The setting in dramatic literature is where the play takes place. It is everything about the place, including the time of day the play takes place. The playwright uses language to create the setting and the scenes tell the reader information about it. For example the setting of many of the scenes of Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" is Verona. Dramatic literature depends on the setting to create a space for all the action to take place.
The cast of characters are the people within the play. According to Roane State Community College, character is the most important element of literature. The protagonist is the central character in the play, while the antagonist is the character that opposes the protagonist. Minor characters are other characters in the play that may support the main characters. For example, in "Romeo and Juliet," Romeo and Juliet are the main protagonists in the play, while the antagonists are Tybalt and fate.
The dialogue is the language the characters use. Types of language characters use in dramatic literature are monologue, which is when a single character speaks directly or indirectly to the audience or other characters, and soliloquy, which are the thoughts of a particular character addressed to others when that character thinks he is alone. According to Aristotle, dialogue reveals information about the character who is speaking and it tells the audience his attitude towards other characters. Dialogue also advances the story and helps set the tone of the play.
Plot is the arrangement of the overall structure of dramatic literature. According to Aristotle, the plot has a beginning, middle and an end. In tragedies, the plot is presented to the audience in a cause-and-effect chain of incidents. An incentive moment starts off the first chain reaction and the end, or climax, is a result of earlier incidents. Aristotle believed the plot to be the most important part of the structure of a play, and the events within it should be bound by an internal necessity, or incidents causing its own effects on the action.