Essay On Melodrama

One convention of melodrama is the traditional melodramatic plot, best known as the 3p’s, is the provocation, pang and penalty. This is used to convey the plot of the melodrama’s. The provocation is the initial cause for setting the action in motion, often the jealousy or greed of a wicked character. The pang is the sufferings of the good and innocent characters who are in conflict with the evil. And the penalty is suffered by the wicked character in his or her evil ways in a last-minute reversal of fortune. Provocation, pang and penalty have been a part of the melodrama plot and dramatic structure from the very beginning, in the 1800’s. this has been the same distinctive plot of all melodramas since the creator, Kapparinski in 1867, created melodrama. Through watching other performances, and our own, we all had the distinctive 3p’s plot. This creates the effect of the audience and the performers, …show more content…
Over exaggerated body language helps to give out the true feelings of the character performing. Even though the actions are big, it makes the mood fun and light to enjoy. When I was acting in the melodrama we made up, Milly in class, made all her bodily movements low and creepy to display the emotions of her wacky character. Her body movements also are exaggerated by her arms being thrown about places, at people, that is taken really quite personal to someone who doesn’t know you, so this also emphasises the classic melodrama characters. Nevertheless, Milly also had her shoulders hunched over to show her sneakiness. She used her over exaggerated body language to really emphasise the emotions of her character to show the creepiness and sinister being of her character while also being dumb and clumsy. As Milly would not do things as over exaggerated in real life, it shows the conventions of the classic melodrama