Domestic drama
Domestic drama expresses and focuses on the realistic everyday lives of middle or lower classes in a certain society, generally referring to the post-Renaissance eras. According to the English Communications Syllabus, domestic drama refers to a dramatic story containing an emphasis on its “characters' intimate relationships and their responses to [the] unfolding events in their lives.” The characters, their lives, and the events that occur within the show are usually classified as 'ordinary' events, lives, and characters, but this does not limit the extent of what domestic drama can represent. Domestic drama does, however, take the approach in which it “concerns people much like ourselves, taken from the lower and middle classes of society, who struggle with everyday problems such as poverty, sickness, crime, and family strife.”a domestic drama is a drama that is usually being used in comedy.
Roots[edit]
Domestic is derived from the Latin domus, or home. The word domestic is defined as “of or relating to the household.” Drama receives the definition of “A prose or verse composition, especially one telling a serious story, that is intended for representation by actors impersonating the characters and performing the dialogue and action,” and it is derived from the Greek word drao, to act or to take action. The combination of both domestic and drama provides a literal translation of “a serious story relating to the household,” clearly a synonymous definition to the given definition provided by the English Communications Syllab
Audience Appeal[edit]
Domestic drama tends to appeal to the audience because most of the audience can relate to the events within a domestic drama. The audience is appealed to this style of drama in four ways: empathy, humor, suspense, and resolution of the issues. This group of spectators can empathize with the domestic drama at hand because the domestic drama touches incidents that are common to the 'ordinary' people. Many playwright use the audience's empathy to manipulate the proposed expression of the show. David Williamson's “Brilliant Lies” uses “domestic unit battling” to create sympathy from the audience as they are confronted with the issue. Humor provides the entertainment value within a domestic drama as these usually touch base with serious matters. The entertainment value of a show keeps the people engaged without having to continually use serious turns of events in order to maintain an audience's interest. Suspense provides “dramatic irony” as the audience indulges itself within the characters' situation and privacy of their backgrounds. Suspense is used in a domestic drama in order for the audience to react with the characters of the show. This “[positions] the audience to feel privileged and therefore involved with the unfolding drama.” As in all shows, an audience expects a resolution to the conflict within a show. Domestic dramas drive the show to its resolution to keep the audience desiring to reach the climax. Domestic dramas use such a technique that is very similar to the style of modern soap operas.
Text[edit]
The text of a domestic drama follows a specific guideline in order to stay within this genre: subject, structure, and language. By deviating from this guideline too excessively, the classification as a domestic drama becomes problematic. The subject of a domestic drama must be that of the 'ordinary' people. The audience (generally 'ordinarily') needs to connect with the characters of the domestic drama, and the plot must the following the “domestic sphere” of “traditional families, urban family units, or domestic households.” The subject of the domestic drama could also apply to relationships at a workplace as this does relate to the 'ordinary' events of 'ordinary' people. The subjects of concern could vastly range from poverty to family strife, from civil rights to economic injustices. Due to the audience relationship with the material of the domestic drama, most domestic dramas are most successful in the society in which the plot is direct towards because the audience is most familiar with the culture of the show. Domestic dramas follow a fairly linear structure and generally have a sort of patriarchal figure as a representative of the family. This patriarchal figure provides the guidelines of the everyday nature of the subjects of the show. Confrontations with the patriarchal figure are also a common structure within domestic dramas. The language used in a domestic drama generally relates with the 'ordinary' subjects of a show to reinforce the “realistic impression” of the show onto and audience. The usage of a specific language enables a specific audience to further connect with the subjects of the domestic drama as language is an “intimate personal way of communicating.”
Social expression[edit]
Theater has been commonly used as a public expression of the humanitarian affairs of a certain era. From the seventeenth to the nineteenth era, drama expressed the ideals of the caste and court system, with nobility on high and rustics down low. This expression gave way to the public in order to see and understand how this system was to work within their society. Some might say that theater has played a very important role in the shaping of societies when used in this way. Nineteenth century induced the importance of the middle-class within drama and introduced the role of the bourgeois and the usage of aristocratic entertainment. The political aspects of a certain era were inevitably present within these shows, especially shows leading towards domestic drama. Theater was considered to have “good [socially] position” characters against the immoral acts of society, usually a sort of infringement against a certain code of behavior. Theater was the way to explain the rights and wrongs of a certain lifestyle in a society, especially if the characters were of the 'ordinary' people so that the audience could relate with the characters. Modern drama changed this aspect of theater as it was not directed towards any one class in society, but rather the collaboration of the artistic aspects within these classes. Such a combination created much difficulty in domestic drama as domestic drama appeals to a specific class.