Essay on Luaghing Comedy-Oliver Goldsmith

The differences in styles of language truly brings alive the plays' various characters, from the lowliest drawer to the noblest knight. The playwright's audience would have been composed of a similarly diverse spectrum of society, from the groundlings at the foot of the stage, to the members of the court in attendance, and these disparate members of the audience might very well have come away from the plays with different interpretations of

When the first collected edition of Shakespeare’s plays, the First Folio, was published in 1623, its contents page divided them into three categories: comedies, histories and, tragedies. The list of comedies included Measure for Measure and The Merchant of Venice, plays that modern audiences and readers have not found particularly funny. Also included were two late plays, The Tempest and The Winter’s Tale, that critics often now classify as “romances” (Mullan). If we ask ourselves what these four plays have in common with those such as As You Like It or Twelfth Night; which we are used to calling comedies, the answer gives us a clue to the meaning of “comedy” for many of Shakespeare’s educated contemporaries. All of them

"Nowadays the plays' meaning is usually blurred by the fact that the actor plays to the audiences hearts. The figures portrayed are foisted on the audience and are falsified in the process. Contrary to present custom they ought to be presented quite coldly, classically and objectively. For they are not matter for empathy; they are there to be understood and politely added

Doerries diminishes the theater and its patrons by stating “people attend the theater…to feel more intelligent than they actually are” (Freedlander). Doerries appears to be drawing on the audience’s lack of knowledge as a basis to form and direct a conversation using an abstract to accomplish his goal. This is demeaning to a culture that has an understanding of the issues. This article is inflammatory and insults the intellect of the

Theatre has been a prevalent form of entertainment for centuries. As time has progressed, the meaning behind theater has shifted to adapt with society appropriately. Different genres of theater have been emerging all throughout history and continue to emerge even today. There are so many different genres of theatre that any individual can relate to it. One can easily recall the major genres of theatre: drama, comedy, musicals. However, it is the sub-divisions within these major genres that evoke unique performances and experiences.

During present day, some of our main forms of entertainment would be attending movies, listening to music, or browsing the internet. However, during the Elizabethan era, they did not have the luxury of electricity and as a result they turn to other sources for entertainment. For this, plays are a prominent source to amuse people and bring families together. In fact, plays put on previously are still well known presently, specifically those that are written by the playwright “Shakespeare”. Formerly, theatres that actors preformed on were soiled and rambunctious (shakespeareinamericancommunities). Nonetheless, plays generated a lot of money and attracted people from different statuses to get together (elizabethan-era).

For instance, after our visit to the Ford’s Theater I came to realize the former division of theater by social strata is obsolete. During Shakespeare’s era theatre companies were awarded status and privilege based on patronage from wealthy landholders or the royal family. In contrast, today, we are not subject to theater because our socioeconomic status. Theater seats are no longer exclusively reserved for the bourgeois or monarchs. Access to intellectual performances is no longer off-limits. Time brings change; similar to the more accessible theater for subordinate social caste, change in the subjects and topics is only a natural consequence. In Rome, the well-regulated and pervasive castes of roman society showed obvious in the arts and most notably in theater. While, theater for the intellectual was reserved for those in the higher classes, the partitioning between the patricians and plebeians brought about different styles and

“Theatre makes us think about power and the way our society works and it does this with a clear purpose, to make a change.”

The Theatre in Ancient Rome contained much depth and meaning within its stories. By exploring the deeper connections between the words and actions of characters, the audience receives social commentary on the issues that occur in real life, such as whether or not fate exists, and what it means for humankind if it does or does not. Furthermore, the characters within the plays create greater meanings through their words by connecting them to the overarching themes and actions in the plays. Through the analysis of the various characters’ words, one can often find quandaries that relate to one’s own questions about life, morality, society, and the universe.

In many of his later comedies, Shakespeare developed a habit of having young men and women fall in love. These comedies, “previews of the modern theatre,” usually end in a marriage, and are very lighthearted in nature. At first glance, Shakespeare’s works may seem complicated. In many ways, they are extremely complex, but, diving deeper into his text, there is an underlining meaning that might be extracted through in depth coverage. The use of contrasting the apparent versus the real is substantial in his plays.

As I took the course of “Introduction to Theatre”, our class has explored the enduring question of “what is the place of theater in the world and why?” To answer this question, we learned about the different time periods, including the BC time period all the way to the present time period. As we learned about the history of that period, we saw some reasons and answers to the question of what the function of theater is in the world. Our first step in analyzing plays was that we first examined the time periods of that play, and then how the events and lifestyles influenced the writers of the plays. For an example, through theater, the plays Fences and Angles in America were both meant to bring awareness about the social issues in society. During

“Lord, what fools these mortals be!”“The world is a tragedy to those who feel, but a comedy to those who think.” “A tragedy is a tragedy, and at the bottom, all tragedies are stupid. Give me a choice and I 'll take A Midsummer Night 's Dream over Hamlet every time. Any fool with steady hands and a working set of lungs can build up a house of cards and then blow it down, but it takes a genius to make people laugh.” The combination of William Shakespeare, Horace Walpole,and Steven King run together to speak on the topic of comedies. We as human beings, being social creatures, have a need to laugh. We find many things humours, and there are many types of comedies, as well as uses for the comedies we make. There are many different forms of comedy from many different time periods which all fall within three overarching sections; verbal, physical, and literary.

Northern Arizona University's Production of Comedy of Errors was, by far the funniest thing I have ever seen, as far as plays go. Now, I haven't seen very many plays in person, but it was still hilarious. It was definitely different from the last play I saw, which was Good People by David Lindsay-Abaire. I enjoyed both plays, but for different reasons. I won't go into detail about Good People, because that was my last paper. This paper is about Comedy of Errors.

The above example illustrates not only how the theatrical performance affects the audience, but also how the audience influences its dynamics, development and the characters within it. The actors feel a certain level of acceptance from the viewer, who demands a certain way of depicting the character. Theatre is not just entertainment, itís something much more than that ñ itís education. Theatre should always represent things, rather than

In the ‘Frogs’ and ‘Wasps’ written by the “eminently best” comedian of the fifth century, Aristophanes, we see he utilized humour to exact the important message that Athens is corrupt, and on the verge of chaos. The Athenian audience would expect to be thrust into a world of humour in the City Dionysia, somewhere parallel to their own (e.g. the Athenian jury in the ‘Wasps’, and the failings of the government in ‘Frogs’). It is vital, then, that Aristophanes conveys his political and social views through slapstick, farce, and caricature to interest the audience. This is an important component in both plays as the audience is able to simultaneously accept his diplomatic views whilst being entertained. After all his main point for producing his plays were to produce something with a “little fable, with a moral”.