shakespeare tragedy vs comedy
Certain parallels can be drawn between William Shakespeare's plays, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Romeo and Juliet. These parallels concern themes and prototypical Shakespearian character types. Both plays have a distinct pair of lovers, Hermia and Lysander, and Romeo and Juliet, respectively. Both plays could have also easily been tragedy or comedy with a few simple changes. A tragic play is a play in which one or more characters have a moral flaw that leads to their downfall. A comedic play has at least one humorous character, and a successful or happy ending. Comparing these two plays is useful to find how Shakespeare uses similar character types in a variety of plays, and the versatility of the themes that he uses. In Romeo and Juliet, Juliet is young, "not yet fourteen," (I.3, 12) and she is beautiful, and Romeo's reaction after he sees her is, "O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright! It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night as a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear. Beauty to rich for use, for the earth too dear!" (I.5, 46-49). Juliet is also prudent, "Although I joy in thee, I have no joy in this contract tonight. It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden" (II.2, 117-118)
Likewise, Romeo and Juliet could have been a comedy. The first two acts of this play qualify it as a comedy. In act I, Sampson and Gregory, servants of the Capulets, talk big about what they will do the Montagues, make racy comments, and insult each other as often as they insult the Montagues. In act II, Romeo meets Juliet. All is going well until Tybalt kills Romeo's best friend, Mercutio. Things continue to go wrong from here. At the end of the play, Romeo, thinking that Juliet is dead, drinks poison. When Juliet awakens from the spell a drug, seeing her dead lover, she stabs herself. If the families' pride had not been so great that they would murder one another, or prohibited true love, this play could have been a comedy. This play is a tragedy, not because one character has a flaw, but both families have a flaw-pride. Both sets of youths have the same character type. They are young, their love is prohibited, both women are prudent, and both seek the help of an adult. Yet they have their subtle differences. For example, Lysander never mentioned a love before Hermia. Romeo loved Rosaline, before he loved Juliet. Hermia's family and Lysander's family were not feuding, whereas the Montague and Capulet's feud was central to the plot of the play.
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1258
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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