Difficulties in perception and analysis of drama by students of general
education schools
Obloqulova Dinara Aleksandrovna
Jizzakh State Pedagogical University, Jizzakh region, city Jizzakh/4, avenue Sharof Rashidov, Uzbekistan
(kazakova.dinara12)@mail.ru
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10449255
Keywords:
Drama, type of literature, conflict, contradiction in life, plot, list of characters, stage directions, stage
history, character, readers of individual scenes, situational training.
Abstract
: This article analyzes the specifics of drama as a type of literature, revealing a number of reasons that make
it difficult for students to perceive the play. The concept of “conflict” is considered using the example of
one of Ostrovsky’s plays “The Thunderstorm”. The work proposes methods and techniques for analyzing
of the dramatic work that can be used in literature lessons of the secondary schools.
1 INTRODUCTION
One of the most important problems of
modern school literary education is the problem of
studying a work of art, taking into account its generic
and genre originality. Drama as one of the types of
literature is considered the most difficult for students
to perceive and analyze.
The problem of perception of dramatic works
is illuminated in the works of N.A. Demidova, T.S.
Zepalova, N.I. Kudryasheva, N.D. Moldavskoy, M.A.
Snezhnevskaya and others. These methodologists note
that the difficulties of perceiving drama are associated
with the dual nature of dramatic works. N.D.
Moldavskaya notes that not all students will have the
opportunity to see drama in a literary production, so
the teacher’s task becomes teaching, reading and
understanding [6,77]. In this case, we are talking about
a special reading, during which the reader must
imagine “life depicted on stage with all the
conventions of the stage embodiment of the play...”
[6,78]. The peculiarities of schoolchildren's perception
of a dramatic work differ from the peculiarities of the
perception of lyrics and epic. The basis for the
perception of a lyrical work is the power of direct
emotional impression. And the perception of epic and
drama is connected with such a coherent chain as the
author - hero - reader. This scheme emphasizes the
lack of direct influence between the author and the
perceivers. Communication occurs through the hero.
2 TEORETIC MATERIALS
The most important content category in
drama is conflict. Conflicts, of course, exist in both
epic and lyrical work, but their role and meaning in the
epic and lyrical plot are different than in drama. The
choice of conflict largely determines the unique
position of the writer. Conflict is a way of identifying
the vital qualities of characters and revealing their
personalities; it also largely determines the direction of
the plot movement in the play.
When analyzing dramatic works, students’
independent work on the text of the work acquires
particular importance. Analysis of the speech and
actions of characters helps students understand the
essence of their characters and create a specific idea in
imagination of their appearance.
Let's try to understand the meaning of the
conflict using the example of Ostrovsky's play "The
Thunderstorm". Acute clashes between the characters
are revealed already in the first scenes of the play. This
is a conflict between the old, outdated orders and the
new, progressive ones, striving for freedom and
equality. Marfa Ignatievna Kabanova and Savel
Prokofievich Dikoy are shown as bearers of
arbitrariness, tyrants. In a world of violence and fraud,
the lives of many people are ruined. Educated Boris
has to be under the yoke of an ignorant uncle. Katerina,
sensitive and impressionable, is married off at a time
when the need for love has not yet awakened in her.
Kuligin, smart and talented, is doomed to be inactive.
Tikhon turned into a pitiful, downtrodden victim. And
it is under such conditions that the conflict between
Katerina and Kabanova unfolds. These are people with
completely different views on life, on relationships
between people. Everything that Kabanikha considers
sacred is alien to Katerina. The more Katerina is
humiliated, the more the desire for freedom, love and
happiness awakens in her soul. The conflict continues
throughout the play, but at its most acute. reaches a
scene of repentance. Katerina is unable to hide her
relationship with Boris and confesses everything. The
boar, not paying attention to the fact that they are
surrounded by people, does not spare her daughter-in-
law: “Well, well, speak up, since you’ve already
started!” She triumphs, anticipating victory. It was not
for nothing that she maintained order in the house so
much, it was not for nothing that she warned her son
against the fact that Katerina might have eyes for
someone else! But this is not Katerina’s defeat at all.
She managed to find the strength to confess to the
people, without fear of public judgment, and managed
to achieve happiness, albeit brief, by falling in love
with Boris. Having seen the clashes between the
oppressed, striving for a new life, and the oppressors,
tenaciously holding on to the old, we understand that
the old is still strong, but the movement of the new is
inexorable. Ostrovsky, depicting Katerina’s rebellion,
showed one of the most characteristic phenomena of
his time - the growth of protest among people far from
revolutionary beliefs. Katerina began by searching for
the opportunity to be human, but her disagreement
grew beyond family boundaries and began to have
social significance. Katerina’s death testifies to the
rejection of the “dark kingdom”, resistance to it, and
the growth of forces called upon to sweep away the
power of the Wild and Kabanovs. In conditions of
arbitrariness, they begin to protest, albeit timidly.
Varvara and Kudryash flee from Kalinov, Kuligin
publicly reproaches the tyrants, and Tikhon, who was
in obedience to his mother, accuses her: “You ruined
her! You, you, you...” We see that the chains of the
dark kingdom are crumbling. Katerina’s victory over
the dark ideas that fettered her mind and will is fully
revealed.
