The theoretical framework of dramatistism is derived from Burke’s (1969) Pentad. This framework allows attention on the act being undertaken, the scene where the act occurs, the agent responsible for the act, the agency through which the agent engages in the act, and the purpose for which the agent engages in the act.
As Burke notes, “both act and agent require scenes that ‘contain’ them” (p15). In this way, both act and agent can be partially defined by their presence in the scene. ... The distinction between forms of act that put the agent in the scene is necessary for a full analysis of the scene. Burke (1969 p16) notes the indeterminate nature of using an interaction (ratio) between the agent and the act in the following way

The scene-act and scene-agent ratios are in the fullest sense positive (or ‘positional’). But the relation between act and agent is not quite the same. The agent does not “contain” the act, though its results might be said to ‘pre-exist virtually’ within him. And the act does not ‘synecdochically share’ in the agent, though certain ways of acting may be said to induce corresponding moods or traits of character.

Excerpt from Ruth 2004, p58