Shakespearean Comedy Essay, Research Paper

Suzanne Kirby

COMEDY IN SHAKESPEARE

Shakespeare s comedies can be recognised in terms of plot, structure and characters. We can see that Shakespearean comedies follow the same structural pattern, a basic plot on which the play is based. For example, a key feature of all comedies is that they depend upon the resolution of their plots. However, Shakespeare s comedies are distinguishable, as some are classed as comic dramas and others as romantic comedies.

In comic drama, there is usually a motif of a place where reality and the unreal merge, the roles of characters are reversed and identities are mistaken or lost. This place may take on the form of a feast or celebration, or it may be presented as a place segregated from the normal society, such as the wood in A Midsummer Night s Dream. When scenes are set in this place, the ordinary rules of life and society do not apply. There is always an experience of chaos, which must be resolved in order for the play to become a true comedy. In A midsummer Night s Dream, the audience is aware of the presence of opposing forces in the play. In the opening scene, we are presented with a disagreement between Hermia, who wishes to marry Lysander and her father Egeus, who wants her to marry Demitrius. In this scene, Shakespeare also makes us aware that Athens represents an oppressive society in which children must obey their parents. Egeus illustrates this when he says:

As she is mine, I may dispose of her; which shall either be to this gentleman or to her death .