William Shakespeare is quite possibly one of the most famous playwrights in theatrical history. The bard was very talented, being able to produce play after play in very short periods of time. What is even more amazing is in those short lengths of time, he wrote beautiful poetry and prose, and many quotations and common phrases have been adopted in everyday language today. He captured the human essence: what it is to love, to hate, to feel. As such, Shakespeare's works are first taught at a high school level, and usually the tragedies such as Hamlet and Macbeth are introduced. However, Shakespeare's tragedies contain themes that may not be appropriate for a high school audience, including death, and psychological issues. Therefore it seems that light hearted themes in Shakespearian comedies are more suitable for a secondary education level.
Every Shakespearian tragedy contains common elements; included in these are the moral flaws or weaknesses of a tragic hero. The tragic hero is usually a member of the noble class, and an exclusive flaw brings about his downfall. In Hamlet's case, he is rash, unable to act, and ill tempered. Because he was unable to recognize his weaknesses, his and the lives of those around him were lost. Similarly, Macbeth's ambition to become king eventually leads to his demise. This is not a good moral to teach at a high school level because it creates an impression upon students that their own moral flaws can lead to tragedy. .
The themes of madness and delusion are other common themes in Shakespeare's tragedies. The most obvious example is the appearance of Banquo's ghost to Macbeth in which only Macbeth can see; everyone else around him is oblivious to his vision and therefore considers him mad. In many cases, these elements of madness are too complex for a high school audience to fully comprehend. Furthermore, some of the madness can be quite disturbing, such as Ophelia's songs: .
It is joined by comedy, farce, satire, serious drama, and melodrama. However, it can be broken down into Greek, Shakespearian, and modern tragedy. Tragedy is furthest from comedy, which is marked by the opposite of everything a tragedy includes, such as demise and disgrace. ... Tragedy is everywhere. ... Without it, life would unrealistically be heaven like and full of comedy. ...
COMEDY...Comedy is usually dramatic, literary work, mainlyaiming to amuse the audience. ... This form of drama is called tragedy. ... The original plays of tragedy delt with the mystery andmorality plays. "EverymanaE plays later reappeared inrenactments of George Lilo" family tragedy "The London MerchantaE of 1731 and the political tragedy "Danton"sDeathaE in 1835 of G. ... Inconclusion I hope I Have been able to teach yousomething about Comedy and/or Tragedy you may nothave known before....
Maybe all this applies to tragedies written during the time that Sophocles wrote Oedipus, but when Shakespeare wrote Othello and Hamlet he must have chosen to leave out some of these elements that make a "tragedy". ... How can one say that Oedipus has a mental illness having read the "tragedy"? ... The flaws of Shakespearian villains are much more easily identified, the villains serve as foils to the main character. ... Shakespearian tragedies utilize these villains to add greater dimension to the trgedy. ... "Tragedies", indeed, t not just "tragedies", that is the answer....
Response to-- Beyond Comedy: Romeo and Juliet In the following essay by Susan Snyder, she speculates that the play of Romeo and Juliet, dubbed in its entirety a tragedy, begins in fact as a comedy. ... Snyder describes the difference between the comedy and the tragedy in a way I have never heard before "Unlike the extrinsic, alterable laws of comedy, law in tragedy is inherit Tragic law cannot be altered and tragic time cannot be suspended." (Snyder 173) With the limited knowledge I have of tragedy and comedy, I can best interpret that Snyder is referring to the fact that fate plays a bigg...
Dark Comedy and the Genre Model There are three main genres in which every story can be categorized into, Tragedy, Comedy, and Tragicomedy. ... Extreme Comedy is on one end while extreme Tragedy is on the other. ... The comedy could almost be considered the opposite of a tragedy. ... It is in these extremes that one can see the crossing over from Comedy to Tragedy and back. ... A better example of the Tragedy of the purely Comedic, would be someone who has the perfect life. ...
During the 1590's, he wrote his plays on English history as well as several comedies and two tragedies. ... William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies, which later became known as the First Folio (Claybourne 10). The most well known of all of Shakespeare's tragedies would be The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or as it is called today, Hamlet. ... One of the most widely performed Shakespearian Comedies of the present time is A Midsummer Night's Dream. It is seen to be a delightful comedy, but full of enough potential tragedy to avoid becoming sugary. ...
One of the main topics of interest in the field of Shakespearian studies is that which considers the various roles that women play in the Shakespeare's comedies and tragedies. Literary and historical scholars agree that women did not enjoy political, economic, or social parity with men during Shakes...
In the tragedies, the challenge or obstacle is the pride of a tragic hero who suffers some downfall. ... In the first act of Antony and Cleopatra, comedy is involved: the lovers insist upon their love's hype and specifically upon Antony's rejection of his earlier life. ... As seen throughtout these three plays, the temptation of a specific object or even a range of objects can easily cause a tragedy. Tragedy usually occurs because of choices we make, that we think our good at the moment, but end up as the wrong choice in the end. ...
The Comedy Club The Comedy Club was a presentation by Steve Kent in which it dealt with comedy as a mean of medicine. ... Researches suggest that comedy raises the immune's level of T cells. ... That is why it is important for people like Steve to travel and teach people what comedy is all about (of course he does this in a humorous way). ...