays and see how they develop. The first one I'll discuss is not a play, but a musical called Oklahoma! with lyrics and book by Oscar Hammerstein. The book itself is actually adapted from a play called Green Grow the Lilacs by Lynn Riggs. In the case of this musical, one of the things we want to establish in the opening scene is how the game will be played and how the work will be developed. So, after the overture, which gives us a sense of the conventions followed in musicals, the curtain goes up to reveal a woman sitting on stage, churning. There is complete silence, with no sound from the orchestra. Then, a voice from offstage begins singing, "There's a bright golden haze on the meadow..." The character Curley walks onstage, singing the song "Oh, What a Beautiful Morning." Already, we understand the convention that characters in this world will sing, even though it's not the reality we experience in our own lives. We immediately catch on to this convention and expect it to continue throughout the play. With these first few lines of the song, we establish Curley's world in balance. He exclaims, "Oh, what a beautiful morning! Oh, what a beautiful day! I've got a beautiful feeling, everything's going my way." This character walks onstage, feeling like he owns the world and has everything he could want. However, we also sense that there is something he desires, a reason for him to be in this scene. After he finishes singing, the woman, Ella, turns to him and says, "Oh, if you weren't so young and smart alecky, I'd marry you and get you to sit around and sing to me." Curley says, "No, you wouldn't either because I wouldn't marry you nor any of your kin folks. I couldn't help it. Oh, none of my kin folks, huh? Yeah, and you can kill him!" He raises his voice, including that niece of yours, Miss Laurie Williams. Well, at this point, we have introduced Curley, we have introduced Aunt Ella. Aunt Ella is obviously very fond of Curley, as we've said here. And now we introduce that there is an offstage character, a niece of Aunt Ella. A niece that evidently Curley has some kind of interest in, including that niece of yours, Miss Laurie Williams. So, at that point, then we know Curley has something that he wants here. And he turns to Aunt Ella, saying, "Aunt Ella, if you were to tell me where Laurie was, where would you tell me she is?" And Aunt Ella says, "Go on, tell you. It's no concern of yours." And then Curley says, "Well, so she don't take to me much. Why does she go and be so uppity about these things?" So, he and Ella talk briefly about the relationship and how Curley can perhaps change things slightly. Offstage again, we hear "Oh, What a Beautiful Morning" again. This time, however, it's a female voice, Laurie's voice. Laurie comes on stage and she gets only through the first few lines, "I've got a beautiful feeling, everything's going my way," and she stops. "Oh, is this all that's come calling at this hour of the morning?" Curley: "You know it was me! You know it was when you opened the door!" Laurie: "No such thing! You did too!" Immediately, we realize that these two people are very fond of each other but are going to have to find some way to express their feelings. Curley: "Well, I just wanted to tell you. You know it was me you talked about up there. Thinking of something mean to say. I'm of a mind not to ask you to the Box social." Now we know why Curley has come on the scene, now we know why he feels so good. He's come over and he's thoroughly convinced that just by asking, Laurie is going to say yes. They are going to the Box social. Laurie turns and says, "If you didn't ask me, if you did ask me, I wouldn't go with you." Now the balance of the world has changed. That which Curley was so sure of, that which Curley wanted, has now gone. Laurie is not going to be so easy. She says, "How are you going to take me? You ain't gone and bought a new buggy, would you?" So, now Curley suddenly has obstacles. His world is in imbalance. Laurie is doubtful whether she is going with him to the ball, the social that night. How is he going to convey her? How is he going to take her to that Box social? Immediately, at the beginning of the play, we have introduced the conventions. Shortly after this, Curley says, "Well, I went over to a nearby town and I rented a buggy." And so, at this point, he begins to sing, "When I take you out tonight with me, honey, here's the way it's going to be. You will sit behind a team of snow-white horses in the slickest gig you ever see." And we go into the song called "The Surrey with the Fringe on Top." So, we set the convention up and now we immediately invoke it again. In fact, we find that Laurie and Curley are going into a duet. So, we have now set the convention, we've set the world in balance, but we have now upset the balance of the world. We have created a character who has a desire, or desires, and that desire is to get Laurie to accompany him to the Box social. She has set up an obstacle by saying she's not so sure she wants to go with him. And if she does go with him, how will he take her? And so now, at this point, Curley must, in some way or another, attempt to address these particular obstacles that have been given to him. He needs to rebalance his world to get what he desires. From there, we develop into the