On The Dramatic Elements In Of Mice And Men

John Steinbeck's novels often contain rich dramatic elements. Many of his works were turned into successful plays and films: The Grapes of Wrath, The Red Pony, East of Eden were made into films; Tortilla Flat, Of Mice and Men, The Moon Is Down, The Pearl, Burning Bright, Sweet Thursday and Cannery Row were turned into plays. The author remarked that Tortilla Flat, Of Mice and Men, The Moon Is Down, The Pearl and Burning Bright were the "play-novelette", which was a new form integrating novel and play in one entity. By this new form, Steinbeck intended to use the structure and some techniques of the play to make the novel more compressed, and to use the narrative features of the novel to augment the play and bring the play more readers. Based on the theory of playwriting, the present thesis attempts to explore the dramatic elements in Of Mice and Men.This thesis is composed of seven parts:The introduction makes a general survey of various criticisms and evaluations of John Steinbeck's works and presents Steinbeck's arguments about writing in his new form-"play-novelette".Chapter One explores the dramatic structure in Of Mice and Men. The novel is divided into six parts: the first part is like the "prologue", the second part the "situation", the third and fourth parts the "rising action", the fifth part the "climax", and the sixth part the "catastrophe". Thus the novel consists of "prologue", "situation", "rising action", "climax" and "catastrophe", a structure very similar to that of a play. Chapter Two analyzes the dramatic language in Of Mice and Men.The novel is made up of dialogue in the main, and Steinbeck tries his best to make his dialogue dramatic. He uses the dramatic dialogue to provide background information, to present theme, and to depict the characters' personality. He also uses soliloquy to express the characters' conscious thought and feeling. These language features in the novel are characteristics of a play.Chapter Three examines the dramatic characters in Of Mice and Men. In this chapter, I analyze the portraits of some characters and the essential dramatic features of the major characters. According to William Packard's theory, in a play action is what makes every character dramatic. William Packard defined action as a character's want, a need, a desire, an objective: what one has to have. So we may say that a character's desire is what makes the character dramatic. In this sense, we may see that the major characters in Of Mice and Men are rather dramatic. They have their own desires and dreams and they attempt to overcome the obstacles to get what they want. Here I use William Packard's theory to interpret the major characters in the novel.Chapter Four discusses the dramatic motif in Of Mice and Men. William Packard once gave some brief introduction to dramatic motif in his The Art of the Playwright. He said: "Besides dialogue, another important technique of playwriting is the use of dramatic motifs. Motifs are the underlying poetic themes of a play, and they usually take the form of verbal metaphors or visual emblems for what the play is about. Some motifs do not need any special development or resolution, only a clear statement and reiteration in order to establish them as a recurrent mosaic of underlying themes." In Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck uses the technique of playwriting to express its motif- George and Lennie's dream. The author presents it again and again in the form of dialogue:"We're gonna have a little house and a couple of acres an' a cow and some pigs and rabbits..." The dream is like a "reprise" number which is used to restate the important melodies in a musical. In the novel, Steinbeck presents George and Lennie's dream five times, and he uses dramatic dialogue to develop it from "a hopeful dream" to "a possible dream", to" an impossible dream", and finally to"a shattered dream". Thus the motif runs through the entire novel. In The Art of the Playwright William Packard gave some examples of dramatic motifs:birth versus deaththe loss of innocence...