Comedy and Tragedy | | Comedy According to Aristotle (who speculates on the matter in his Poetics), ancient comedy originated with the komos, a curious and improbable spectacle in which a company of festive males apparently sang, danced, and cavorted rollickingly around the image of a large phallus. (If this theory is true, by the way, it gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "stand-up routine.") Accurate or not, the linking of the origins of comedy to some sort of phallic ritual or festival of mirth seems both plausible and appropriate, since for most of its history--from Aristophanes to Seinfeld--comedy has involved a high-spirited celebration of human sexuality and the triumph of eros. As a rule, tragedies occur …show more content…
Elaborate comic intrigues involving deception, disguise, and mistaken identity are the rule. Examples of the genre include Shakespeare 's Comedy of Errors, the "Pink Panther" movies, and the films of the Marx Brothers and Three Stooges. * Romantic Comedy. Perhaps the most popular of all comic forms--both on stage and on screen--is the romantic comedy. In this genre the primary distinguishing feature is a love plot in which two sympathetic and well-matched lovers are united or reconciled. In a typical romantic comedy the two lovers tend to be young, likeable, and apparently meant for each other, yet they are kept apart by some complicating circumstance (e.g., class differences, parental interference; a previous girlfriend or boyfriend) until, surmounting all obstacles, they are finally wed. A wedding-bells, fairy-tale-style happy ending is practically mandatory. Examples: Much Ado about Nothing, Walt Disney 's Cinderella, Guys and Dolls, Sleepless in Seattle. * Satirical Comedy. The subject of satire is human vice and folly. Its characters include con-artists, criminals, tricksters, deceivers, wheeler-dealers, two-timers, hypocrites, and fortune-seekers and the gullible dupes, knaves, goofs, and cuckolds who serve as their all-too-willing victims. Satirical comedies resemble other types of comedy in that they trace the rising fortune of a central character. However, in this case, the central character (like virtually everybody
Satire is a form of literature designed to expose or criticize political or current events. Oscar Wilde is known for his flamboyant personality that shows in his writing. “The Importance of being Ernest” is one of his famous works, also known as a trivial comedy for serious people. Jonathan Swift is well known as a satirical writer. “A Modest Proposal” is one of his familiar works.
The Oscans also brought their own type of theatre and ideas about such to Rome. The Oscans had their own type of comedy called Atellan Farce. It was a kind of improvised comedy played with five main characters for each show. There was the fool, the stupid one, a foolish old man, a wise fool, and a monster with big jaws. Respectively the names to these characters were Maccus, Bucco, Pappus, Dassenus and Mandacus. These stock characters brought life to those of Rome 's own stock characters named the same.
A satire is a piece of work that is designed to ridicule or tease a group or organization, generally for the purpose of being humorous. “The Importance of Being Earnest,” a play by Oscar Wilde, is a satire, ridiculing class, gender, and marriage. This essay will describe some points from each of these sections, as well as give a brief synopsis of the play these examples come from.
‘Othello’ was written between 1601 and 1603. It was first performed in the Elizabethan courts during the Christmas season. The idea of a ‘perfect’ tragedy is the idea that the tragedy is faultless; it does what is expected; so makes the audience feel empathy and sympathy for the characters who suffer. There are two different types of tragedy: classical tragedy and Shakespearean tragedy. The tragic hero in this play is the main character, Othello. Othello's misfortune comes about because of his jealousy, trust, and his pride. This essay aims to look at, and compare, how Shakespeare wrote his tragedy, and how other tragedies are written. I will mainly compare ‘Othello’, for Shakespearean tragedy, and ‘Oedipus Rex’, by Sophocles, for
Throughout time, the tragedy has been seen as the most emotionally pleasing form of drama, because of its ability to bring the viewer into the drama and feel for the characters, especially the tragic hero. This analysis of tragedy was formed by the Greek philosopher Aristotle, and also noted in his Poetics (guidelines to drama). As a playwright, Shakespeare used Aristotle’s guidelines to tragedy when writing Othello. The play that was created revolved around the tragic hero, Othello, whose tragic flaw transformed him from a nobleman, into a destructive creature, which would inevitably bring him to his downfall. This transformation follows an organic movement of the complex plot from the beginning, middle, to the end of the drama while
In literature during the medieval and renaissance time a comedy meant that characters in a play, peom, or movie had to endure a hardship or disaster and the come to a happy ending. Comedy sometimes isn’t even a comedy, sometimes it has a deeper meaning. The significance of comedy in Dante`s Divine Comedy is that it stands up to the structural meaning of comedy. For example, it has a happing ending, which in most literature works, is the meaning of comedy.
