Genre Research: Melodrama: Themes

Tragedy: 

One of the central themes of Drama Films is tragedy. A drama film is not often complete without something going wrong for the character(s) in the film. The key concept of this genre is to ensure that the audience can relate to the storyline and ultimately empathise with the characters. During the film there are often obstacles for the characters to overcome. These are often complete with both emotional highs and lows, whatever the outcome of each obstacle may be. It is rare that dramas have a happy ending. Although the person often overcomes the tragedy, there is often still a sadness or a dwelling that lingers on the character and allows the audience to put themselves in the situation. For example in the film Lovely Bones, there are many obstacles and tragedies that happen along the way. For example, her body being found, Mr Harvey (her killer) going after the main characters sister, etc. In the ending of this film, Susie goes to heaven and her killer dies. Although the death of Susie's killer and her entrance into heaven is satisfying to the audience, her death and her inability to now connect with her family on any level is still saddening. This mixture of emotions makes the perfect drama.

Death: 
Another common theme is the death of a character, usually a main one in the case of drama. The death is often tragic and unexpected, which often affects another central character on a personal level - and is usually a family member or close friend.The death often involves an accident or an illness, which shocks the audience. The audience can relate to this on a wide scale, as almost everyone has experienced death of someone they have some kind of relationship and having to come to terms with it. In our film, our main character has to come to terms with her own death. Death is something that many people are afraid of, so it will be intruiging to the characters to see her perspective of how she copes with her own death. She also has to cope with her friends suicide which is a harrowing death which will shock the audience and they will empathise for both of the girls.

Betrayal:  In many drama films, there is always someone who betrays the other in some way. This is to make the audience re-evaluate their judge of character and decide whether the persons betrayal was accidental or evil. This often leads to problems in characters' relationships. Their is always a solution to their betrayal and how the character will handle it. In our film, before our character is aware she is dead, she is feeling let down by several people who she has close relationships with. For instance, her parents, who are so busy arguing that 'they havent noticed her enter the room' (or so she thinks). Also when she visits her boyfriend, she sees him with another girl. It breaks her heart and makes her really angry with him. She is often feeling betrayed in our film as she feels as though nobody cares. This makes the audience sympathise with her, as they have more than likely had a experience where they have been betrayed.

Relationships:
In drama films, a key theme always is the relationships that are either developed or destroyed between characters. The relationships are often close, involving family members, lovers, partners or friends. These relationships often have a mixture of high and low points throughout. The problems between the characters are usually resolved at the very end. In relationships between families, there is often a case of the mother and father divorcing. Our film has aspects of this, as our main characters parents are fighting a lot which could result in their divorce. In terms of boyfriends/girlfriends, there are often rows between the two which lead to the termination of their relationship. Infidelity is always a popular way to go about this. In our film, our lead character has suspicions about her boyfriend cheating. These are averted at the very end, when she finds out the girl he was with was not romantically involved with him, but was counseling him. Her best friend in our film commits suicide over her death, which shows the closeness and the importance of the friendship they had.