Comedy – APE Literature

APE Literature                                                                                                           Mr. Stout – C-114

 

Definitions

 

Comedy = In medieval times the word comedy was applied to non-dramatic works marked by a happy ending and a less exalted style than that in tragedy. Dante’s Divine Comedy, for example, was named a comedy by its author because of its “prosperous, pleasant, and desirable” conclusion and because it was not in Latin but in the vernacular.

Compared with tragedy, comedy is a lighter form of drama that aims primarily to amuse. It differs from farce and burlesque by having a more sustained plot, weightier and subtle dialogue, more lifelike characters, and less boisterous behavior. Comedy, striving to provoke smiles and laughter, uses both wit and humor. In general, the comic effect arises from recognition of some incongruity of speech, action, or character.

Viewed in another sense, comedy may be considered to deal with people in their human state, restrained and often made ridiculous by their limitations, faults, bodily functions, and animal nature, while tragedy seeks to portray them in their god-like state.

 

Types:

 

Low Comedy = Man almost indistinguishable from animal. The laughter is loudest and longest over the dirty joke or dirty gesture. Strives for the lowest common denominator.

 

Farce = Marked by devices that drive the plot: mistaken identities, coincidences, mis-timings. The characters are puppets of fate, the plot improbable: twins separated at birth, unhappy matches made by tyrannical parents, alliances complicated by money and birth and a rag shop of happy endings.

 

Comedy of Manners = Referred to as the amorous intrigues of the aristocratic classes, this level of comedy emphasizes the mechanism of language, and reduces drama and life to a sheen of verbal wit. Such comedy does not hesitate to sacrifice humanity to dialogue; puns, paradoxes, epigrams, and witticisms of all types are the tools it uses often in the service of satire.

 

Comedy of Ideas =  The highest level is the comedy of ideas in which characters argue ideas or are representative of people who hold ideas. The dramatic action is an embodiment of these ideas in conflict. The genre uses characters that remain essentially personalities, capable of change, pitting their wits (or lack thereof) against those who view reality differently.

 

Romantic Comedy = A comedy in which serious love is the chief concern and source of interest, especially the type of comedy developed on the Elizabethan stage by Greene and Shakespeare.

 

Comedy of Morals = A term applied to comedy that uses ridicule to correct abuses hence a form of dramatic satire, aimed at the moral state of a people or a special class of people.

 

Comedy of Intrigue = A comedy in which the manipulation of the action by one or more characters to their own ends is of more importance than the characters themselves are. This is also referred to as “Comedy of Situation.”