Shakespearean Comedy 2
Shakespeare wrote many plays during his lifetime. Some of his plays have similar comedic characteristics and then other plays are the exact opposite of comedy. Shakespeare wrote tragedies, romance, history, comedy and problem plays all with great success. During the performance of these plays there was no scenery so great time was taken when developing the characters and the plot so the plays would be entertaining. A Midsummers Night's Dream and Much Ado About Nothing are just two of the comedies Shakespeare wrote. These two plays have many things in common where as Measure for Measure is a problem play with a totally different tone. Comparing and contrasting these three plays will help us to understand what Shakespeare thought comedy was in the 1600's and to see if our views on comedy are the same today.A Midsummer Night's Dream is a festive comedy. The play takes place in June and this is a bewitched time. In the spring the custom is to celebrate the return of fertility to the earth. During this time the young people spend the night in the woods to celebrate. Shakespeare uses the greenworld pattern in this play. The play begins in the city, moves out to the country and then back to the city. Being in the country makes things
A Midsummer Night's Dream contains many elements of a comedy. The most important ones to me are that the play ends happily, it is funny and it made me laugh. Shakespeare wrote Much Ado About Nothing which is also a comedy, but it is a different type of comedy than A Midsummer Night's Dream. Although these two plays share some common elements, they also have differences. When Claudio and Don Pedro put their plan into action at the masked ball, Don John appears. He acts as a blocking figure in this play and causes many problems. He tells Claudio that Don Pedro wants Hero for himself, which is a lie, but Claudio acts like "easy come easy go". He is not very upset that he just lost his soon to be bride. When the truth comes out, the wedding day is set and the planning begins. Don John is once again planning to ruin things. He is a jealous, sour and unhappy person. The greenworld is also used in this play but not for festive activities. It is used for plotting bad things that will hurt people.
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2284
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)
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