The Main Effect

The most distinct quality between drama and narrative is the simple fact that we learn everything through peoples' monologues in a drama and in a narrative we learn everything either through the point of view of a certain character, usually the main one, or from the third person. Usually drama is made for a playwright form and we think of narrative as the typical style for a novel. One of the effects of these two styles' main difference is the type of interaction the reader receives from reading one or the other. A great set of examples that can be used to distinguish the differences are "A Jury of Her Peers" and "Trifles" by Susan Glaspell. The stories have the same plot and storyline, the only difference being that "A Jury of Her Peers" is written as a narrative and "Trifles" is written as drama. In the narrative form, we receive most of our insight from a third person narrator, whereas drama makes us to deduce evidence from the characters' conversations. Another key point is that we learn things just as the characters do in a drama, we don't know anything ahead of time necessarily but in "real time" like the characters do. Drama tends to cut out the scenery details as well, except for maybe a couple lines in the beginning that set the stage. Because of this we have a specific place that the drama will take place as opposed to a variety of places that a narrative entails. There is no worry about the setting of the scene and a focused is placed on the characters' actions. In "Trifles," we are able to pick up on the details of the characters and we learn their motives and thoughts through their words. Drama is a more effective way of involving the reader on a more "realistic" level.