Synthesis of Course Material Part Five: Comedy and Tragedy

COMEDY

“The comic is the product of a perceived incongruity between a subject matter/issue/situation/topic and its treatment/expression.”

Types of comedy

·         Low comedy

·         High comedy

·         Burlesque

·         Farce

·         Lampoon

·         Parody

·         Satire

·         Slapstick

·         Travesty

“The Comedic Ladder” (Brenden Kenney)

Comedy of Ideas: Argument of ideas like politics, religion, sex, marriage. Use of wit and clever language, satirize people and institutions

Comedy of Manners: Love affairs among upper classes, witty language, insults, cliquey society

Farce: Plot full of coincidences, mistimings, characters determined by fate, loss of identity, twins unaware of the other

Low Comedy: dirty jokes and gestures, sex, exaggeration, understatement, slapstick

COMEDY IS BASED ON IRONY!! There are several techniques to create comedy, such as sarcasm, caricature, and paradoxes.

TRAGEDY

Aristotle’s Tragedy

·         A noble hero falls from a high place

·         Fatal error (hamartia)

·         Hero has a moment of self-recognition (epiphany) or self-knowledge at which he understands his error (anagnoresis)

Humanists

·         SUPER-Aristotle

·         Must occur in a 24-hour time period, in the same setting, with one plot

·         There is a fatal FLAW

·         No murder allowed on stage

Senecan- revenge tragedies

·         Secret murder

·         Ghost visits (kinsman)

·         Murderer vs. avenger

·         Ends in a blood bath

Miller’s Tragedy

·         Noble hero= unrealistic

·         A tragedy is a common man who refuses to give up his dignity/place in society even though it’s hopeless