musical Oklahoma. Let's look at another example. In this case, we'll examine one of the most famous plays in the world, William Shakespeare's Hamlet. We'll focus on the opening scene of Hamlet, which can be found in your guide to the television section. You can refer to it as I discuss it here. This opening scene is 175 lines long. We'll set into motion the obstacles that this play presents. The play opens at the castle of Elsinore. We're on a platform or parapet somewhere within the castle. One guard, Francisco, paces back and forth. Suddenly, there is a noise, and out of the noise comes a voice, saying, "Who's there?" The guard on stage responds, "Nay, answer me. Stand and unfold yourself, or stand and tell me who you are." The other character, offstage or coming onstage, says, "Long live the king." The character on stage recognizes the voice and says, "Bernardo." At this point, we know it's the changing of the guard. Bernardo says, "He," and we realize it's Francisco. They have a brief conversation, and Francisco exits. Horatio and Marcellus then enter, and there is some conversation between the two of them. In line 21, we are introduced to the first indication that something is wrong in this world of guards and sentinels. Horatio says, "What has this thing appeared again tonight?" Bernardo claims to have seen nothing, but Marcellus insists that he has asked Horatio to come and see if this apparition appears. Horatio is still doubtful. They decide to sit down and wait. Suddenly, the ghost appears. Horatio exclaims, "Peace, break off! Look where it comes again, in the same figure like the king that's dead." The apparition is identified as the ghost of the dead king. One of the guards turns to Horatio, who is a scholar, and says, "Thou art a scholar, speak to it, Horatio." Horatio then speaks to the ghost, asking why it has appeared and what it's all about. From the beginning to the end, the majesty of buried Denmark, the ghost does not speak. It is offended, so it stalks away, and Horatio stays. "Speak, I charge thee, speak!" And the ghost exits. One of the guards says, "Tis gone and will not answer." At this point, Bernardo and Horatio discuss more about the figure that appeared. They wonder why this figure, which they recognize as their dead king, is in full armor. Why has the ghost chosen this particular form? Horatio then tells them a story about the dead king, Old Hamlet, who had a battle with Fortinbras of Norway. In the battle, Old Fortinbras was slain, and Old Hamlet claimed part of the lands that had belonged to Norway. Now, young Fortinbras, the new king of Norway and the son, is preparing to come and battle to reclaim those lands for his throne. This is the reason the guards are posted tonight, to be ready for young Fortinbras and his forces. As they discuss this, the ghost appears again. Horatio tries to get the ghost to speak, but there is a sound, and the ghost moves away. Now, the three of them discuss what has happened, and Horatio suggests that they tell young Hamlet about the ghost. Horatio believes that the ghost will speak to him. They decide to impart what they have seen to young Hamlet. This sets up one of the major complications of the play. Young Hamlet will be brought to the scene where the ghost appeared to see if he can get the ghost to speak and reveal what is going on. The first scene comes to a conclusion with this plan. In these 175 lines, we have established the setting and introduced the characters. The balance of the world is established with the guards and the quietness of the night. Then, additional characters are brought on stage, and the ghost is identified. The ghost is recognized as the old king, or Old Hamlet, the King of Denmark. He has just died a month prior to the opening of the play. At this point, we introduce exposition. Exposition is a word that is not always currently in favor, but it is still a perfectly good and valid word to use. As we discussed last time, a play does not necessarily encompass the complete story. The play begins at some point in the story and has a beginning, middle, and end. However, there can be events that happened prior to the opening of the play that are necessary for us to understand the events in the play itself. The respectable term to introduce such events is exposition. Horatio gives us exposition when he tells us about the battle that occurred between Norway and Old Fortinbras. He also informs us that young Fortinbras is gathering forces to reclaim the lands taken from Norway. These events happened before the play and have an influence on the story. Horatio is presented with an obstacle. The ghost will not speak to him or tell him why it is appearing. The ghost simply appears and disappears, twice. Since it is believed to be the old Hamlet, Horatio suggests that they bring young Hamlet to the same location to see if the ghost will reappear and reveal its purpose. Thus, obstacles are created for Horatio. In order to get around this obstacle, Horatio decides to bring young Hamlet to the same location the next night. We have now introduced obstacles, conflict, and exposition. We have also created suspense and tension. The suspense surrounds the ghost's intentions and why it has appeared, yet refuses to speak. We have laid the groundwork for what is to come later in the