Mrs.

Fields Language Arts Class

Content for Cornell Notes

Introduction to The Diary of Anne Frank Play

Key Vocabulary

Bias Discriminate euthanasia Gestapo Holocaust Irrational Jew/Jude

Key Vocabulary

National Socialist/Nazi Prejudice Propaganda Racism Scapegoat Stereotype Westerbork

Elements of Drama:
Basic Dramatic Principles
Exposition (Background Information)

introduces the characters, setting, and basic situation

struggle, main problem disagreements, additional problems

Initial Conflict

Complications (Rising Action)

Climax

moment of greatest interest or suspense; the turning point

how the play ends (final act)

Denouement (Resolution)

Elements of Drama

Act and Scene:

Dramas are divided into acts and scenes. Acts and scenes are important because they organize and add dramatic emphasis to a story. In live performance you can identify a scene by a brief break in the story or blackout on the stage. Breaks between acts are much longer and often present major changes when the story resumes. A major division of a drama that usually focuses on one piece of the plot or theme of the play. Acts are divided into scenes (similar to chapters in a book).

Act

Scene

Presents action in one place or situation.

Elements of Drama

Stage Directions:

Stage directions are the instructions written into the script of a play that describe the characters, sets, costumes, and lighting. They give the readers insight into what the author intends for the visual aspects of settings and specific actions. Stage directions appear in italics offset by brackets.

Elements of Drama

Irony: occurs when there is a difference between what is expected and what actually happens in a short story, poem, or play.

Situational irony

An author creates situational irony when a character expects a particular outcome, but the opposite occurs.

Dramatic irony

An author creates dramatic irony when the reader or audience has important information that the character or characters do not have.

For example, dramatic irony may result when a character lacks selfawareness and acts according to false ideas.

How is the play, The Diary of Anne Frank an example of dramatic irony?

We (audience/readers) know that Anne and the others will not survive.

Elements of Drama

Flashback:

An interruption in the present action to show events that happened at an earlier time.

Characters in Crisis (Conflict):

Every play centers on a crisis, a situation of danger or difficulty that places something of great value at risk: life, love, family, and pride, anything that is precious to them. The crisis may arise because the characters want something for which they must struggle with someone else (external conflict) or with themselves (internal conflict). The crisis may also arise because the characters want to remove a threat to their safety or happiness.

Character cannot avoid the situation and must stay and face the threat = external conflict Character chooses to avoid the threat = internal conflict

Making a Change (Characterization):

Most plays are about change, both in characters and in their relationships.

In The Diary of Anne Frank both dynamic and static characters exist.

These changes come about as the characters work out their conflicts.

In The Diary of Anne Frank, we see several of the characters change as a result, some becoming wiser and more generous, others pettier and more self-centered.