Satire is defined as the use of a variety of elements such as sarcasm, irony, ridicule and humour to mock and criticise a subject by bringing its flaws to light as means to encourage change. In Gulliver’s travels human vice and folly are held up to ridicule, scorn and deride in an attempt to "shame men out of their vices" (Bullitt., 14).
A tragedy is beginning with a problem that affects everyone, for example, the whole town or all the characters involved, the tragic hero must solve this problem and this results in his banishment or death. A comedy is defined as also beginning with a problem, but one of less significant importance. The characters try to solve the problem and the story ends with all the characters uniting in either a marriage of a party. Although these two genres are seen as being complete opposites of each other, through further analysis one can gather that though they are different certain similarities can also be seen.
Aristotle’s criteria for a tragedy involves three main subjects: values, characters, and a conclusion; William Shakespeare’s Macbeth incorporates these critical topics. The values are supernatural powers, which determine what is right and what is wrong. The character in a tragedy must be noble by birth and by action. In the conclusion, the character must understand why he or she fell, accept the punishment, and order must be restored. By including these, Macbeth fits Aristotle’s criteria for a tragedy.
Most romantic comedy movies fulfil the viewers’ expectations of the perfect love story whilst incorporating comedic elements. Typically there is always a pretty girl who falls deeply in love with a male character, often less popular and less attractive, who makes multiple comedic attempts in winning her heart until eventually they both fall madly in love and live happily ever after, in this case a genre movie is expressed as “those commercial feature films which through repetition and variation, tell familiar stories with familiar characters in
In a comparison of comedy and tragedy, I will begin by looking at narrative. The narration in a comedy often involves union and togetherness as we see in the marriage scene at the end of Midsummer's Night Dream. William Hazlitt tells us that one can also expect incongruities, misunderstandings, and contradictions. I am reminded of the play The Importance of Being Ernest and the humor by way of mistaken identity. Sigmund Freud tells us to expect excess and exaggeration in comedy. Chekhov's Marriage Proposal displays this excess both in language and in movements. Charles Darwin insists that in a comedy "circumstances must not be of a momentous nature;" whereas, Northop Frye identifies
Theatre flourished in Greece, particularly in Athens, between c. 550 BC and c. 220 BC. During its beginnings theatrical performances were part of Dionysia, a festival held in honour of the god Dionysus. The plot of the plays was always inspired by Greek mythology, a theme that is still common today. Many modern plays and movies have been directly based on or incorporated elements of Greek mythology or simply mythology in general. Every play had a chorus, though the size and importance of it varied. The
The Middle Ages are rarely considered a time of blossoming comedy, but the comic mystery cycle, known as Mistero Buffo, brought a bit of frivolous light to the Dark Ages. As explained in Dario Fo’s analysis of these plays, jongleurs played a precarious position in society: improving morale of the masses by mocking the rich and ordained, yet keeping out from under the footsteps of those lampooned. This was no more popular than during the feast of fools, where the working-class gathered to enjoy the jongleurs’ performances and release frustrations about the class system, while masking it with a religious moral. Often performed at this event was the Mistero Buffo (Fo, 1-14), which similarly juxtaposed relevant satire and biblical passages through stock characters, Aristotelian values of comedy, and an underlying breakdown of degree and religion.
Tragedy as a form works differently than modern drama when compared to the ancient Greeks. When it comes to modern drama, the main character is usually an ordinary person, someone who is middle class. Where as with Greek tragedy, the main character is someone important and noble, such as a king or queen. Modern drama revolves around everyday problems such as social, economical, or personal conflicts. Greek Tragedies seem to be very linear. It’s mostly about the hero making a bad decision from the beginning of the play, which leads to his or her downfall in the end. Although, they were of higher ranking, ancient Greek’s beliefs made the main character powerless to avoid their fate, which was controlled by the gods. As far as conventions go, Greek Tragedies are very unified. The tragedy of the royal protagonist will go through only one time span, a day or less, one setting, and one story. In a modern tragedy, however, the ordinary protagonist’s story goes through multiple realistic settings and a realistic time line. Also, the story would contain multiple plots, which may contain flashbacks.
There are many characteristics that make up a comedy. Characteristics such as mistaken identity, battle of the sexes, and jumping to conclusions are what set the comedic story apart from the tragedy. Within a comedy, no matter how much fault, and dismay may appear within the story, there always seems to be the classic ending of “…and they all lived happily ever after…” Comedies capture the viewer with a sense of compassion and love for the characters in the story. Each character has their own essence, to which they pertain a flaw of some sorts, which the audience can relate to. With the relation to characters there is defiantly a certain interest that is grabbed by the actors, which sucks the audience into the