Novels and plays both count as literature. But there are a number of differences between these two genres. Perhaps the most important one is that novels (and indeed essays and poems) are meant to be read, and this usually involves a single person and some form of solitude. Plays, on the other hand, are meant to be performed, and this almost invariably means some form of audience gathering to witness the combined labours of actors, directors, producers, set designers, lighting and sound engineers, make-up artists, and so on.
How an actor interprets an individual line can make an enormous difference to the meaning of the play. For example, how did s/he deliver the line: Sarcastically? Bitterly? Blithely? Reluctantly? Where was the actor looking when s/he said the line: Up into the lights? Out into the wings? At another actor on–stage? At the audience? Where was the actor standing when the line was delivered: Near the front of the stage? Off to the side? Behind a screen? At the back?
Please choose a single line from either The Glass Menagerie or The School for Scandal. Then write a post of no more than 200 words in which you demonstrate how the line carries two different meanings depending on how or where or to whom it is delivered. We do not want you to summarize or paraphrase the line, nor do we want you to speak about it in generalized or abstract terms. Rather, we want you to think about drama as a genre, and how the meaning of a line can be changed depending on the tone or intensity with which it is delivered.
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