Comedies

Although having very different plots and characters, the writing of many of Shakespeare's comedies contain similar, if not the same, elements and writing style, his comedies having a silly, lighthearted feeling despite dire situations. In the opening of A Midsummer Night's Dream, Hermia's father, Egeus threatens to have her killed for marrying a man he doesn't like. Quite comedic. But in the scene, the structure of the lines, such as a rhyming scheme, lift the dreary reality off and giving way to ridiculousness, a theme of the play. The same is true for the Tempest, Caliban and Stephano's plotting to kill Prospero and take his daughter is nonsense, Caliban a fish monster and Stephano a bumbling drunk, and so plot for murder is not something dark and harrowing in this play, it's nothing more than comic relief.




Passage/Language Analyses

Petruccio: Come, come, you wasp, i’faith you are too angry.
Katherine: If I be waspish, best beware my sting.
Petruccio: My remedy is then to pluck it out.
Katherine: Ay, if the fool could find where it lies.
Petruccio: Who knows not where a wasp does wear his sting? In his tail.
Katherine: In his tongue.
Petruccio: Whose tongue?
Katherine: Yours, if you talk of tales, and so farewell.
Petruccio: What, with my tongue in your tail?
The Taming of the Shrew (II.i.207–214)

The above passage shows Katherine and Petruccio's stunning verbal wit and the ending line completes the comedy of the scene, this is a common theme of Shakespearean comedy, making such a serious, or otherwise dramatic situation, laughable through slight mockery and subtle use of diction. In A Midsummer Night's Dream, however, the use of comedy is very different, while pertaining to the same general strucutre set by Shakespeare. In A Midsummer Night's Dream, comedy is used to make light of deadly and painful situations rather than to mock a shrew like Katherine. Without the rhyming schemes set in place or the airiness with which everything is received, the two plays would not be considered comedies, perhaps romances in their own right, but murder and intrigue do not a comedy make.

TITANIA
I pray thee, gentle mortal, sing again:
Mine ear is much enamour'd of thy note;
So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape;
And thy fair virtue's force perforce doth move me
On the first view to say, to swear, I love thee.

BOTTOM
Methinks, mistress, you should have little reason
for that: and yet, to say the truth, reason and
love keep little company together now-a-days; the
more the pity that some honest neighbours will not
make them friends. Nay, I can gleek upon occasion

TITANIA

Thou art as wise as thou art beautiful.

This passage from A Midsummer Night's Dream directly follows the scene wherein Bottom's head is transformed into that of an ass, one of Puck's many tricks throughout the play. This scene is entirely ridiculous, a Queen of fairies mooning amorously over a man who now has the head of an ass, and all as part of a practical joke. Without the visual impact of this scene, some of the comedy is lost but after taking Bottom's personality, and name, into account it truly shows how skilled Shakespeare is, making his comedy transfer not only to a stage but to readers.

Commentary

The Shakespearean comedies read in class are more than just stories about fairies, shrews, and magical islands. In the case of The Taming the Shrew, the play centers on a theme of domestication, Katherine's adamant stand against Petruccio's fawning being all in vain, so it would seem, due to his unrelenting and charming attitude. The battle waged between the two appears to be a hyperbole of the classic spousal struggle for power, Katherine challenging the traditional role of women as submissive, secondary to their husbands. To the audience of the time, this in itself may be comedy enough, but the returning fire from Petruccio elevates it even more, his kind and loving words so very different from her cursing and silver tongue. A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Tempest are different though, A Midsummer Night's Dream reminds on several occasions, through soliloquy, that you should not take the actions too seriously, and remember that it is all but a dream. The Tempest, though, is different even still from both, in The Tempest, the major theme of the work is that of justice, and retribution, paying for ones sins though not with the ultimate price. Propsero, through the play, seems to want vengeance upon his brother and other mutinous subjects but, in the end, he spares them, so long as they understand the brevity of their actions, that what they had done was treacherous. Overall, the comedies send different messages to the reader, or viewer, but it remains constant that they are not simply silly plays through each.

Reflection

I enjoyed reading these plays, each of them being uniquely comedic, their structure applying to the same basic format while sending their individual meanings to the reader. I found The Taming of The Shrew particularly funny, Katherine's best attempts at pushing Petruccio away being in vain, and her reputation as the great and terrible shrew in tatters. The Tempest was my least favorite of the comedies, I felt that it was highly illogical, other than the supernatural themes, such as Prospero's being trapped on the island despite having 'all powerful' magic and Miranda falling immediately in love upon seeing Ferdinand was a stretch. It was a good play, and a good example of Shakespeare's comedies but not my favorite. A Midsummer Night's Dream was somewhere in the middle for me, certain aspects of the play such as the feud between Oberon and Titania being highly amusing but the lovers' troubles seemed so frivolous in comparison although the two are meant to run parallel storylines. Overall, the three plays were good examples of Shakespearean comedy.