Dramatic Conflict In One-Act Play

The form of the one-act play may be differentiated from the full-length play by the limitation of its fundamental dramatic elements: characters, plot structure, language and dialogue. It tends to expose character through a vigorous series of events whereas the usual play tends to illustrate character rising as a result of events and under the impact of incidents in every point. consequently, the plot and the language of one- act plays are condensed to an complete minimum. The dramatic conflict is minimized to the extent that it is existing in one or two situations throughout the play. The motivation of the characters is often unsophisticated since the one-act play lacks the extension of time, place and action through which the typical character

In The Rope, there is one main conflict, the conflict between Luke and his father which moves on two interwoven levels: internal and external. Luke 's abhorrence for his father and his feeling that he is living like a stranger who is always confronted with an alien world, drive him to vicious physical action, to rob and torture his father. Most of this conflict is reported by the characters of the play; it is once represented during the action of the play in a single situation on the stage when Luke pretends to hang himself in the attendance of his father, who watches him with eager eyes. At this point, they know how much they hate each other and how much

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IV

Language and Dialogue

Generally speaking ,the dramatic language is composed of words, statements and other kinds of expression which are only a " means to an end, the creation of the play as art object". (9) The characters use language in a selection of ways and with varying degrees of awareness, but the desire to be understood and to understand other is the real meaning of their motives. In The Rope, O 'Neill uses colloquial American English.

Luke, for example, uses the colloquial expressions " the damned son-of- a gun", " the old nunny goat", in merely colloquial dialogue and pronunciation. O 'Neill uses his skill to select, economize and intensify the words and expressions he deals with.(10)

Through such language the characters of The Rope are not only able to communicate, but they express their feeling, emotions and responses in depth. Luke 's speech with Sweeney at the middle of the play is a valid example of this kind of language. He says: But I 'LL tell yuh something you can put in your pipe And smoke. It ain 't past and done, and it ain 't goin '. (11)

The economical language of the one-act play leads to an concentrated and determined