Domestic drama

Domestic drama expresses and focuses on the realistic everyday lives of middle or lower classes in a certain society, generally referring to the post-Renaissance eras. According to the English Communications Syllabus, domestic drama refers to a dramatic story containing an emphasis on its “characters' intimate relationships and their responses to [the] unfolding events in their lives.” The characters, their lives, and the events that occur within the show are usually classified as 'ordinary' events, lives, and characters, but this does not limit the extent of what domestic drama can represent. Domestic drama does, however, take the approach in which it “concerns people much like ourselves, taken from the lower and middle classes of society, who struggle with everyday problems such as poverty, sickness, crime, and family strife.” One scholar suggests that domestic drama is possibly one third of the plays being written.

Roots

Domestic is derived from the Latin domus, or home. The word domestic is defined as “of or relating to the household.” Drama receives the definition of “A prose or verse composition, especially one telling a serious story, that is intended for representation by actors impersonating the characters and performing the dialogue and action,” and it is derived from the Greek word drao, to act or to take action. The combination of both domestic and drama provides a literal translation of “a serious story relating to the household,” clearly a synonymous definition to the given definition provided by the English Communications Syllab