The theatrical
genreA genre is a loose set of criteria for a category of composition; the term is often used to categorize literature and speech, but is also used for any other form of art or utterance...
of
melodrama uses theme-music to manipulate the spectator's emotional response and to denote character types. The term combines "
melodyA melody , also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones which is perceived as a single entity...
" (from the
GreekGreek , an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, is the language of the Greeks. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. In its ancient form, it is the language of classical...
"melōidía", meaning "song") and "
dramaDrama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a collective...
" (Classical Greek: δράμα, dráma; meaning "action"). While the use of music is nearly ubiquitous in modern film, in most cases it is used within a fairly rigid structure. In a melodrama the characterizations will accordingly be somewhat more one-dimensional: heroes will be unambiguously good and their entrance will be heralded by heroic-sounding trumpets and martial music; villains will be unambiguously bad, and their entrance will be greeted with dark-sounding, ominous chords.
Melodramas tend to be formulaic productions, with a clearly constructed world of connotations: A villain poses a threat, the hero escapes the threat and/or rescues the heroine. The term is sometimes used loosely to refer to plays,
filmFilm encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the motion picture industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects....
s or situations in which action or emotion is exaggerated and simplified for effect. As against
tragedyTragedy is a form of art based on human suffering that, paradoxically, offers its audience pleasure...
, melodrama can have a
happy endingA happy ending is an ending of the plot of a work of fiction in which almost everything turns out for the best for the hero or heroine, their sidekicks, and almost everyone except the villains....
, but this is not always the case.
18th-century origins: monodrama, duodrama and opera
Beginning in the 18th century, melodrama was a technique of combining spoken recitation with short pieces of accompanying music.
Jean-Jacques RousseauJean Jacques Rousseau was a major philosopher, writer, and composer of the eighteenth-century Enlightenment, whose political philosophy influenced the French Revolution and the development of modern political and educational thought.His novel, Emile: or, On Education, which he considered his most...
's
Pygmalion, with music by Horace Coignet, is generally regarded as the first example of the form. This was a
monodramaA monodrama is a theatrical or operatic piece played by a single actor or singer, usually portraying one character.- Monodrama in opera :...
, written for one actor in 1762 and first staged in
Lyon||-||}Lyon , often Anglicized as Lyons, is a city in east-central France in the region Rhône-Alpes, situated between Paris and Marseille. Its name is pronounced in French and Arpitan, and or in English...
in 1770. It was then taken up by Goethe in
WeimarWeimar is a city in Germany mostly known for its cultural heritage. It is located in the Bundesland of Thuringia , north of the Thüringer Wald, east of Erfurt, and southwest of Halle and Leipzig. Its current population is approximately 65,000. The oldest record of the city dates from the year 899...
in 1772 with music by
Anton SchweitzerAnton Schweitzer was a successful composer of operas.He was a child prodigy who obtained the patronage of a nobleman, enabling him to tour Europe...
. Some 30 other monodramas were produced in Germany in the fourth quarter of the 18th century.
19th century: operetta, incidental music and salon entertainment
A few
operettaOperetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Operetta in French:...
s exhibit melodrama in this sense of music played under spoken dialogue, for instance, Loewe's
BrigadoonBrigadoon is a musical with a book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe.It tells the story of a mysterious Scottish village that appears for only one day every hundred years, though to the villagers, the passing of each century seems no longer than one night...
are delivered to the accompaniment of rather beautiful, evocative music.
In a similar online, complete with several melodramas, for instance, No. 12 found here.
By the end of the 19th century, the term melodrama had nearly exclusively narrowed down to a specific
genreA genre is a loose set of criteria for a category of composition; the term is often used to categorize literature and speech, but is also used for any other form of art or utterance...
of salon entertainment: more or less rhythmically spoken words (often poetry) - not sung, sometimes more or less enacted, at least with some dramatic structure or plot - synchronized to an accompaniment of music (usually piano). It was looked down on as a genre for authors and composers of lesser stature (probably also the reason why virtually no realisations of the genre are still remembered).
Victorian stage melodrama
The
VictorianThe Victorian era of the United Kingdom was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from June 1837 until her death on the 22nd of January 1901. The reign was a long period of prosperity for the British people, as profits gained from the overseas British Empire, as well as from industrial improvements...
stage melodrama featured an the with limited number of
stock characterA stock character is a stereotype. Stock characters rely heavily on cultural types or names for their personality, manner of speech, and other characteristics. In their most general form, stock characters are related to literary archetypes, but they are often more narrowly defined...
s: the hero, the villain, the heroine, an aged parent and a comic man engaged in a sensational plot featuring themes of love and murder. Often the good but not very clever hero is duped by a scheming villain, who has eyes on the
damsel in distressThe subject of the damsel in distress, or persecuted maiden, is a classic theme in world literature, art, and film. She is usually a beautiful young woman placed in a dire predicament by a villain or a monster and who requires a hero to dash to her rescue...
until fate intervenes at the end to ensure the triumph of good over evil.
