Synopsis of Course Material IV: Tragedy, Comedy, and Other Extremes

Tragedy, Comedy, and Other Extremes

Tragedy: Hamlet, Death of a Salesman

                *Tragedy has had some varying definitions throughout history.  The hands-on test of tragedy is: is almost everyone or everyone in the work absolutely miserable throughout most or all of the story?  If the answer is yes, it’s probably a tragedy.  But here are some technical thoughts anyway…

·         Aristotle had the earliest opinion.  He thought that tragedy should involve catharsis: emotional cleansing because of that “so glad it’s not me” feeling.  In Greek tragedy, some error of the tragic hero causes his fall from a high place to a low place.

·         Medieval tragedy also has a tragic male hero who falls, but he falls because it is the will of the Judeo-Christian God, not any fault of his own

·         Renaissance Tragedy was very influenced by Greek Tragedy, and was often called Humanist tragedy.  In France, they took the idea of unity to an extreme: the play had to take place in one specific place within 24 hours without any sub-plots.  English tragedies, like Shakespeare’s, were less limited in this way.  They usually had a secret murder (generally of a good kind by a worse one), and a discovery of the crime when the ghost of the deceased comes back (usually appearing to his son).  Then, both murderer and avenger try to kill each other—taking out others in the process—and the play ends in a bloodbath where everyone, including the avenger, dies.  However, English tragedies defied Aristotle’s rules because they mixed in some comedy and sympathetic villains, and Aristotle and the French thought that the audience shouldn’t get any relief from relentless horrifying bloodshed.  English Humanists thought that the play should take place in five acts, and that the relentless horrifying bloodshed should be shown offstage.

·         Modern tragedy has become much less defined.  We still have a tragic hero, but they usually suffer because of society or their environment, not a small error or the intervention of a divinity.  Modern tragedy is often influenced by Nietzsche, who believed that when the tragic hero falls, he is returning to a Dionysian (creative) state, and that this is a positive thing because our world today is too Apollonian (ordered and structured).  Others, like Miller, believe that the common man should be the new tragic hero, a common man who is willing to do anything to maintain his dignity in an oppressive society.  Miller argues tragedy arises when men retaliate to what they see as an affront to their image.  He thinks that tragedy should be a battle of a man to “secure his place in the world”, and that there must be the possibility that he can succeed.

·         Tragedy is rational, with a tragic hero and a serious atmosphere.  It usually induces catharsis, and focuses on the psychological aspects of the characters and questions of the soul.

Comedy: Oscar Wilde, Much Ado About Nothing

·         In comedy, characters face challenges like in tragedy, but in the end, they end in a high place (having—usually—conformed and relied on unrealistic means to achieve their success)

·         When comedy is funny it must: make you think not just feel; be mechanical; be human; there must be a set of expectations for society which the audience is familiar with; the situation can’t conform to the societal expectations; and it must be ultimately harmless

·         One could argue the above must be present in order for something to be funny.  Others say that you need to find the “unexpected, intellectual connections between ideas” (Schopenhauer), but that it can’t be taken too seriously.

·         Others say that a joke has to insult something to be funny.  Most agree that societal norms must be violated and that the joke must remind us of humanity. 

·         But all this analyzing begs the question: is the joke still funny if we have to explain it?  Why do we have to analyze laughter, which seems to be the absence of caring why?

·         Low Comedy: has little intellectual appeal

·         High Comedy: comedy that makes you think, and appeals to the intellect

·         Burlesque: ridiculously exaggerated comedy

·         Farce: highly improbably, slapstick, and exaggerated

·         Lampoon: satire that attacks an entire person or group

·         Parody: makes fun of another work

·         Satire: mocks society

·         Slapstick: chaotic physical comedy

·         Travesty: makes fun of something very serious 

·         Comedy of Ideas: characters engage in witty verbal wars about politics, religion, sex, marriage, and in doing so satirize various institutions

·         Comedy of Manners: love comedy among the upper classes, with witty verbal wars

·         Farce: full of improbable coincidences, bad timing, and mistaken identities.  Characters have often lost their identity, and are generally separated twins, born into the wrong class, or unable to marry because of money problems

·         Low Comedy: dirty jokes and sex with lots of slapstick humor

·         Comedy is full of spontaneity and improbability, ultimately making fun of the silliness of the human being.  There is usually a lack of communication between characters.

Irony: in irony, a character falls from a high place, and starts to recover.  Then they fall right back down and end like tragedy.  Irony emphasizes pointlessness.  This character either really screwed up or has really bad luck.

Absurdism: The American Dream, Waiting for Godot

·         A literary form so illogical that it tends to produce genuine confusion along with laughter.  It conveys bewilderment.  A famous absurdist is Edward Albee, who wrote the American Dream

·         Characters have disjointed conversations where they don’t really seem to be listening to one another.  The dialogue is often filled with non-sequiturs.  This forces the audience to consider the possibility of breaking the conventions of our society.  This is basically the concept of this type of literature.  It tests our version of reality and encourages us to break the status quo.