It can be noted that analyzing the conflict in
a dramatic work is a certain difficulty for secondary
school students.
Firstly, the text of the drama is unusual for
student perception, since it is different from epic and
lyric poetry: the author’s speech (the usual carrier of
information) here is episodic, and the main text of the
drama consists of the statements of the characters,
which create the illusion of the present time.
Secondly, at the same time focusing not only
on verbal, but at the same time on stage art, drama is
characterized by close attention to external plasticity
and other effects of presenting the depicted
Thirdly, a certain difficulty for a reading
student is the lack of speech by the author. It is this
circumstance that makes a dramatic work so difficult
and inconvenient to read and study in a literature
lesson.
Most importantly, when analyzing a dramatic
work, it is necessary to determine the true conflict
underlying the dramatic work so that students do not
have erroneous ideas about it. By identifying the main
conflict of the play, the teacher shows students that the
essence of this conflict expresses the author’s
worldview.
Characterizing
the
process
of
schoolchildren’s cognition of the dramatic image, N. I.
Kudryashev rightly noted: “In essence, a more in-
depth understanding of dramatic images is achieved
only when those studying them become at least to
some extent in the position of a performer” [4,138].
Thus, the main difficulty in students
mastering a dramatic text is explained by the specifics
of drama as a type of literature, its focus on the stage,
the lack of a detailed description of the characters,
their characters, situations, which presupposes the
active work of the students’ recreating imagination, the
presence of good empathy, life experience, the absence
or insufficient the development of which, for obvious
reasons, can be compensated by familiarity with the
director’s interpretations of plays, which, on the one
hand, will expand and deepen students’ understanding
of the text they have read, and on the other hand, will
contribute to the development of skills and abilities in
interpreting dramatic works.
3 METHODS
If we talk about the methodology of teaching
a dramatic work in a secondary school, then for
students to effectively perceive the work, we can offer
several of the available methods:
1
. Situational learning
involves placing the
student in a certain model of a situation, the conditions
of which coincide with those proposed by the
playwright in a specific work of art studied in literature
lessons. So, when reading “The Thunderstorm” by A.
N. Ostrovsky, these may be the following models of
situations:
- Imagine yourself in Katerina’s place. What
possible behavior options do you have? Outline the
character of Katerina. Which one is most suitable for
her? Which path would you choose? Why?
-Think about whether Tikhon guessed about
the internal state of his wife? What would you do in
his place to prevent tragedy, given the characters in
Ostrovsky’s drama? Could the tragedy have been
prevented?
- Mentally transfer the drama that took place
about a century and a half ago to modern conditions.
Is such a development possible in modern society? Are
there any differences? What are they?
2.
Drawing up stage directions for the play.
The author's stage directions precede each act
of the play and mark the character's appearance on
stage and his departure. The remarque also
accompanies the speech of the characters. When
reading a play, they are addressed to the reader, when
staged on stage - to the director and actor. The author's
remark gives a certain support to the “recreating
imagination” of the reader (Karyagin), suggests the
setting, the atmosphere of the action, the nature of the
characters’ communication.
Remarque reports:
- how to pronounce the hero’s remark
(“restrained”, “with tears”, “with delight”, “quietly”,
“out loud”, etc.);
- what gestures accompany it (“respectfully
bowing”, “courteously smiling”);
- what actions of the hero influence the course
of the event (“Bobchinsky looks out the door and hides
in fear”).
The stage directions describe the characters,
indicate their age, describe their appearance, what kind
of family relationships they are connected to, indicate
the location of the action (“a room in the mayor’s
house,” the city), “actions” and gestures of the
characters (for example: “peers out the window and
screams”; "brave")
3. In the final classes there will be
competitions for reciters of individual scenes, stage
history of the drama, viewing of the film
adaptation, and discussion of it.
CONCLUSIONS
Drama shows the hero in action; There are no
descriptions, other than those contained in the stage
directions and words of the characters. There is no
narration in the drama; the sequence of events is
recreated on the basis of remarks, monologues and
dialogues of the characters, as well as remarks by the
author. The author's position is hidden to a greater
extent than in works of other types of literature. The
purpose of the play for acting and for the stage requires
division into acts and phenomena and determines a
relatively small volume. The most important feature of
drama is the concentration of action and the
significance of the character’s speech. All these
characteristic features, as a rule, are not perceived by
students, who are rather superficial readers of a
dramatic work. Often, in drama lessons, a teacher has
to educate not only the reader, but also the viewer.
In the methodology of drama lessons, expressive and
commentary reading should be given first place, then
prepared reading by role, conversation about the stage
history of the play, analysis of events and characters.
The methods and techniques used in the study
of dramatic works do not differ from the methods and
techniques used in the analysis of epic and lyrical
works, but their relationship is somewhat different.
In the process of studying literature, of
course, not only literary development takes place, but
also moral and general aesthetic development, closely
and organically connected with one another. This
development is most often provided by literature
lessons, where children are introduced to the world of
art. Namely, dramatic works closely connect both
literature and theater.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The author expresses gratitude to the
professors of Jizzakh State Pedagogical University
O.A. Kim and Z.D. Pardaeva for scientific and
practical help in writing this article.
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