English melodrama evolved from the tradition of populist drama established during the middle ages by
mysteryMystery plays and Miracle plays are among the earliest formally developed plays in medieval Europe. Medieval mystery plays focused on the representation of Bible stories in churches as tableaux with accompanying antiphonal song...
and
morality playThe Morality play is a genre of Medieval and early Tudor theatrical entertainment. In their own time, these plays were known as "interludes," a broader term given to dramas with or without a moral theme. Morality plays are a type of allegory in which the protagonist is met by personifications of...
s, under influences from Italian commedia del'arte as well as German
Sturm und DrangSturm und Drang is the name of a movement in German literature and music taking place from the late 1760s through the early 1780s in which individual subjectivity and, in particular, extremes of...
drama and Parisian melodrama of the post-Revolutionary period.. A notable French melodramatist was
PixérécourtRené Charles Guilbert de Pixérécourt was a French theatre director and playwright, active at the Théâtre de la Gaîté and best known for his modern melodramas such as The Dog of Montarges....
whose
La Femme a deux maris was wildly popular with the masses.
The first English play to be called a melodrama or 'melodrame' was
A Tale of Mystery (1802) by
Thomas HolcroftThomas Holcroft was an English dramatist and miscellaneous writer.-Early life:He was born in Orange Court, Leicester Fields, London. His father had a shoemaker's shop, and kept riding horses for hire; but having fallen into difficulties was reduced to the status of hawking peddler...
. This was an example of the Gothic genre, a previous theatrical example of which was
The Castle Spectre (1797) by
Matthew Gregory LewisMatthew Gregory Lewis was an English novelist and dramatist, often referred to as "Monk" Lewis, because of the success of his classic Gothic novel, The Monk.-Biography:...
. Other Gothic melodramas include
The Miller and his Men (1813) by Isaac Pocock,
The Woodsman's Hut (1814) by
Samuel ArnoldSamuel Arnold may refer to:*Samuel Arnold , English composer and organist*Samuel Arnold , U.S. Representative from Connecticut...
and
The Broken Sword (1816) by William Dimond.
Supplanting the Gothic, the next popular sub-genre was the nautical melodrama, pioneered by
Douglas JerroldDouglas Jerrold may refer to:*Douglas William Jerrold , English dramatist*Douglas Francis Jerrold , English writer and publisher...
in his
Black-Eyed Susan (1829). Other nautical melodramas included Jerrold's
The Mutiny at the Nore (1830) and
The Red Rover (1829) by
Edward FitzballEdward Fitzball was a popular English playwright, who specialised in melodrama. His real surname was Ball, and he was born at Burwell, Cambridgeshire.Fitzball was educated in Newmarket, was apprenticed to a Norwich printer in 1809...
(Rowell 1953).
Melodramas based on urban situations became popular in the mid-nineteenth century. These include
The Streets of London (1864) by
Dion BoucicaultDionysius Lardner Boursiquot was an Irish actor and playwright famed for his melodramas. By the later part of the 19th century, Boucicault had become known on both sides of the Atlantic as one of the most successful actor-playwright-managers then in the English-speaking theatre...
; and
Lost in London (1867) by Watts Phillips.
The
sensation novelThe sensation novel was a literary genre of fiction popular in Great Britain in the 1860s and 1870s, following on from earlier melodramatic novels and the Newgate novels, which focused on tales woven around criminal biographies, also descend from the gothic and romantic genres of fiction...
s of the 1860s and 1870s were fertile material for melodramatic adaptations. A notable example of this genre is
Lady Audley's SecretLady Audley's Secret is a sensation novel by Mary Elizabeth Braddon, written in 1862. It was originally produced in three volumes along with a serialized magazine version and, later, a single volume edition....
by Elizabeth Braddon adapted, in two different versions, by
George RobertsGeorge Roberts may refer to:*George Roberts , American trombonist*George Brooke Roberts, , Civil engineer*George Henry Roberts , British Labour MP, Minister of Labour...
and C.H. Hazlewood.
The villain was always the central character in melodrama and crime was a favorite theme. This included dramatisations of the murderous careers of Burke and Hare,
Sweeney ToddSweeney Todd is a character who first appeared as the main protagonist of a penny dreadful serial titled The String of Pearls . Claims that Sweeney Todd was a historical person are strongly disputed by scholars, although there are possible legendary prototypes, arguably making the story of Sweeney...
