Comedy and tragedy are two totally opposing genres but both have been very successful during the Elizabethan period. Several plays were written to help people to be instructed in a general way and to purge their emotions through the laughing in comedy or the crying in the tragedy. Among the writers of tragic plays, there was Shakespeare with one of his most famous play The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Regarding comedy, John Lyly takes the myth of Endymion in his courtly comedy Endymion, the Man in the Moon. Starting from these two plays this essay will look at the boundaries that allow defining and distinguishing between tragedy and comedy as well as their importance at the time. Tragedy and comedy stand out mainly by the fact that one of these genres makes people cry and the other makes them laugh. The boundary between the two is not always easy to distinguish, since a play can be considered as a comedy without being funny, simply because it has a happy ending. The issue here is to contrast these two genres to better draw the border between them.
The comedy featured ordinary characters and thus allowed people to laugh at their pains and ironic situations. Unlike comedy, tragedy had as protagonists, people of high social level. The characters of the tragedy are usually caught in a fate that they cannot escape. It is rare that the tragedy gives a solution or it is in most cases death. To summarise, comedy was designed to make people laugh and show that a happy ending is possible, it often ends with marriages, while the tragedy shows that even very important persons can find themselves in situations that are beyond them and that lead them to their downfall.
By writing The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Den...
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... of Revenge. 315
o A Theory of Renaissance Tragedy. pp. 292
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• Deats, Sara. (Nov., 1975). The Disarming of the Knight: Comic Parody in Lyly's "Endymion" South Atlantic Bulletin, Vol. 40, No. 4. pp. 67-75
• Houppert, Joseph W. (1975). John Lyly. Twayne Publishers, Boston.
o Chapter 2. Non-Dramatic Fiction. I Euphues, the Anatomy of Wit. pp. 22-52
o Chapter 7. Lyly’s Reputation and Influence. I Lyly the Stylist. pp. 147-150
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• Lyly, J., Bevington, D. M. (1996). Endymion. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
• Neufeld, M. Christine. Lyly’s Chimerical Vision: Witchcraft in Endymion.
Something was definitely rotten in the state of Denmark. The king was dead of a murder most foul, a betrayal from his own brother, young Hamlet was thrown out of the frying pan, which was his father's passing, and into the fire of revenge. On would think that an act of revenge such as this, retribution from an enraged son over the unjust murder of his father, would come so quickly, wildly, and brutally, driven by anger and rage. This simply was not the case in William Shakespeare's Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. As the young prince Hamlet carefully thought out his plans for revenge over a rather large amount of time due to his own apparent weakness, inaction. "The smallest deed is greater than the grandest intention"(Stokes 90). Hamlet was full of grand ideas and intentions on how to kill the King, but he failed to act and to carry out the deed that was his revenge, the destruction of Claudius. Why did Hamlet choose and it was his choice, not to take revenge on Claudius quickly and decisively? Hamlet had his own reasons for inaction; the strategy that he felt best suited his revenge.
By definition the comedy and tragedy are opposite ends of the spectrum of human emotion. Comedy being associated with the positive aspects, happiness, laughter, joy; while tragedy is associated with the negative aspects, revenge, hatred, sadness etc. It is here that the author makes his first error in his article. Rather than discussing the basis of these emotions he simply glosses over them, stating that an acceptable theory is yet to be provided that can succinctly answer why we laugh and why we cry. Furthermore he offers that those that would like to further their understanding, to visit...
William Shakespeare composed the play Hamlet, around 1600-1601. This play, named after his only son, in my opinion is one of Shakespeare’s best works. The play shows the literal as well as the realistic sides of people during this culture as well as those generations to come. During the play, Hamlet’s character went through several different transitions. In the beginning he was shown as a child, by his actions and curiosity, but towards the end of play his manhood begins surface and he begins to be aggressive at getting what he wants.
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Aristotle insists that tragedy should have the right ending, which generally means that it will have an unhappy ending. We see this in Desire Under the Elms when Eben and Abbie are taken to jail for the crime. Characters in comedy and tragedy are generally quite different. Comic characters are (or used to be) lower class individuals (Aristotle, Goldsmith). Indeed, this is the case with the players in Midsummer Night's Dream.... ...
The contrast between Volpone and the comical satire is immediately apparent. Gone are the static spokesman, the conveniently formulated ideal, and the easy dispensation of comic justice from a lofty vantagepoin...
A tragedy is defined as beginning with a problem that affects everyone, i.e. the whole town or all the characters involved, the tragic hero must solve this problem and this results in his banishment or death [run-on sentence]. 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.