Shakespeare Exam 2: Comedies

What is the differency between tradgedy and comedy

• in comedy the fortunes of men are middle-class

• Comedy: the dangers are slight

• Comedy: the ends of the action are happy

• In tragedy: everything is the opposite

• Tragedy: the chracters are great men

• Tragedy: The fears are intense

• Tragedy: the ends disasterious

• In comedy: the beginning is troubled, the end tranquil

• In tragedy: events frollow the revers order

• Tragedy: the kind of life is shown that is to be shunned;

• Comedy: while in comedy the kind is shown that is to be sought after

• In comedy: the story is always fictitious;

• Tragedy: often has a basis of historical truth.

Characterisitcs of a comedy:

• end in marriage (happy ending)

• disguises/mistaken identities

• quick wordplay/puns

• complex plots weaving together

• young lovers overcome obstacles

• fool/jester chracter

• move from oppressive setting to “green world” or liberating location

• resourceful heroines

Themes of comedy:

• doubt/certainty

• reality/performance

• social status

• gender roles

• staging: dialogue, who knows what, love

Key events in Twelfth Night and how they demonstrate comedy:

• Viola suvives the shipwreck and disguises herself as Cesario

  • What Happens:

    • Viola survives a shipwreck and believes her twin brother, Sebastian, has drowned.

    • She arrives in Illyria, where she disguises hersefl as a young man named Cesario

    • She gets a job serving Duke Orsino

  • How this demonstrates comedy:

    • Mistaken identity: everyone believes Viola is a man

    • Dramatic irony: the audience knows Cesario is actually Viola, but the other chracters don’t

    • Disguise: Viola’s disguise creates confsuion and romantic complications

    • Gender confusion: her disguise complicates traditional expecations about gender and romantic relationships

    • Remember: Viola’s disguise is the foundation for almost all the misunderstandings in the play

• Orsino sends Cesario to court Olivia

  • What Happens:

    • Duke Orsino is in love iwth Olivia

    • Olivia refuses to see him because she is mourning her brother

    • Orsino sneds Cesario (Viola) to deliver messages of love to Olivia

    • Olivia unexpectedly falls in love with Cesario

  • How this demonstrates comedy:

    • Love Triangle: Orsino loves Olivia, Viola loves Orsino, and Olivia loves Viola (who she believes is Cesario

    • Irony: Viola is supposed to convince Olivia to love Orsino, but Olivia falls for Viola instead.

    • Unrequited love: Viola cannot openly express her love for Orsino because she is disguised

    • Remember: the characters’ romantic feelings are directed toward people who don’t love them back in the expected way

    • Remember: The chracters’ romantic feelings are directed toward epople who don’t love them back in the expected way.

• Sir Toby, Sir Andrew and Maria play tricks:

  • What Happens:

    • Sir Toby Belch and Sir Andrew Aquecheek are frequently drinking and causing trouble.

    • Maria, Olivia’s servant, decides to play a trick on Malvolio.

    • They write a fake love letter pretending to be from Oliva.

    • Malvolio believes Olivia loves him and follows the letter’s ridiculosu instructions, including wearing yellow stocking and cross-garters

  • How this demonstrates comedy:

    • Foolishness: Malvolio takes the letter seriously and makes a fool of himself

    • Practical Joke: the chracters create humor by tricking someone

    • Social satire: Malvolio’s desire to rise above his social position is mocked

    • Situational irony: Malvolio believes he is behaving romantically, but everyone else things he is acting absurdly

    • Remember: Malvolio’s yellow stockingsare one of the most recognizable examples of physical and situational comedy in the play

• Malvolio is imprisoned as a supposed madman:

  • What Happens:

    • Malvolios’s strange behavior makes Olivia believe something is wrong with him

    • He is locked in a adark room because the others believe he has lost his mind

    • Feste, dressed as Sir Topas, pretends otherwise be priest and messes with Malvolio

  • How This demonstrates comedy:

    • Farce: the exaggerated sitatuion creates absurd humor

    • Disguise: Feste uses another identity to trick Malvolio

    • Dramatic Irony: The audience knows Malvolio is being deceived, but he doesn’t

    • Important: This part also complciates the idea that comedy is always happy. Malvolio is genuinely mistreated, and his storyline has a darker side.

• Sebastian arrives in Illyria:

  • What Happens:

    • Viola’s twin brother Sebastian is actually alive

    • He arrives in Illyria with Antonio

    • Because Sebastian looks exactly like Viola disguised as Cesario, people mistake him for Cesario

  • How this demonstrates comedy:

    • Mistaken identity: Characters confuse sebastian and Cesario

    • Dramatic Irony: the audience understand the confusion, but the other chracters don’t

    • Coincidence: the twins’ unexpected reunion creates more misunderstandings

    • Remember: the twins looking alike is essential to the final revolution

• Olivia mistakes Sebastian for Cesario and marries him

  • What Happens:

    • Olivia encounters Sebastian and believes he is Cesario

    • She asks him to marry her, and he agrees

    • Meanwhile, Viola is still disguised as Ceasario

  • How this demonstrates comedy:

    • Mistaken identity: Olivia marries the wrong twin, at least as far as she understands it.

