Comedy Essay

1. We think of comedy as progressing toward a happy ending with a lot of laughter along the way, but that is a simplistic definition. Many playwrights have called their plays comedy, though they may have meant satire (social criticism via humorcorrect human vices) as distinguished from comedy (affirmation, optimism, celebrationas well as to expose human folly). Then there are subgenres of comedy that have particular characteristics, such as farce and comedy of manners. Analyze one of the plays eligible for this essay as COMEDY or FARCE or SATIRE or COMEDY OF MANNERS. Support your classification by applying specific criteria from definitions of comedy and the other generic classifications in lecture, on Canvas, and/or theatre and drama handbooks, and/or theories of comedy that can be found in such books as Corrigans Comedy: Meaning and Form to specific elements in the play. For comedy, what is the nature of the initial chaos? How does the resolution of the plot return to order? Are the characters a representation of humanity as less than we are, as Aristotle said, or in the image of the ape, as Eric Bentley said in his essay on Farce? Is the humor based on the release of the repressed, as Freud argued? Is there an inversion of social roles or something else, as in the Roman holiday of Saturnalia? Is anything about life, love, society, etc. affirmed? Show the comedic vision (optimistic, affirmative) in the play. For satire: what is/are the target/s of attack? What vice(s) is the playwright trying to correct? Be sure to show how some of the points are made humorously (mocking, ridiculing), even identifying some of the high and low comic techniques we have studied. Is the satire Horatian (the needle) or Juvenalian (the club)? Is there one or more raisonneur character who represents the values from which the playwright criticizes the behavior or social order or . . .? (In other words, does any character serve as a spokesperson for the playwright?) What are those values? Does the play imply that people and society can change what is wrong with themselves or society if they so choose? How is the satiric vision suggested in the play: that the universe is neutral and it is up to individuals to make things better. For farce, rely on lecture notes and the summary of Bentley in Canvas.

Essays should be typed on a wordprocessor for uploading to Canvas. In MLA style you set all 4 margins to 1 inch; do NOT justify the right margin. Set font to 12 pt.; use Times New Roman font. (All of this is so I do not have to spend time determining whether you have met the minimum length.) In the upper left-hand corner of the first page, put your name, date, ect. Center your title above the first line (NO title page) and leave one return (double space) between the title and first line of your text. The rest of the essay should be double-spaced. Number subsequent pages in the upper right-hand corner. (In MS Word, you click on INSERT and then click on page numbers. If you cannot figure it out, type page #s manually.) Even after having the wordprocessor check the spelling for you, I recommend you proofread by reading your essay aloud; you will hear mistakes you might have missed otherwise

Text: A Midsummer nights dream by William Shakespear (