Genre Studies Unit- IV Melodrama

Melodrama

            Melodrama was a debased form of tragedy. Originally a prominent place in it was assigned to song but now the term is reserved for a play of a crudely sensational type, relying for its effect on physical action, purely theatrical language and behaviour and naive sentiment.

            It is a subgenre in drama just like we have Tragedies, Romantic Comedies etc. In melodrama, we have characters, plots that are sensationalised, exaggerated so much that it tries to appeal the emotions of the audience and readers. It is made up of two words ‘Melo’+ ‘Drama’. The stories that are told to us with the help of music are known as Melodrama. This particular subgenre was popular during the Victorian period. Among all the plays in the Victorian period, the most three popular works are           

          Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s ‘Lady Audley Secret’

            Willie Collin’s ‘The Woman in White’

            Jean Jacques Rousseau’s ‘Pygmalion’

            It is a writing technique which a lot of writers use to avoid because it is sort of writing where exaggerated characters, sophisticated plots, or we can say sensational plots are introduced which more or less fails to get the reader connected with the work. Readers find it difficult to correlate these exaggerated characters and plots to their real life.