(first featured in
The String of Pearls (1847) by George Dibdin Pitt), the murder of Maria Marten in the Red Barn and the bizarre exploits of
Spring Heeled JackSpring Heeled Jack , is a character from English folklore said to have existed during the Victorian era and able to jump extraordinarily high. The first claimed sighting of Spring Heeled Jack that is known occurred in 1837...
. The misfortunes of a discharged prisoner is the theme of the sensational
The Ticket-of-Leave Man (1863) by
Tom TaylorTom Taylor was an English dramatist, critic, biographer, public servant, and editor of Punch magazine...
.
Early silent films, such as
The Perils of PaulineThe Perils of Pauline is a motion picture serial shown in weekly installments featuring Pearl White as the title character. Pauline has often been cited as a famous example of a damsel in distress, although some analyses hold that her character was more resourceful and less helpless than the...
had similar themes. Later, after silent films were superseded by the 'talkies', stage actor
Tod SlaughterTod Slaughter was an English actor, best known for playing over-the-top maniacs in macabre film adaptations of Victorian melodramas....
, at the age of 50, transferred to the screen the Victorian melodramas in which he had played villain in his earlier theatrical career. These films, which include
Maria Marten or Murder in the Red BarnMaria Marten or Murder in the Red Barn is a 1935 British film melodrama starring Tod Slaughter and Eric Portman. It was directed by Milton Rosmer. It is based on the true story of the 1827 Red Barn Murder....
(1935),
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1936) and
Tom TaylorTom Taylor was an English dramatist, critic, biographer, public servant, and editor of Punch magazine...
's
The Ticket-of-Leave Man are a unique record of a bygone art-form.
Film
In film, the term 'melodrama' denotes a subgenre of the
drama filmA drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, crime and corruption put the characters in conflict with themselves,...
which generally depends on
stereotypeA stereotype is a commonly held public belief about specific social groups, or types of individuals.The concepts of "stereotype" and "prejudice" are often confused with many other different meanings. Stereotypes are standardized and simplified conceptions of groups, based on some prior...
d character development, interaction, and highly emotional themes. Melodramatic films tend to use plots that appeal to the heightened emotions of the audience, often dealing with "crises of human emotion, failed romance or friendship, strained familial situations, tragedy, illness, neuroses, or emotional and physical hardship." Film critics sometimes use the term "pejoratively to connote an unrealistic, pathos-filled, campy tale of romance or domestic situations with stereotypical characters (often including a central female character) that would directly appeal to feminine audiences."
A director of 1950s melodrama films was
Douglas SirkDouglas Sirk was a German film director best known for his work in Hollywood melodramas in the 1950s.- Life and work :...
who worked with Rock Hudson on
Written on the WindWritten on the Wind is a 1956 American drama film directed by Douglas Sirk. The screenplay by George Zuckerman was based on Robert Wilder's 1945 novel of the same name, a thinly disguised account of the real-life scandal involving torch singer Libby Holman and her husband, tobacco heir Zachary...
and
All That Heaven AllowsAll That Heaven Allows is a romance feature film starring Jane Wyman and Rock Hudson in a tale about a well-to-do widow and a younger landscape designer falling in love. The screenplay was written by Peg Fenwick based upon a story by Edna L. Lee and Harry Lee...
, both staples of the genre. The
Moment of Truth movies, produced for cable television and movie networks during the 1990s, targeted an audience of American
womenA woman is a female human. The term woman is usually reserved for an adult, with the term girl being the usual term for a female child or adolescent...
and portrayed the effects of
alcoholismAlcoholism is a term with multiple and sometimes conflicting definitions. In common and historic usage, alcoholism is any condition that results in the continued consumption of alcoholic beverages, despite health problems and negative social consequences...
,
domestic violenceDomestic violence, also known as domestic abuse, spousal abuse, child abuse or intimate partner violence , can be broadly defined a pattern of abusive behaviors by one or both partners in an intimate relationship such as marriage, dating, family, friends or cohabitation...
,
rapeRape, also referred to as sexual assault, is an assault by a person involving sexual intercourse with or without sexual penetration of another person without that person's consent....
and the like.
See also
- Damsel in distress
The subject of the damsel in distress, or persecuted maiden, is a classic theme in world literature, art, and film. She is usually a beautiful young woman placed in a dire predicament by a villain or a monster and who requires a hero to dash to her rescue...
- Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on television or radio. The name "soap opera" stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers such as Procter & Gamble,...
- Legal drama
A legal drama is a work of dramatic fiction about crime and civil litigation. Subtypes of legal dramas include courtroom dramas and legal thrillers, and come in all forms, including novels, television shows, and films. Legal drama sometimes overlap with crime drama, most notably in the case of Law...
- Serial
- Moment of Truth movies
- Comedy-drama
Comedy-drama, also called dramedy or seriocomedy, is a style of television, theatre and film in which there is an equal or nearly equal balance of humor and serious content.-Theatre:...