Assignment 2 :- Types Of Comedy
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Name :- Gohil Devangiba A.
Roll No. :-16, Sem.-1st
Paper No. : - 2
(The Neo-classical Literature )
Topic :- Types of Comedy
Submitted to Department of
English
Types of Comedy
Definition of Comedy
"Comedy is a literary genre and
a type of dramatic work that is amusing
and satirical in its tone, mostly having cheerful ending. The motif of
his dramatic work is triumph over
unpleasant circumstance by which to create comic effects, resulting in happy or
successful conclusion. Thus, the purpose of comedy is to amuse the audience.
Comedy has multiple sub-genres depending
upon source of humor context in which an author delivers dialogues, and
delivery method, which include farce, satire and burlesque Tragedy, in contrast
is opposite to comedy, as tragedy deals with sorrowful and tragic events in a
story.
Types of Comedy
1)
Romantic Comedy:-
This
type of comedy is based on Greek New
Comedy and Roman Comedia erudite, Romantic comedy involves the theme of love
leading to happy conclusion. A composite genre which centres mostly on the
vicissitudes of yunge lovers, who get happily united in the end. The best
examples for this genre in Shakespearean plays and some Elizabethan
contemporaries. These plays are generally concerned with love affairs that
involve a beautiful and idealized
heroine; the love affairs does not run smooth, but ultimately overcomes all difficulties to end in a happy union.
Anatomy of criticism (p.p. 182-183) Northrop Frye in this work points out that
some of Shakespeare romantic comedies involve a movement from the normal world
or confict and trouble into the "Green world'. William Shakespeare's play,
"A Midsummer Night's Dream' and 'As you like It.' is a good example of
Romantic comedy In this plays Shakespeare presenting young lovers falling comically
in and out of love for a brief period. Their real life problems get resolved
magically, ememies reconcile and true love united in the end.
Romantic comedy is the most popular of all
the comedy Types. Somebody can sometimes qualify as a low comedy, depending on
the development of the character, but focuses more on the situations
surrounding the characters than the use of horseplay and slapstick that we see
with a farce.
2)
Comedy of Humours :-
Ben
Jonson is the first dramatist, who conceived and popularized this dramatic
genre during late sixteenth century. The term humor derives from latin words
"humor' that means liquid, comedy of Humours a form of drama typical at
the end of the 16th and the beginning of the 17th
century. This form of drama is geneally
based on the medieval and Renaissance belief that peoples elections are
governed by their dominant bodily humour (blood, phlegm, bile or black bile),
its characters are ruled by particular passion or trait.
Comedy of Humours It comes from a theory that human body
has four liquids or humours, which include phlegm, blood, yellow bile and black
bile. It explains, that when human beings have balance of these humours in their bodies, they remain healthy. In Jonson
is comedy of Humours each of the major characters instead of being a well balanced individual,
has preponderant humour that gives him a characterises distortion or
eccentricity of disposition. Jonson expounds in his theory in the Introduction
to the play 'Every man'. In his Humour (1598) and exemplifies the mode in his
later comedies as well. Jonson wrote in
his 'Introduction' to 'Every man out of his Humour"
As when some one particular Doth so possess a man quality
that All his affects, his spirits and his power.
In their confluxions all to run way. This may be truly said
to be a humour. for example in Every man in his Humour, the rich merchant
kitely has a young and beautiful wife, Of whom he is madly jealous; jealously
is his humour, the passion that rules
has whole life, the young hero's father, old
knowell, is always worried about his son's safely; anxiety is his
humour; captain Bobadill is the talkative but cowardly old soldier;
boastfolness is his humour. In Bartholomew
Fair, Jonson shows us how the humours of various types Londoners are
taken advantage to by the quick witted market people.
3)
Satirical Comedy :-
Definition
of Satire :
"Satire is the use of different elements such as
irony humour, exaggeration or ridicule.
It intends to improve humanity by criticizing its follies and foibles. A writer
in a satire uses fictional charaters, which stand for real people, to expose
and condermn their situations".
Satirical comedy a form of comedy
whose main purpose is to expose the vices and short coming of society and of
people representing that society satirical comedy form is very lose to farce or
the comedy of manners. Therefore, the function of satire is not to make others
laugh at person or ideas they make fun of. It intends to warn the public and to
change their minds about the prevailing conditions in society. The earliest
examples art the works of Aristophanes, his clouds, Birds, Frogs in the English
literature. Ben Jonson's volpone or sheridan
4)
Force :-
A
farce is a literary genre and the type of a comedy exaggerated and funny
situation aimed at entertaining the audience, Farce are often highly
incomprehensible plot wise, but viewers are encouraged not to try to follow the
plot in order to avoid becoming confused and overwhelmed. Farce is also
characterised by physicall humor, the use of deliberate absurdity or nonsense
and broadly stylized performances. Farces have been written for the stage and
film. Furthermore, a farce is also often set in one particular location, where
all events occur.
