Lajos Egri examines a play from the inside out, starting with the heart of any drama: its characters. For it is people - their private natures and their inter-relationships - that move a story and give it life. All good dramatic writing depends upon an understanding of human motives. Why do people act as they do? What forces transform a coward into a hero, a hero into a coward? What is it that Romeo does early in Shakespeare's play that makes his later suicide seem inevitable? Why must Nora leave her husband at the end of A Doll's House? These are a few of the fascinating problems which Egri analyzes. He shows how it is essential for the author to have a basic premise - a thesis, demonstrated in terms of human behaviour - and to develop his dramatic conflict on the basis of that behaviour. Premise, character, conflict: this is Egri's ABC. His book is a direct, jargon-free approach to the problem of achieving truth in a literary creation.
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
FOREWORD
PREFACE
I PREMISE
II CHARACTER
1. The Bone Structure
2. Environment
3. The Dialectical Approach
4. Character Growth
5. Strength of Will in a Character
6. Plot or Character -- Which?
7. Characters Plotting Their Own Play
8. Pivotal Character
9. The Antagonist
10. Orchestration
11. Unity of Opposites
III CONFLICT
1. Origin of Action
2. Cause and Effect
3. Static
4. Jumping
5. Rising
6. Movement
7. Foreshadowing Conflict
8. Point of Attack
9. Transition
10. Crisis, Climax, Resolution
IV GENERAL
1. Obligatory Scene
2. Exposition
3. Dialogue
4. Experimentation
5. The Timeliness of a Play
6. Entrances and Exits
7. Why Are Some Bad Plays Successful?
8. Melodrama
9. On Genius
10. What Is Art? -- A Dialogue
11. When You Write a Play
12. How to Get Ideas
13. Writing for Television
14. Conclusion
APPENDIX A. Plays Analyzed
APPENDIX B. How to Market Your Play
APPENDIX C. Long Runs on Broadway
INDEX
