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What is melodrama?

melodrama refers to theatre in which music is used to increase the spectator's emotional response or to suggest character types. While this use of music is nearly ubiquitous in modern film, in a melodrama these musical cues will be used within a fairly rigid structure, and the characterizations will accordingly be somewhat one-dimensional: Heroes are unambiguously good, villains unambiguously bad, and musical cues upon entrance of either will be unambiguous in signaling these facts to the audience. In other words, a melodrama tends to be a formulaic production, with a clearly constructed world of connotations: a villain poses a threat, the hero escapes the threat (or rescues the heroine) and there is (generally) a happy ending.

However, the term is also used in a broader sense to refer to a play, film, or other work in which plot and action are emphasized in comparison to the more character-driven emphasis within a drama. Melodramas can also be distinguished from tragedy by the fact that they are open to having a happy ending, but this is not always the case

Example:

Movies that melodrama is involved in: 1)Hulk 2)Superman 3)Spiderman 4)Iron man

Plays tha melodrama is involved in: 1)Uncle Tom's cabin 2)The Peril's of Pauline 3)The Otoroon 4)Corsican brothers