Farce is a form of low comedy, whose
intention is to provoke simple mirth in the form of roars of laughter. The
origins of the genre are not clear, but farcical elements can be found already
in the plays of Aristophanes and Plautus in the English literature, even parts
of Shakespeare's comedy of Errors or The Taming of the Shrew, together with the
Falstaff plays (1-2 Henry IV, The Merry Wives of Windsor) can be classified as
force.
5)
Black Comedy :-
A
black comedy (or dark comedy) is comic work that employs farce and morbid
humour, which, in its simplest form is humour that makes light or subject
matter usually considered taboo. Black comedy corresponds to the earlier concerpt
of gallows humour, Black comedy is often controversial due to its subject
matter. Black comedy is translated from the French comedie noire, a form of
drama which displays cynicism and disillusionment human beings without hope or
convictions, their lives, controlled by fate or unknown and incomprehensible
powers; a genre popular in the second half of the 20th century, when
the absurd predicament of man kind is increasingly in the focus in literature.
6)
Tragicomedy
:-
This
dramatic genre contains both tragic and comedic elements. It blends both
elements to lighten an overall mood of the play. Often This dramatic form is a
serious play ends happily. There are many plays which do not totally subcribe
to the spirit of comedy, nor do they embody the tragic emotions. In parts, they
may be cheerful but they point to some darker aspects of life as well.
Shakespeare's Measure for Measure and
Eliot's The cocktail party. For example, might both the called come dies but
they have very little in common with the main stream of the English comedies.
To these, play, the term, 'tragi-comedy'
or 'black comedy' or 'dark comedy' have been applied. Shakespeare's
later plays like. The Winte'rs Tale and Cymbeline are 'tragi comedies' with the
pattern of sudden release from delay danger involved in the plots. Prominent in
the Theatre of the Absurd, 'black comedy' is best represented in Beckett's
Happy days and Joe orton's The Loot.
7)
Comedy of Manners :-
This
form of comedy genre deals with intrigues and relations of ladies and gentleman,
living in a sophisticated society. The phrase 'comedy of manners' is
particularly applied in English to the plays of the restoration dramatists, and
especially to Congreve (1670-1729) and Wycherley (1640-1716), but is a type of
comedy which can flourish in any civilized urban society and we see it again in
Sheridan (1751-1816) and oscar Wilde, (1854-1900). The 'Comedy of Manners was early exemplified
by Shakespeare's love's labour lost and much Ado About Nothing. This form deals
with the relations and intrigues of gentlemen and ladies living in a
sophisticated society. It relies upon comic effect in great part on the with
and sparkle of the dialogues, and
to a certain degree, on the ridiculous
violations of social conventions and decorum by stupid characters such as would
be wives, jealous husbands, foppish dandies. Excellent examples are congreve's
The wayto The World, wycherley's The country wife. The main trust in the
'Comedy of manners' is to make fun not so much of individual human being as of
social groups and their fashionable manner. This type of comedy was revided in
the 18th century by Goldsmith he written she stoops to conguer and Sheridan
8)
Sentimental Comedy
:-
Sentimental drama contains both comedy
and sentimental tragedy. It appears in literary circle due to reaction of
middle class against obscenity and indecency of Restoration comedy of manner A
middleclass reaction against the immortality of situation and the frequent
indecency of dialogue in the rise, of the 'sentimental comedy' of the 18th
century. Jeremy collier (1650-1726) protested against, the permissiveness of
the 'comedy of manners specially those of Congreve and Vanbrugh, and wrote his
treatise entitled short view of The Immortality
and profaneness of The English stage. One result of this was the
appearance of the new 'Sentimental comedy'. This form achieved some popularity
with respectable middle- class audience of the 18th century.
'Sentimental
comedy' is also known as drama of
sensibility. It is the dominant comic genre after Restoration comedy. It
appeard as a reaction against the immoral and licentious comedy of manners,
which emphasised vices and faults of people, sentimental comedy focused on the virtues of private life, with simple
and honourable characters.
The pioneered
by Richard Steele in The funeral (1710) and more fully in The concius lovers
(1722), it flourished in the mid- century with the French comedia larmoyonete
(Tearful comedy) and in such plays as Huge kellys false Delicacy (1768). This
drama incorporates scenes with extreme emotions evoking excessive pity.
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