    • Unexpected resolution: the confusion eventually leads to a happy romantic outcome.

    • Marriage: marriage is a traditional ending in Shakespearean comedy.

• Viola and Sebastian reunite, and the idenitites are revealed

  • What Happens:

    • Viola and Sebastian finally see each other again

    • Everyone discovers that Cesario is actually Viola

    • Orsino realizes Viola loves him and agrees to marry her.

    • Olivia is already married to Sebastian.

  • How this demonstrates Comedy:

    • Resolution: the misunderstandings are finally cleared up.

    • Reconcilliation: the separated twins reunite

    • Marriage: the romantic conflcits are resolved through marriage

    • Restoration of order: the chracters’ identities and relationships become clear.

    • Remember: the ending brings the romantic confusion to a close, whcih is a defining feature of Shakespearean comedy.

Chracterisitcs of Shakespearean Comedy: What to remember: Twelfth Night

• Mistaken Identity

  • Viola disguises herself as Cesario; Sebastian is mistaken for her

• Disguise

  • Viola dresses as a man

• Dramatic irony:

  • The audience knows Viola’s real identity

• Love triangles;

  • Orsino loves Olivia, Viola loves Orsino, Olivia loves Cesario

• Unrequited love:

  • Viola cannot openly express her feelings for Orsino

• Foolish Characters:

  • Sir Andrew and Malvolio provide comic situations

• Practical Jokes:

  • Maria, Sir toby, and Fabian trick Malvolio

• Gender Confusion:

  • Viola’s disguise complicates romantic relationships

• Reconciliation:

  • Viola and Sebastian reunite

• Marriage:

  • Olvia marries Sebastian; Viola and Orsino plan to marry

• Happy Ending:

  • Romantic misunderstandings are resolved.

5 Things to memorize for Twelth Night

1. Viola disuises herself as Cesaro: this creates mistaken identity, dramatic irony, and gender confusion

2. Olivia falls in love with Cesario: This creates the love traingle and romatic complications

3. Malvolio gets tricked: this demonstrates practical jokes, foolishness, and social satire

4. Sebastian arrives: his resemblance to Viola creates even more mistaken identities

5. The twins reunite: the confusion is resolved, and the play ends with marriage.

Key events in Much Ado About Nothing and how they demonstrate comedy

• Don Pedro and his soldiers arrive in Messina

  • What Happens:

    • Don Pedro, a prince, arrives in messina wiht his soldiers, including Claudio and Benedick

    • They are welcomed by Leonato, Hero’s father.

    • Claudio immediately becomes interested in Hero

    • Benedick and Beatrice constantly aruge and insult each other

  • How this demonstrates comedy:

    • Witty dialogue: Beatrice and Benedick use clever insults and wordplay

    • Romantic Conflict: Beatirce and Benedick pretend to dislike one another, even though they eventually fall in love.

    • Contrast: claudio and Hero represent a more traditional romantic relationship, while Beatrice and Benedick have a relationship build on arguin and humor

    • Remember: Beatirce and Benedick’s relationship is often called a merry war because they constantly tease and challenge each other.

• Don Pedro plans to bring Beatrice and Benedick together

  • What Happens:

    • Don Pedro decides to trick beatirce and Benedict into falling in love

    • Claudio, Leonato and Don Pedro arrange for Benedick to overhear a conversation about Beatrice supposedly being in love with him.

    • Separately, Beatrice overhears a conversation suggesting Benedick secretly loves her

    • Both begin believing the other has feelings for them

  • How this demonstrates comedy;

    • Deception: the chracters intentionally create a false situation

    • Dramatic irony: the audience knows the conversations are stages

    • Situational comedy; Beatrice and Benedick change their behavior because they believe what they overheard.

