How To Put A Quote From A Play In An Essay

How to Quote and Cite a Play in an Essay Using MLA Format

MLA style provides guidelines for citing both small and big passages of plays in the torso of your text. In addition, MLA requires you to note any plays y'all reference on a separate works cited listing. How you include quotes from a play in your text will depend on how whether you're quoting a unmarried character or dialogue betwixt multiple characters.

Quoting a Play in Your Essay

Whenever you quote a play in your essay, MLA fashion requires y'all to include an in-text citation showing where the quote came from. For a play, this will include the abbreviated title of the play, and the section of the play in which the quote is institute.

If you are quoting a single grapheme'south dialogue, or stage directions, in your paper, you can simply include the quote inside quotation marks as part of your sentence.

If quoting a verse play, lines are separated past a slash /. Have the following from Shakepeare's "Measure for Measure":

In asking for his pardon, Claudio states "the miserable have no other medicine/Only only promise" (Measure, three.1.two-3).

In the in-text commendation, "Measure" show's the play's title, "3" is the human action number, "i" the scene number, and "2-3" the lines on which the quote appears. Note that each item in the play'south sectionalisation is separated by periods. '},{'content':'If y'all're quoting a play that does not accept scenes or lines, include the deed, and note it every bit such, so it is non confused with a page number.

For case, Caryl Churchill'southward "Cloud 9" has no scenes, so you might cite information technology as follows:

Betty's feet is shown by her worry toward Tommy. "He's going to fall in. Make Martin brand him movement back" (Cloud, act 2).

Quoting Dialogue From Multiple Characters

1 of the features of plays is that multiple characters speak to each other in dramatic form. If you quote two characters speaking to each other this manner in your paper, it is formatted as a cake quote. Include a blank line between the trunk of your paper and the showtime line of your quote.

When dialogue switches characters, include a blank line betwixt each character'southward lines. Each line in the block quote must be indented one inch from your the remainder of your newspaper's text, and if a character's speech runs more than than 1 line, each additional line is indented an boosted one/4-inch. The names of characters are written in full caps -- don't forget to include an in-text citation later on the quote.

This quote is from Aristophanes'southward "The Birds":

PISTHETAIROS: I never saw so many birds! They make me nervous.

EUELPIDES: Yous said it. When they elevator their wings you can't encounter where you're going. ("Birds", párodos)

Greek plays are divided into named subsections, such as episodes and strophes -- the name of each subsection should be included when citing a Greek play. In this example "párodos" is the choral department including the quote.

Including a Play on Your Works Cited Listing

In MLA style, an additional page is added after the last page of your paper to include all items that were cited in your essay.

When you quote or reference a play in your writing, you place a reference on this folio to give the information of the book or anthology in which y'all found the play. Your reference will include the name of the writer, the play title, the publication information, and the format in which it was found. MLA arranges this information in the following order:

Author Lastname, Firstname. Championship of Play. Publication Location: Publisher, Year of Publication. Format.

For instance:

Churchill, Caryl. Cloud 9. New York: Theater Communications Group, 1985. Impress.

If you are referencing a play that has been translated and/or edited, include the translator's and/or editor's name later on the title of the play:

Pirandello, Luigi. Six Characters in Search of an Writer. Trans. Edward Storer. Ed. Adam Frost. Mineola: Dover Publications, 1998. Print.

Plays in Anthologies

Plays will often be included in a multivolume work or album. If yous are citing a specific play that is included in an anthology, the album name should be included in italics subsequently the play title.

In addition, the pages the play appears on inside the anthology should be included afterwards the twelvemonth of publication. Here's an example of an anthology citation:

Aristophanes. The Frogs. Four Comedies. Trans. and Ed. Dudley Fitts. New York: Harcourt, 1962. 69-156. Print.

Note that if the translator and editor are the aforementioned person, you list "Trans." first.

Plays Found Online

To include a play found online your reference list, you volition replace the publisher information with the name and date of the Web page on which yous institute the play. Likewise note the source format as "Spider web." You do not need a URL to cite a Web source in MLA, merely yous demand to signal the date you last accessed the Spider web page. Format your citation as follows:

Author Lastname, Firstname. Title of Play. Proper name of Web page. Proper noun of website, last engagement Web page was updated. Spider web. Date you accessed Web page.

Here is an example:

Shakespeare, William. Measure for Measure. The Consummate Works of William Shakespeare. Massachusetts Constitute of Engineering, north.d. Web. 16 March 2022.

Note that "n.d." means "no date." You can use this in identify of the update engagement for a webpage, or publication appointment for a volume, if no date is available.