Characteristics of Comedy
To be continued of April 19th Dialogue
-The words uttered by characters in a play forms a dialogue.
-Dialogues are the means through which an idea is communicated in a dramatic performance.
-Dialogue reveals the nature and attitude of the character. The action of the drama progresses through dialogues.
-A dialogue is a drama provides the audience-- necessary exposition of past events
the complexity in the relationship
tensions and conflicts
interpersonal relations
-The dialogue in a drama is deliberate and not spontaneous. It is not like the conversation in day-to-day life.
-Dialogues are written by the dramatist and uttered by the characters on the stage.
-Dialogues are used for the sake of the communication between the dramatist and the audience (but not for the sake of communication among the characters).
Soliloquy
-A soliloquy is the act of speaking to oneself, silent or aloud.
-It is a speech meant to be heard by the audience but not by other characters on the stage. In a soliloquy, only the audience can hear the private thoughts of the characters.
-These are mainly used to present a character in more detail and also on a more personal level. Simply, the characters 'speak their mind'.
-The characters explain their feelings, motives etc on stage.
-A soliloquy is essential in dramas because it would be very difficult to convey the thought without using it.
Example
-Hamlet's soliloquy, 'To be or not to be'.
-The soliloquy in marlow's Dr. Faustus.
Aside
-It is also a similar from of speech in drama.
-'Asides' are spoken away from other characters.
-A character speaks aside to himself, secretively to the other characters or to the audience.
COMEDY
-‘Comedy’ is one of the major genres of drama.
-It is a drama which is chiefly written ‘to amuse its audience’.
-William J.Long says ‘A comedy is a drama in which the characters are placed in more or less humorous situations. The movement is light and often mirthful and the play ends in general goodwill and happiness’.
Characteristics of Dramatic Comedy
-Plot deals with ordinary life situations and ordinary people.
-Its aim is to amuse people and to get our pleasurable attention rather than our profound concern.
-Comedy not only entertains but also makes us aware of our own individual flaws or flaws that exist in the society.
-Comedies begin with low or base Characters seeking significant aims and end with some accomplishment of the aims.
-No great disaster will occur and the action turns out happily for the main characters.
-The dramatist often uses puns and witty language in comedies.
Dramatic comedy can be classified into the following types.
1. Romantic Comedy,
2. Satirical Comedy
3. Comedy of Manners,
4. Farce, 5. Comedy of Humours
6. Sentimental Comedy
Romantic Comedy
-It was developed by Elizabethan dramatist.
-It is a form of drama in which love is the main theme and love leads to happy ending.
-The most popular of all comic forms is the ‘Romantic Comedy’.
-This kind of comedy represents a love affair that involves a beautiful and engaging heroine. The course of this love does not run smoots but ultimately overcomes all difficulties to end in a happy union.
-The best examples for this genre are to be found in shakespeare’s ‘As you like It’, and ‘ Mid summer Night’s Dream’.
Satirical Comedy
-It is a form of Comedy whose main purpose is to exposes the vices and short comings of society and of people representing that society.
-The earliest examples are the works of ‘Aristophanes’. His plays mocked political, philosophical and literary matters of his age.
-The subject of this comedy is human vice and folly.
-Its characters include criminals, tricksters, deceivers, hypocrites, fortune seekers etc.
-The central character is likely to be cynical, foolish or morally corrupt.
-The best examples for this kind of comedy are:
-Aristophanes ‘The Birds’.
-Ben Johnson’s ‘Volpone’ and ‘The Alchemist’.
Comedy of Manners
-It originated in the ‘New Comedy’ of the Greek menander (342-292 B.C.) and it was developed by The Roman dramatists plautus and Terence in the third and second centuries B.C..
-The English ‘Comedy of Manners’ was early exemplified by Shakespeare’s ‘Love’s Labour’s Lost’ and ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ and it was given a high palish in ‘Restoration Comedy’.
-The comedy of manners depicts a stylish/class society, Mainly the middle or upper families, its focus is on elegance, with characters of fashion and rank.
-Its topics are social intrigues, mainly marital or sexual and also adultry.
-It relies upon the ridiculous violations of social conventions and decorum by stupid characters.
-The best examples for this genre are: William Congreve’s ‘The Way of the World’. William Wycherley’s ‘The Country Wife’.
Farce
-Farce is a form of low comedy.
-It’s intention is to provoke simple mirth in the form of roars of laughter or belly laughs.
-It uses exaggerated physical action, character and absurd situation, with improbable events, a complex plot, with events rapidly succeeding one another, pushing characters and dialogues in the background.
-The characters of farce are typically fantastic or absurd and usually far more ridiculous than those in other forms of comedy.
-It also involves elaborate comic intrigues involving deception, disguise and mistaken identify.
-Farce is also included as an episode in the other dramas.
Examples are the knock about scenes in shakespeare’s..
‘The Taming of the shrew’
‘The Merry Wives of Windsor’
‘Comedy of Errors’
Comedy of Humours
-Another important type of English Comedy popularised by Ben Johnson is the ‘Comedy of Humours’.
-It was based on the medieval and Renaissance belief that people’s actions are governed by four bodily fluids. blood, Phlegm, Choler (Yellow bile) and melancholy (Black bile).