play. At the end of this first scene, we have established the beginning of the play, the suspense, and the obstacles that will occur throughout. The play is now set into motion. Scene 2 does not immediately bring us back to the previous location. Instead, we find ourselves in a room somewhere in the castle. Here, we introduce other characters in the play, including Hamlet's uncle, Claudius, who has become the new King of Denmark. We also meet Hamlet's mother, Gertrude, who has married Claudius within 30 days of her former husband's death. Various other characters are introduced in this scene. Eventually, Hamlet himself enters. At the end of the scene, the other characters exit, allowing Horatio to finally speak to Hamlet. Horatio informs Hamlet of what has happened and requests that he join him on the castle platform that night to see if they can get the ghost to speak. Horatio leaves, and Hamlet is left alone to speak his famous line, "My father's spirit in arms, all is not well. I doubt some foul play." Oh, would the night were come! Then bow, sit still, my soul. Foul deeds rise through all the earth, overwhelmed them to men's eyes. So, at that point, we are in the second scene. Now, to delay and dispense suspense even more, we now have caught Hamlet up in the plot. But instead of going directly to the platform again, we now introduce scene 3. Scene 3 introduces us to another set of characters. These characters are Ophelia, her father Polonius, and her brother Laertes. Polonius is a Lord Chamberlain within the court, and we also learn that Ophelia is a possible romantic interest for young Hamlet. Finally, now we get to scene 4. We have now gone through scene 1, which introduced this major suspense and tension, the ghost, and the ghost telling us what it's all about. And we've gone through scene 2 and scene 3. And finally, we come to scenes 4 and 5. In scenes 4 and 5, we finally have the meeting between Hamlet and the ghost. The ghost appears, beckons for Hamlet to follow him, and he and Hamlet then depart to another part of the castle. And at that point, for the first time, the ghost speaks. The ghost now informs Hamlet as to why he has come. And that is the quote: "The ghost has appeared. Hamlet says, 'Speak. I am bound to hear. The ghost, so art thou to revenge, when thou shalt hear.'" "What I am... Dial thy father's spirit, doomed for a certain term to walk the night, till the foul crimes done in my days of nature are burnt and purged away." And so, at this point, the king begins to unfold to Hamlet the happenings. The ghost says, "Revenge this foul and most unnatural murder." And so, at this point, we have set the major suspense, the major tension, the major action of the play in motion. What the ghost wants from Hamlet is for Hamlet to bring about revenge. Revenge for what? Revenge for the fact that he, the old king, was murdered. Was murdered by his brother Claudius. And so, therefore, Hamlet is now to kill Claudius in revenge for the murder that Claudius brought to the old Hamlet. At this point, we set into motion the play. We now have created the major suspense and the major tension that is to take place. Now, there are, of course, going to develop a whole series of obstacles. Playwrights create conflict by introducing to us obstacles of one kind or the other. Introduce confrontations to us. And we now go through a whole series of ups and downs. We go through a series of choices. The characters are presented with choices. The characters have alternatives to present, or which are presented and which they must consider. Hamlet, at first, is quite sure that what he is to do is to murder Claudius. He is to kill Claudius, and that is to bring about the revenge that he has. But then, it begins to occur to Hamlet. What if this ghost is a figment from hell? What if this ghost is not real? Is not a figure for what he seems to be? And that is, maybe he is... Maybe there's all something that has been made up. Maybe this is fiction. And at that point, then, Hamlet begins to doubt. Should he or should he not kill Claudius? And we find then that the play moves back and forth. As Hamlet, at one point, is convinced that, yes, he should. And at the next point, he needs to convince himself in some way that this is the right thing to do. He arrives at a point where he is convinced that Claudius is the killer, but he somehow, the other needs proof, a definite proof of it. And one of the means that he uses is a group of strolling players. Arrive the players. Then, Hamlet asks them to perform a specific play in which a murder is enacted. He believes that if King Claudius reacts to this play, it may be a sign of his guilt. The play is then acted out, and Claudius does indeed react to it, convincing Hamlet of his guilt. Therefore, Hamlet decides that he should kill Claudius. He searches through the castle to find him, eventually locating him in a praying position at an altar. Hamlet realizes that he cannot kill Claudius at this moment because it would mean his soul would go to heaven instead of hell, where Hamlet wants it to go. This becomes an obstacle to Hamlet's revenge. Throughout the play, there are various subplots that develop and present obstacles. One subplot involves Claudius fearing that Hamlet has gone mad and wants to bring about his own death. Claudius