    • Love: their supposed hatred begins turning into affection

    • Remember: their supposed hatred begins turning into affection

• Don John creates a plot against Hero

  • What Happens:

    • Don John, Don Pedro’s brother, is the villian of the play

    • he dislikes the happiness surrounding him and wants to cause trouble

    • he creates a plan to make Claudio believe Hero is unfaithful

    • Borachio arranges for margaret, Hero’s attendant, to appear at Hero’s windo at night

    • Claudio sees the encounter and believes he is watching Hero with another man

  • How this demonstrates comedy:

    • Decpetion: Don John manipulates Cludio through a false appearance

    • Mistaken identity: claudio mistakes margaret for hero

    • Dramatic irony: the audience knows that Hero has been framed

    • Appearance versus reality: what Claudio believes he sees he sees is not actually what happened

• Claudio publicly humiliates Hero at the wedding:

  • What happens:

    • Claudio and hero are supposed to get married

    • at the wedding ceremony, claudio publicly accuses Hero of being unfaithful

    • he rejects and humiliates her in front of everyone

    • Hero faints, and her family believes she may have died

    • beatrice becomes furious and demands that Benedick defend Hero’s honor

  • How this demonstrates comedy:

    • Misunderstanding: claudio believes a lie and acts on it

    • Conflict; the romantic relationship is disrupted by decpetion

    • Appearance versus realtiy: hero is innocent, but everyone initially believes she is guilty

    • Subversion of expectations: A weddin, whcih should be a happy event, becomes a public disaster

    • Important: this is one of the darkest moments in the play. Shakespearean comedy can include serious conflict and emotional suffering before the eventaul resolution

• The Watch discovers the truth:

  • What happens:

    • Dogberry, the local constable, and his watchmen overhear Borachio discussing the plot against Hero

    • They arrest Borachioa and Conrad

    • the truth about Don John’s deception is revealed

    • Claudio learns that Hero was innocent

  • How this demonstrates comedy:

    • Comic relief: Dogberry and the watchmen provide humor through their ridiculous behavior and misunderstandings

    • Irony: the seemingly incompetent watchmen uncover the truth that the noble chracters failed to recognize

    • Resolution: the decpetion is exposed, allowing the romantic conflict to be reparied

    • Remember: Dogberry is important becuase his foolishness actually helps solve the central conflict.

• Claudio believes Hero is dead:

  • What Happens:

    • Leonato tells Claudio that Hero has supposedly died from the shame and humiliation he caused

    • claudio feels guilty and agrees to honor Hero’s memory

    • Leonato asks Claudio to marry his niece, who is presented as Hero’s cousin

    • Claudio agrees without knowing that the woman is actually hero

  • How this demonstrates comedy:

    • Deception: Hero’s family creates another false situation

    • Mistaken identity: claudio doesn’t recognize Hero

    • Reconciliation: Claudio is given an opportunity to make emends

    • Resotration of order: the chracters begin repairing the damage caused by Don John’s decpetion

    • Remember: Hero’s supposed death is part of the plan to restore her reptuation

• Hero reveals herself, and the couples are reunited

  • What Happens:

    • Claudio arrives to marry the woman he beleives is Hero’s cousin

    • The woman reveals herself to be Hero

    • Claudio discovers that Hero was innocent all along

    • Beatrice and Benedick also admit their love for one another

    • both couples are united in marriage

    • Don John is captured, and the play ends with celebration

  • How this demosntrates comedy:

    • Revelation: the truth finally comes out

    • reconciliation: the chracters repair their relationships

    • Marriage; two couples are brought together

    • Happy Ending: the villain is exposed, Hero’s reputaiton is restored, and the romantic conflicts are resolved

    • Remember: the play ends with two marriages, which is traditional feature of shakespearean comedy.

Chracteristics of Shakespearean Comedy: What to remember: Much Ado about Nothing

• Deception:

  • Don John tricks Claudio into believing Hero is unfaithful

• Mistaken idenitty:

  • claudio mistakes Margaret for hero

• Dramatic irony:

  • the audience knows Hero is innocent

• Eavesdropping:

  • Beatrice and Benedick overhear staged conversation

• Love and Romance:

  • Hero and claudio Beatrice and Benedick

• Witty dialogue:

  • beatrice and benedick constantly insult each other

• Comic relief:

  • dogberry and the watch

• Foolish characters:

  • dogberry’s malapropisms and misunderstandings

• Appearance vs. reality

  • claudio believes something that isn’t true

• Reconciliation:

  • claudio and hero reunite

• Marriage:

  • Both couples end up together

• Happy ending:

  • The truth is revealed and social order is restored

5 things to memorize: Much Ado about Nothing

1. Beatrice and Benedick"‘s relationship: their constant arguing eventually turns into love. Demonstrates witty dialogue, romantic comedy, and decpetion

2. The overhearing trick: their friends trick them into beleiving they are loved. demonstrates dramatic irony and eavesdropping

3. Don John’s decpetion: he makes claudio beleive hero is cheating. Deomonstrates mistaken identity, appearance versus reality and dramatic irony

4. The wedding disaster: claudio publicly humiliates Hero. Demonstrates misunderstanding and conflict

5. Dogberry discovers the truth: the watch exposes Don John’s plot, Hero is revealed to be alive, and two couples are unity. Deomonstrates resolutionm reconciliation and marriage.