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Comedy vs Tragedy

If you are a fan of plays, then you must want to know the difference between comedy and tragedy. You must have undoubtedly heard of Shakespeare to whom one's mind could naturally straightaway run in association of the terms tragedy and comedy as Shakespeare is undoubtedly referred to as the world's pre-eminent dramatist. It appears that the two terms,which denote two genres of drama, are not similar, yet do they have a difference in meaning? Difference between comedy and tragedy is not something of obscurity, it is something that is plainly visible. This article attempts to explore the difference between tragedy and comedy in terms of a number of aspects related to drama in literature. To begin with, the main difference between tragedy and comedy is found at the ending of the drama.

What is a Tragedy?

A tragedy is a genre of drama in literature that is mainly characterized by its sad and depressing ending. The play deals with a series of sorrowful events happen to or are caused by its hero or heroine. Tragedy is also characterized by the emotion it creates in the audience; a sentiment mixed with sorry and empathy. Although, tragedy is associated with plays, by extension, it also relates to poetry and fiction as well. According to historians, the origins of tragedy occurred in Ancient Greece about 2500 years ago. It has been noted since in all literary eras and great playwrights of tragedy in the western literature include Shakespeare, Lope de Vega, Racine, and Schiller. In terms of the plot of a tragedy, it is usually a series of serious actions that evoke feelings of fear and pity. The main character or the protagonist of a tragedy is called a tragic hero whereas the setting of a tragedy is usually a battlefield, a dark and mysterious palace, or any other disastrous place.

What is a Comedy?

A comedy, in contrast to a tragedy, is a genre of drama in literature that is characterized by its happy and vivacious ending. Besides making the audience happy, a comedy rather importantly intends to evoke humour and amusement in the audience by means of extensive laughter. This kind of plays and dramas make up the comic theatre of which the western origins date back to the Ancient Greece. A comedy can again be classed into a number of sub-genres such as satire, burlesque, comedy of manners, and farce. The plot of a comedy normally deals with an ordinary problem faced by the common people. Further, a comedy is normally set in an ordinary place and the protagonist of a comedy is called a comic hero.

What is the difference between Comedy and Tragedy?

* A tragedy has a sad and depressing ending while a comedy has a happy and vigorous ending.

* The plot of a tragedy is marked with a series of actions that happened to the protagonist causing fear and pity in the audience while a comic plot often creates laughter in the audience.

* A protagonist of a tragedy is called a tragic hero while the main character of a comedy is called a comic hero.

* Comedy is also characterized with ambiguity in language while tragedy deals with concrete language.

* Stubbornness is often a characteristic of tragic heroes while willingness to learn and change a characteristic of comic heroes.

Judging by the above mentioned differences, it is comprehensible that comedy and tragedy differ from each other in the sense that one ending being sad and disappointing and the other being happy and enlightening. Also, differences are also noted with regard to the plot, setting, characters, language used, and emotions evoked in the audience.

Cite This Page
"Difference Between Comedy and Tragedy." DifferenceBetween.Com. September 18, 2014. < http://www.differencebetween.com/difference-between-comedy-and-vs-tragedy/ >

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If you are a fan of plays, then you must want to know the difference between comedy and tragedy. You must have undoubtedly heard of Shakespeare to whom one's mind could naturally straightaway run in association of the terms tragedy and comedy as Shakespeare is undoubtedly referred to as the world's pre-eminent dramatist.

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21 Words Created by Shakespeare (And 4 That Weren’t)

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The Bard gave us ‘bedazzled’ and so many other words—but there are a few cases where words we thought he created actually originated earlier.

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List of Shakespeare's plays by genre.

The groups below are the classification of Shakespeare's plays according to the First Folio, a collection of 36 of Shakespeare's plays published in 1623 by his colleagues. Since the interpretations of the plays change through the centuries, you might see them grouped differently in other places. An additional group, 'problem plays', has sometimes been used to categorise All's Well That Ends Well, Measure for Measure and Troilus and Cressida.

Click on a play to find summaries, dates and sources, past RSC productions (images and videos), education resources and famous quotes.

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Tragedies, comedies and histories | Royal Shakespeare Company

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A list of all Shakespeare's plays by genre: comedies, tragedies & histories, with links to in-depth information, from plot synopses to famous scenes.

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An Example Of A Shakespearean Insult in Modern Television

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An Example Of A Shakespearean Insult in Modern Television

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-Message Received,
Steven Universe

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word search mask definition crossword crossword online

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Free Crossword Assistant Online - Crossword Puzzles

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Assistant to the crossword man: search words by mask, and definition, assistant cruciverbalist, online dictionary crossword. Free crosswords puzzles.

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(picture credit: Utrecht University Library)

The sketch at left is perhaps one of the most important in theatrical history. In 1596, a Dutch student by the name of Johannes de Witt attended a play in London at the Swan Theatre. While there, de Witt made a drawing of the theatre's interior. A friend, Arend van Buchell, copied this drawing—van Buchell's copy is the sketch rendered here—and in doing so contributed greatly to posterity. The sketch is the only surviving contemporary rendering of the interior of an Elizabethan-era public theatre. As such, it's the closest thing historians have to an original picture of what the Globe may have looked like in its heyday.

