Avast, thy scoundrel!
hero villain heroine sidekick damsel in distress The characters depend on where the melodrama is from.
the hero is rubbish and the villan is the lover to the girl
Melodrama is a type of play. This type of play normally has the same characters every time. eg Hero Heroine Villain Side Kick Servant Elderly Parent. The Hero always defeats the Villain and rescues the Heroine. The Side Kick is normally silly and gets lots of things wrong!
Melodrama began in the 18th century, it was regarded as one of the best types of drama during the elizabethan era. the common tv series 'the simpsons' was based on melodrama.Many themes were explored as melodrama evolved into charidrama. the main themes were the hero saving the 'damsel in destress' and the the villiain becoming a hero and the hero becomes the villian and the damsel becomes the villain then the hero who was the villian becomes the damsel who was the hero.hope this helped
The cast of A Melodrama of Yesterday - 1912 includes: Margarita Fischer as The Persecuted Heroine Eddie Lyons as The Hero
Melodrama characters are never lifelike. They are exaggerated.
There are actually three major plot elements to the standard melodrama. The first element is provocation The motivating force of the villains abuse of the hero/heroine. Why the villain chose his/her victim. The second element is the "pangs" of pain suffered by the hero at the merciless hands of the villain. The third major element is the penalty served to the villain at the end of the melodrama. This is where the villain pays for abusing the hero heroine. If you cited only two major elements of melodrama...it could be provocation of the villain (real or perceived) and penalty...or perhaps crime (the actual acts against the hero) and the villain's punishment for those actions. I would argue that there are three major elements to melodrama personally.
You would have: Villian Hero Heroine Loveable Rogue Elderly Parent
hero, damsal, villian, sidekick
villian hero parent heros sidekick child
This character is important in Melodrama because he is the one who saves the heroine from a dangerous situation at the end of the play. He is the one who ensures the play ends happily every after for the good characters.
A hero would have positive traits like courage and kindness and fairness. They might also have a tragic flaw that they must fight against in order to be a hero.