The humour in Mariana Carr's 1996 play, Portia Coughlan , richly emphasises the poignant story of harrowing tragedy because it is humour that humans rely on when the depth of tragedy runs overbearingly deep, " Comedy and tragedy , however, confront man with the most extreme situations that he can experience."(Guthke.166.)

It is through these extremes in emotions that the audience can truly experience second-hand what the characters must be feeling , their loss, grief , and the sudden break from those emotions by a seemingly inapproiate comic interlude.

In Portia Coughlan , we meet Portia while she is alone suffering in the misery of her thirtieth birthday, she is terribly unhappy with the choices she and life itself have chosen for her, she is wallowing, " Ud's me birtha taday...Thirty half me life's over."(Carr.2.). We see that Portia is very unhappy about her birthday, and she feels that she has already lived half of her life and has very little living left, but there is humour in this exchange between Portia and her husband, Raphael, because after all she is only turning 30 and is been behaving as though the world has completely fallen apart, as apparent in Raphael's reaction

Carr, Mariana.Portia Coughlan.Boston:1996;faber and faber

They have come to bring Portia a birthday gift ; a three foot white horse, when Portia sees this she exclaims, "God Ahmighty, ah may jump on an him an' ride off an him wan a' these days."(Carr.6.) Portia is torn between two worlds and has been contemplating for some time which world she chooses to live in. Her capacity for pain has cause her much uncertainty and is at the root of her promiscuity. Portia has these meaningless affairs to try and fill up the void in her heart. The space that was once filled by Gabriel. In scene three we see an exchange between Portia and her lover ,Damus Halion, while Damus has little on his mind but sex it is Portia who pleads for him to give her more than just physical attention, "Ah mane, for Jaysus sache Damus, chan't we jus' sih an' talche or d'ya noh wanta talche ta me. Why does ud allas have ta be thrashin' an sweatin' i'hta boah house?"(Carr.10.)

Although, she is being serious you can't help being amused at the notion of the apparently very serious and forlorn Portia , thrashing and sweating with anyone, from this point we haven't seen Portia as a very passionate character. Portia, wishes for Damus to just talk to her and pay attention to her, she wants someone to fill the "brother" void in her life. Yet, her only means of attracting any men to her have been in a sexual manner. How else though does Portia know how to attract a man, she has always been given the notion that her only quality was her beauty and sexuality. Even we learn, with her brother.

Guthke, Karl.S.Modern Tragicomedy.New York:1966;Random House

Hirst, David.C.The Critical Idiom: Tragicomedy No.43.New York:1984;Methuen

Some common words found in the essay are:
Portia Coughlan, Portia Gabriel, Carr2 Raphael, Halion Damus, Aunt Maggie, Blaize Scully, God Ahmighty, Gabriel Chem, Oh Gabriel, Belmont River, portia coughlan, portia gabriel, belmont river, ta ud, tragicomedynew york1966random house, exchange portia, bibliography carr, fill void, carr marianaportia, seen portia, an' ah, york1966random house hirst, karlsmodern tragicomedynew york1966random, guthke karlsmodern tragicomedynew, faber guthke karlsmodern,
Approximate Word count = 1443
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)