Playwrights: Aeschylus, Sophocles, And Euripides Essay, Research Paper

The starting point when discussing comedy and tragedy would be to define the main terms. Comedy is the dramatic genre that focuses on human weakness through humor. Comedy celebrates the regeneration of life through love and reconciliation. Tragedy is the dramatic genre initiated by ancient Greek playwrights such as Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. Tragedy focuses on suffering and loss but celebrates the will of the individual to choose his or her own course of action.

Basic requirements of comedy are a celebration of life, an outrageous idea, reflects weakness, pain-free worlds, makes us laugh. It exists only to take us away from our basic lives. It creates a fantasy world exempt from pain or the basic elements that plague us here on earth. While when watching a comedy the viewer feels so far removed from the character, the circumstances are so far-fetched that there is no way to actually believe that this could happen to the viewer.

Whereas a tragedy will deal with very serious characters and subject matter, murder and death occur frequently, characters have a major crisis to deal with. Characters are not usually the everyday characters you would find in a comedy, they are nobility or some other kind of upper class status. These characters act by themselves, and take responsibility for their actions. When watching a tragedy, the audience will feel for the character, they will feel his pain, and suffering.

Comedy is the fun part, whereas tragedy is the more serious forms of genre. They are both necessary to have a natural and profitable theatre. People as a whole do not want to only see the comedy side or the tragedy they require an even blend of them both.