Shakespeare's company erected the storied Globe Theatre circa 1599 in London's Bankside district. It was one of four major theatres in the area, along with the Swan, the Rose, and the Hope. The open-air, polygonal amphitheater rose three stories high with a diameter of approximately 100 feet, holding a seating capacity of up to 3,000 spectators. The rectangular stage platform on which the plays were performed was nearly 43 feet wide and 28 feet deep. This staging area probably housed trap doors in its flooring and primitive rigging overhead for various stage effects.

The story of the original Globe's construction might be worthy of a Shakespearean play of its own. The Lord Chamberlain's Men had been performing in the Theatre, built by James Burbage (the father of Richard Burbage) in 1576. In 1597, although the company technically owned the Theatre, their lease on the land on which it stood expired. Their landlord, Giles Allen, desired to tear the Theatre down. This led the company to purchase property at Blackfriars in Upper Frater Hall, which they bought for £600 and set about converting for theatrical use.

Unfortunately, their aristocratic neighbors complained to the Privy Council about the plans for Blackfriars. Cuthbert Burbage tried to renegotiate the Theatre lease with Giles Allen in autumn of 1598; Allen vowed to put the wood and timber of the building "to better use." Richard and Cuthbert learned of his plans and set in motion a plot of their own. It seems that the company's lease had contained a provision allowing them to dismantle the building themselves.

In late December of 1598, Allen left London for the countryside. The Burbage brothers, their chief carpenter, and a party of workmen assembled at the Theatre on the night of December 28. The men stripped the Theatre down to its foundation, moved the materials across the Thames to Bankside, and proceeded to use them in constructing the Globe.

The endeavor was not without controversy. A furious Giles Allen later sued Peter Street, the Burbage's carpenter, for £800 in damages. The courts found in favor of the Lord Chamberlain's Men and ordered Allen to desist from any further legal wrangling. The Globe would play host to some of Shakespeare's greatest works over the next decade. In an ironic epilogue, the troupe won the right in 1609 to produce plays at Blackfriars, and subsequently split time between there and the Globe.

In 1613, the original Globe Theatre burned to the ground when a cannon shot during a performance of Henry VIII ignited the thatched roof of the gallery. The company completed a new Globe on the foundations of its predecessor before Shakespeare's death. It continued operating until 1642, when the Puritans closed it down (and all the other theatres, as well as any place, for that matter, where people might be entertained). Puritans razed the building two years later in 1644 to build tenements upon the premises. The Globe would remain a ghost for the next 352 years.

The foundations of the Globe were rediscovered in 1989, rekindling interest in a fitful attempt to erect a modern version of the amphitheater. Led by the vision of the late Sam Wanamaker, workers began construction in 1993 on the new theatre near the site of the original. The latest Globe Theatre was completed in 1996; Queen Elizabeth II officially opened the theatre on June 12, 1997 with a production of Henry V. The Globe is as faithful a reproduction as possible to the Elizabethan model, seating 1,500 people between the galleries and the "groundlings." In its initial 1997 season, the theatre attracted 210,000 patrons.

Cambridge History of English and American Literature—William Shakespeare

From the Bartleby.com website. This is the entry on the Globe Theatre; it also provides information on other theatres of the time, such as The Rose and The Blackfriars.

Elizabethan Playhouses, Actors, and Audiences

An overview of Elizabethan theatre presented by TheatreHistory.com. Reprinted from Bellinger's A Short History of the Theatre (1927).

Globe Theatre

Encyclopædia Brittanica's page on the Globe Theatre's history.

Map of Early Modern London: The Globe

MoEML is a digital atlas of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century London that includes an encyclopedia of early modern London people and places.

Shakespeare's Globe

Shakespeare's Globe is a world-renowned performing arts venue, cultural attraction and education centre located on the bank of the River Thames in London, UK.

Shakespeare's Globe Theatre

Rosalind Tedford is a liaison between Wake Forest University and the Globe Theatre. There are some great shots of the Globe here.

Shakespeare's Globe Theatre Summary (eNotes.com)

Explore Shakespeare's Globe Theater with this detailed discussion of the most famous venue in English literature.

Shakespeare's Staging

The Cal Berkeley Shakespeare Program provides a survey of resources involving Shakespeare's stage and Shakespearean performance, both during his lifetime and through its subsequent development.

The Globe Theatre: A Study Guide

This Cummings Study Guides page dedicated to Shakespeare's Globe presents a good overview on the theater and related topics.

Shakespeare Globe Centre, USA Research Archive

A site that did quite well in presenting the modern reconstruction of the Globe. SGC US is now shut down, but the site remains live as an archive of its work.

Shakespeare's Globe Theatre (SBT)

The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust presents the when, how, and why behind Shakespeare's Globe Theatre.

Shakespeare's Globe Theatre at AbsoluteShakespeare.com

Another useful overview of the Globe Theatre.

The Virtual Globe

An animated imagined tour of the Elizabethan-era Globe courtesy of the University of Cambridge.

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Shakespeare's company erected the storied Globe Theatre circa 1598 in London's Bankside district. It was one of four major theatres in the area, along with the Swan, the Rose, and the Hope. The open-air, octagonal amphitheater rose three stories high with a diameter of approximately 100 feet, holding a seating capacity of up to 3,000 spectators.