decides to remove Hamlet from the court and have him killed while he is away. These intertwining subplots create conflict, confrontations, and obstacles. The play can be thought of as a series of strategies and decisions. The characters' goals and desires are in conflict, and they must navigate through various alternatives. Hamlet faces the choice of killing Claudius but not achieving his ultimate goal of sending him to hell. He decides to withhold the killing, allowing Claudius to make his move to send Hamlet away and hopefully have him killed. As the play progresses, the playwright develops ups and downs, choices, and a flow that moves the story forward. However, there comes a point when we reach the ultimate moment of intensification, the climax. This is the moment of maximum tension and the point at which final choices must be made. Be made which lead into the inevitable end. Let's go back to Oklahoma for just a moment and talk about it because we talked about Curly. In fact, frequently we sometimes find that people jestingly say that the whole story of Oklahoma is bound around the simple tactic of who is going, who is Laurie going to choose to take her to this box social that night. And yes, that indeed is one of the plots here. But one of the other strains or perhaps the themes that run through Oklahoma is that in order for Curley to acquire Laurie, for him to win the hand of Laurie and to marry her, he must also become a man. He is presented as a boy, meaning he is not yet ready to assume the responsibilities that he must assume. He must give up being a cowboy and he must instead become a farmer. These two are antagonistic forces in Oklahoma because they have two different uses for the land. The cowboy wants the land open, once it ranges for his cattle to roam through. The farmer wants that land to be fenced in. The farmer wants to grow vegetables, wants to farm, wants to grow things on that particular land. And we have conflict here between these two groups. Curly is a cowboy, Laurie is a member of a farmer's family. She and her aunt own that particular farm. So, therefore what we find then is that in order for Curly to win Laurie, he must, one could say, must pass the rites of passagehood. He must pass the rights from being a boy into becoming a man. And we have that scene then that occurs in the musical when, as the auction goes on there, and in order for Curly to win the are, to buy the box lunch that Laurie supplied and thus also to get to spend the evening with her, he must outbid everyone else there. Curley doesn't have much money, and so at this point then what we find in this climactic scene here is that Curley must now give up those things which represent his past, those things which represent his still being a boy. And that is, he must give up his saddle. So he sells his saddle to acquire money. That's not enough. He must sell his horse to acquire money. He sells the horse. That is still not enough, and he must finally sell his gun. And finally, with the selling of those three items, he has acquired enough money that he can outbid the villain of the piece, Jud Fry. He can outbid Jud Fry, and he can thus acquire the box social, and he can thus have this being the evening with Laurie. But this moment of climax is indeed the moment in which Curly must give up those things. Everything has gone as far as he can go. And so then, we can move on and resolve the problems, weaken, and resolve the obstacle, that Curly will ask Laurie to marry him, and she will say yes. So, we have arrived then at the moment of climax, the highest moment of tension here. Following that moment of climax, and that is, it is the point, it is the irresolvable moment, in which the last turn is made. There are no more turns to be made. This is the final choice, this is the determinant factor. And so, at that point, we have arrived at the climax. And what we have left then is what is sometimes called, what is called, the denouement, using the French term here. But perhaps, if you don't want to try to remember "denouement," you perhaps can use the word "resolution." What we need then is the tying up of all of the loose ends that we have had in plays, especially plays of prior time, frequently in Shakespearean. Plays, as we find, can be rather long in the day and may have many loose ends to tie up. This takes a lot of time in modern-day drama. What we prefer now is a faster pace, so when we reach the climax, the distance between the climax and the end of the play is usually not very long. The day of Numa will come swiftly, tying up all those loose ends and letting us know how things concluded. At that point, we have arrived at the end of the play. We have mentioned before that plays do not have to begin at the beginning of the storyline. The beginning of the play is the beginning of the plot. The plot then develops by setting up a series of obstacles, actions, and events. These events come and go, moving in a way that just as the characters begin to think they will achieve their goals, something happens to prevent it. Instead, they must continue trying in some way. The playwright must keep the action moving from one event to the next. This way, we stay engaged, wanting to know what is happening and what will happen until we reach the climactic decision. Now, I