Actor's Equity Association, SAG, AFTRA
 

A Glimpse of Theater History

  

Melodrama

The most popular form of the 19th Century, melodrama is a sort of literary mongrel. Elements of melodrama had existed in 18th Century forms like sentimental comedy, domestic tragedy, neoclassic tragedy and even pantomime. They were brought together and formalized by August Friedrich Ferdinand von Kotzebue (1716-1819) and Rene Charles Guilbert de Pixérécourt (1773-1844).

The most important characteristic of melodrama was the strict observance of poetic justice in conformance with the morals of the day: good was always rewarded and evil always punished (note the rather crude influence of Neoclassicism). The world of melodrama is one in which deeds and characters are separated by clear-cut distinctions. The characters are not so much archetypes in the Neoclassic sense as stock characters. (See Menander) Originally a play embellished with music (Gr. melos), Melodrama followed a fairly narrow contextual scheme:

I. There are stock characters (hero, heroine, comic character & villain) who do not change psychologically or morally, which means the interest lies in the manipulation of the plot in which fate, Providence and justice play important parts. The action arises out of the evil machinations of the cold-blooded villain operating on a falsely accused hero, a captive maiden, long suffering elders or some variation or combination of the above.

II. The play is organized in a three act structure

A. Act I establishes a strong antagonism.
B. Act II contains the violent conflict precitated by the antagonism from Act I.
C. Act III resolves the situation in accordance with sound moral principles.
D. The plot line must be very simple since subtleties would blur the moral distinctions. Usually the hero and heroine undergo superhuman trials at the hands of unscrupulous forces. Suspense is emphasized; the final reversal of fortunes at the conclusion is extreme: certain death to safety; certain disgrace to vindication; poverty to wealth, etc. There is always a series of plot twists, i.e. discoveries, hairbreadth escapes utilizing secret passages, hiding places, disguises, etc.

III. Often melodrama tries to observe the unities of time, place and action, in a conscious bow to classicism.

IV. The structure reduces tragedy to its least common denominator, "enlivening" it with romantic situations, comic effects, spectacle, aall relieved with a happy ending. Jean Anouilh ihas the Chorus in his Antigone say, "Death in a melodrama is really horrible because it is never inevitable. The dear old father might so easily have been saved, the honest young man might so easily have brought in the police five minutes earlier."

 

Melodrama, then, employs rather crude colors, violent contrasts, a plethora of exciting events. The emotional appeals are very basic: "arousal of pity and indignation at the wrongful oppression of good people and intense dislike for wicked oppressors." This sounds very like the reason so many television magazine shows remain on the air. The emphasis on plot anticipates the even more widespread "well-made play."1

The form continues to flourish to this day in such blockbuster films as Rocky, Star Wars, The Fugitive, and many others. [An semi-relevant comment from WST: The final film of the Star Wars Trilogy, by aspiring to higher intellectual ground misses the point. Muddying our feeling for Darth Vader by making him Luke Skywalker's father overcomplicates our relation to the story. We don't want to feel sympathy for Darth Vader any more than we want to feel sympathy for Adolph HItler. Nor do we have any assurance that Luke Skywalker is capable of any profound thought. The pseudo-Recognition (with a capital R) is forced and disappointing.]