Problem of Genre

A detailed Summary of Problem of Genre

When a reader thinks of a play that has been labeled a comedy he thinks of light-hearted and happy plots. The reader would not think of family tension, arguments or even perversion. The genre of comedy takes on the responsibility of making the audience laugh and walk away from the production with a satisfied feeling. But when comedy is subverted by tragedy the reader or audience leaves the production wondering if what they just experienced was correct. The play "The Homecoming" is a perfect example of this in the way that tragedy always seems to distort the plot in a way that affects the entire plot.

One such example of how tragedy corrupts the plot in the play "The Homecoming" is during the conversation between Lenny and Ruth. For starters, the greeting between the two leaves the reader bewildered and uneasy. Lenny offers Ruth a drink and when she refuses he replies, "I'm glad you said that. We haven't a drink in the house." The reader is left wondering why he even bothered to ask. Next, the reader witnesses in the conversation Lenny's admittance to killing a woman with small pox. The normal reaction would be horror, yet Ruth simply asks, "How'd you know she was diseased?" This is a way is a

Another example of tragedy subverting comedy in the play "The Homecoming" happens in the end of the play. Teddy and Ruth are preparing to return home when Lenny says something so out of line that the reader is taken aback. What would usually be an occasion for farewells and tears turns out to be a perverse occurrence. Lenny tells Teddy to wait because he wants "Just one dance with her brother-in-law before she goes." The two then dance and end up on the sofa where Joey joins them and then proceeds to kiss her passionately. Here the tragedy is obvious when her husband Teddy does nothing to stop his brothers from acting this way with his wife. Then, as nonchalantly as this scene happened a comedic scene of arguing over a cheese-roll begins. It is as if the entire cast of characters sees nothing wrong with the previous actions, and expects the reader not to as well. Next, to add to the absurdity of the situation we see Joey returning from being upstairs with Ruth. The final straw is pulled during this scene during a conversation between Lenny, Max, and Teddy. Lenny says to the other man "The girls a tease...she's had Joey on a string." Max the asks his meaning of such a comment and Teddy answers for him by relying "He

Some common words found in the essay are:
Lenny Ruth, Teddy Lenny, Teddy Ruth, Genre Drama, reader realizes, play homecoming, example tragedy, scene arguing, comedic scene arguing, leaves reader, comedy tragedy, husband teddy, comedic scene, conversation lenny, wondering experienced,

Approximate Word count = 831
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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Problem of Genre

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