have an assignment for you. Watch a commercial television sitcom, which is usually about 30 minutes long. However, within that 30 minutes, there are usually about seven minutes of commercials. The writers of sitcoms are masters of construction. They know they have around 22 to 23 minutes to construct a story. They don't have to include everything I mentioned earlier. For example, an unabridged version of Hamlet, if played with all the lines, would take a little more than four hours. But modern-day directors understand that audiences do not want to sit through such a long play. They often cut and abridge the play to reduce its length. TV writers, on the other hand, have even less time, approximately 22 to 23 minutes. In this limited time, they must establish the opening scene, introduce characters, set up obstacles, show how characters pursue their goals, create suspense and conflict, and keep the audience engaged, wanting to see what happens next. So, they introduce the obstacles, create the suspense, create the tension. Finally, they are going to reach the climactic moment and in most television shows, that climactic moment is going to come very, very close to the end of the play. And probably in something like a minute or less, they will go through the denouement and tie up all of this. Now, in addition to all of these things, they also avoid getting interrupted by three commercial breaks. They're also going to have to think in terms of how do I construct this sitcom in such a way so that we have an opening scene. We catch the attention of the audience, we set up the obstacles, we keep them suspended, we keep them in tension. We reach a point where we must now break and go to a commercial. Now, we want to keep the audience from switching channels during the commercials, wanting them to come back for the second scene of the comedy. The second scene takes us through and now we come to another commercial break. We must have constructed that in such a way that we again hold the audience, keep their attention, get them to watch the commercials, get them through another commercial break. So that then, they come back and find out how do we bring all of this to an end? How do we reach our climax? And how then do we resolve this in some way or another? In fact, what I suggest that you might do is not just only watch it, but sit down and as you're watching it, tape it, tape it. Now go back, watch it again. Watch to see how these writers have done what it is that I have indicated. That they do realize the construction of that play. And also be aware of how skillfully they are doing it. The better the writers, the more talent they have, the more we will begin to know, we will begin to follow what it is that they are doing. In fact, this becomes perhaps one of the ways in which we can judge whether a series is successful or not. And that is, that week after week after week, the writers are able to construct these 22 to 23 minutes scripts in such a way that they do it so skillfully that they keep us glued to the set every week. And the next week, we come back wanting again to see what it is that happens. Here, television good television writers are most skillful at doing this. And we should marvel at how well they construct their plays, how well they plot. And using that word in the very Aristotelian sense that we have been using it in these two series of programs. How these television writers plot their scripts. So, in these two hours that we have done, we have talked about Aristotelian construction. We've talked about Aristotle's Aristotelian principles of a play. And then how a play, television script, or film may be plotted. Now, one other thing I do want to mention here, and that is in the plotting, we may or may not have talked always in terms of story. Remember that stories may be linear, and by linear, meaning that one event leads very directly to the next event, which leads to the next event, which leads to the next event. And that is, it develops in a rather straight line. That is what we call linear construction. Another construction that is frequently used, and we saw, in fact, that Shakespeare used it, is a montage construction. And by montage construction, I mean that instead of the events of one scene leading very directly into the scene to the next scene, what we get instead is we get one scene, then we get another scene, then we get another scene, then we get another scene. And we, in the audience, hold all these in mind. And then as the connections are made, and as you saw, we had scene one with the appearance of the ghost, we go to scene two, we go to scene three. And only when we get to scene four does the ghost appear again. And we then develop that particular story for scene four and scene five. So, we've had intervening scene two and scene three that introduced other aspects to the plot. And we got this not in a straight line, but we got it more in a montage effect. So, what we do is, as in montages, we see it and we hold all of this in mind. And then we bring it together. This is what happens then in a montage. In construction, we hold these scenes in mind and, as we connect our ideas and link them together, we develop a plot. This plot is related to the story and the construction that may be used in different kinds of plot construction.