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The Nature of Shakesp. Comedy
Drama Vocabulary
Humorous Devices

Shakespearean Comedy

William Shakespeare's plays may be grouped into three categories: comedies, histories, and tragedies. It is important to note that the term "comedy" didn't mean the same to Elizabethans as it does today. It is true that there is quite a bit of humour in Shakespeare's comedies, but the term often simply referred to a light-hearted play with a happy ending. This indicates that Shakespearean comedies are different from his more dramatic tragedies and history plays when it comes to tone and plot.

Conventional plot elements in Shakespearean comedies:

• Happy ending, usually involving marriages between the unmarried characters (sometimes deus ex machina)

• Light-hearted tone

• Tension between Apollonian values (reason, control and abstinence) and Dionysian values (such as desires, wildness and abandon)

• Separation and re-unification, eg. lovers who overcome obstacles and re-unite in harmony

• Mistaken identities and deception

• Disputes between characters

• Complex plot with several, intertwining plot-lines

• Heavy use of comic devices

• Comic language full of clever puns, metaphors and insults

• Country setting which is often idealized

• Main theme: love

• Gender mix-up and disguise (men dressing as women and vice versa; ie. male )

• Frequent use of improbable, fantastic, or supernatural elements

• The best comedies often contain a philosophical thematic undercurrent

Frequent plot structure in Shakespearean comedies:

1. Introduction of main character(s)
2. Tragic Event
3. Journey (physical or self-discovery or both)
4. Reconciliation
5. Resolution
6. Happy Ending

The climax of the play most often occurs in the third act. The final scene has a celebratory feel with declarations of love.

Recurrent characters in Shakespearean comedies:

• Young lovers that struggle to overcome the difficulties created by parents, society etc.

• A clever servant

• The fool

• The drunk

• The characters are often stereotypes, so the audience can maintain distance and laugh at them

List of comedies:

Several of Shakespeare's comedies have an unusual tone mixing humour and tragedy. These are often classified as “problem plays”. Plays marked with an asterisk (*) are now commonly referred to as 'romances'. Plays marked with two asterisks (**) are sometimes referred to as 'problem plays'.

• A Midsummer Night's Dream

• All's Well That Ends Well**

• As You Like It

• Love's Labour's Lost

• Measure for Measure**

• Much Ado About Nothing

• Pericles, Prince of Tyre*

• The Comedy of Errors

• The Merchant of Venice**

• The Merry Wives of Windsor

• The Taming of the Shrew

• The Tempest*

• The Two Gentlemen of Verona

• The Two Noble Kinsmen*

• The Winter's Tale*

• Twelfth Night