Dramatic Intentions

'Dramatic Intentions' are a concept which may well be alien to non-theatre students, but which are crucial to the understanding of any play - especially given the number of marks given in this exam to the understanding of the plays as plays.

An outline of dramatic intentions within "Basic Drama Theory" is given in Wikipedia.

So, what are they?
They're what the playwright or director wants an audience to get out of a play; for example the dramatic intentions in a comedy would be to amuse.

In some plays they are more evident than others; for example, in 'Equus', it can be seen fairly easily that Shaffer wants his audience to question psychoanalysis and the justice system, as well as the role of nurture and environment in the personality and psychosis of a child.

In 'Othello', however, dramatic intentions are harder to decide; they could be to lead the audience to question the role of race, or Iago's motives, or the nature of evil. None of these has a truly solid grounding, the way that the intentions for 'Equus' seem to, and so a degree of hedging in thus necessary so as not to generalise or make wild assertions with which the examiner could easily disagree.

Questions? Ask :)

- HistGrrl x