How does a play differ from a novel or epic poem?

Question

please give me some examples
thanks

Answer 1

A play is written with the intention of it being watched and heard by an audience more than being read (which is why plays are so difficult for a lot of people to read). They're written entirely in dialogue, with the exception of stage directions.

An epic poem (like The Aeneid or Beowulf) is a very, very long poem that tells a specific story. They don't usually have much in the way of dialogue, though they do tend to include extended speeches by major characters. Most well-known epic poems also date from the Middle Ages or earlier.

A novel tells a story in prose. Some include some dialogue, others don't; but dialogue is not the focus of the writing. It paints the whole picture, so to speak, through the text.

Answer 2

I would like to make an alternative explanation to Theatre Doc's description of an epic poem. That being how these had originally been written to be recited, in whole or in part, by the troubadours of the Middle Ages. The Eddas of the Norse peoples or the Arthurian Tales of Gaul and Britain were originally meant to be performed by someone solo or accompanied with a musician for added effect. These performers would have these hugely long stories committed to memory over countless months and years of practice in a time when the written word was far from common outside of a large city or regional capitol, and they would have a repertoire of such epic tales not just one or two. This would be on the order of a modern actor having the entire script of multiple one man shows ready to be performed the moment it was requested, or any part thereof.
Theatre Doc's descriptions of plays and novels are such that I can quite readily agree with them and, as to modern enjoyment of epic poems it isn't likely that there are many troubadours around to whom you can listen as they recite the Song of Roland, so I guess reading it will have to suffice. ^_^

Answer 3

A play is not literature--it was not created to be read by someone sitting in a chair. As a blueprint for a theatrical production, a playscript is not a finished work of art, it is only finished when it is performed. And performance is the reason a playscript is created by a playwright who is so called because a play is not written like literature, it is wrought, created as an outline for theatre artists to use to create a production. Novels are literature, written to be read by someone sitting alone in a chair. Epic poems are histories or myths that have been recorded in poetic form and therefore also qualify as litereature as they are written to be read by an individual. Using Aristotle as a model, plays are imitations of an action. Stories meant to be told by acting them out. Novel are imitations of descriptions, conversations, and actions as well as thoughts and other human activites that are put together to tell a story. Epic poems are imitaions of mythology(history) in the Greek sense. Novels exist in the past, the present and the future. Epic poems always exist in the past. Plays always exist in the present as they are happening right in front of us.


boy is this answer going to get you in trouble

Answer 4

Plays are not meant to be read, they are meant to be enjoyed by all the senses. Plays are performed by a number of actors/actresses dressed to look like a charactor. They act out a story. In a way, it is a novel with only dialoge, and much more of it.

Answer 5

a play is constant dialouge with stage direction and occasional narration that isnt usually spoken
Epic poem is all narration
a novel has both