Melodrama

Melodrama

The term melodrama refers to a dramatic work that exaggerates plot and characters in order to appeal to the emotions. It may also refer to the genre which includes such works, or to language, behavior, or events which resemble them. It is usually based around having the same character traits, for example a hero (always the fearless one), heroine (the love of the hero, usually the one that the hero saves), villain (usually likes the heroine too) and villain's sidekick (typically gets in the way of or annoys the villain). It is also used in scholarly and historical musical contexts to refer to dramas of the 18th and 19th centuries in which orchestral music or song was used to accompany the action. The term originated from the early 19th-century French word mélodrame, which is derived from Greek melos, music, and French drame, drama (from Late Latin drāma, which in turn derives from Greek drān, to do, perform). An alternative English spelling, now obsolete, is "melodrame".

Read more about Melodrama.