8-2Comedies

What are Shakespeare's comedies? What are considered to be his most important comedies? //Answered prepared by Raythan.P//

The comedies of Shakespeare all have distinctive characteristics that differentiate his comedies from other writers’ comedies. Shakespeare’s comedies treat subjects lightly and not seriously, such as subjects like love. He often uses puns, metaphors, and insults to make the audience laugh. Also, the site internetshakespeare.uvic.ca, states that Shakespeare used disguises and mistaken identities in his comedies. His comedies usually have very confusing plots that are hard to follow and use songs sung by a jester or a fool to link events. Shakespeare assumes that the viewer knows the basic plot, so he starts off his comedies with very little to no explanation. This forces the audience to listen for foreshadowing lines or scenes, which Shakespeare puts in the play early on. Comedies by Shakespeare also have a wide range of characters, including characters that show up for one scene, and then disappear from the play. A pattern that all of his comedies follow is that they all have five acts, with the climax being in the third act. Another pattern that his comedies follow is that the hero almost never appears in the opening scene. The viewers hear about the hero through the dialogue from other characters and do not actually physically see the hero for at least a few lines into the play, or the whole scene. Most importantly, the theme for most of Shakespeare’s comedies is love such as in the plays: ‘Much Ado About Nothing’, ‘As You Like It’, and ‘A Midsummer Nights Dream’.

Shakespeare wrote a total of seventeen comedies. Onlineshakespeare explains that his comedies are grouped into four groups. Three of these groups are based upon when he started writing the play in his lifetime, and the other group is based upon the genre of these particular comedies. The first group is the early comedies, which he started writing between the years of 1590 and 1592. These plays are: ‘The Comedy of Errors’, ‘Love’s Labour Lost’, ‘The Two Gentlemen of Verona’, and ‘The Taming of the Shrew’. The second group is the middle comedies, which he started writing between the years of 1595 and 1600. These plays are: ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, The Merchant of Venice’, ‘The Merry Wives of Windsor’, ‘As You Like It’, and ‘Twelfth Night’. The third group based on genre is the dark comedies, which he started writing between the years of 1598 and 1604. These plays are: ‘Much Ado About Nothing’, ‘All’s Well That Ends Well’, and ‘Measure for Measure’. The fourth and last group is the last comedies, which he started writing between the years of 1607 and 1613. These plays are: ‘Pericles’, ‘Cymbeline’, ‘The Winter’s Tale’, ‘Troilus and Cressida’, and ‘The Tempest’. Shakespeare wrote many comedies, but only one of his comedies is seen as his most important comedy.

The most important comedy that Shakespeare wrote is a romance comedy that was written in 1596. According to bardweb, this same play that is also Shakespeare’s fondest comedy, is ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’. At one point, the Queen of England herself saw this play. One of the most famous aspects of this play is how the play makes fun of love at first sight. This is shown throughout the play as magic causes people to love the wrong person and thus create complete chaos. But, in the end, everyone gets back together with the right person. In other words, the play ends with a happy ending. The book, __A Midsummer Night's Dream__, by William Shakespeare, states that the main characters in the play are: Hermia, Lysander, Bottom, Puck, Oberon, and Titania. Also, this play takes place in Athens, Greece (3). One of Shakespeare’s most famous quotes from his plays is also in this particular play, which is: “The course of true love never did run smooth”. Another very famous quote from this play is: “The lunatic, the lover, and the poet are of imagination all compact”. This play was first performed between the years 1595 and 1596 without Shakespeare’s consent. Works Cited Best, Michael. "Internet Shakespeare Editions." // http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/index.html //. 7 Apr 2009

Shakespeare, William. //A Midsummer Night's Dream//. New York City: Washington Square Press, 1993. Print.

"The Works & Life of William Shakespeare." //www.onlineshakespeare.com//. 7 Apr 2009

This is a picture of the cover of Shakespeare's comedy, A Midsummer Night's Dream, from the site: emc.english.ucsb.edu/imagesII/Shakespeare.