Comedy and Tragedy According to Aristotle - 1912 Words

Comedy and Tragedy | | Comedy According to Aristotle (who speculates on the matter in his Poetics), ancient comedy originated with the komos, a curious and improbable spectacle in which a company of festive males apparently sang, danced, and cavorted rollickingly around the image of a large phallus. (If this theory is true, by the way, it gives a whole new meaning to the phrase stand-up routine.) Accurate or not, the linking of the origins of comedy to some sort of phallic ritual or festival of mirth seems both plausible and appropriate, since for most of its history--from Aristophanes to Seinfeld--comedy has involved a high-spirited celebration of human sexuality and the triumph of eros. As a rule, tragedies occur†¦show more content†¦Elaborate comic intrigues involving deception, disguise, and mistaken identity are the rule. Examples of the genre include Shakespeare s Comedy of Errors, the Pink Panther movies, and the films of the Marx Brothers and Three Stooges. * Roman tic Comedy. Perhaps the most popular of all comic forms--both on stage and on screen--is the romantic comedy. In this genre the primary distinguishing feature is a love plot in which two sympathetic and well-matched lovers are united or reconciled. In a typical romantic comedy the two lovers tend to be young, likeable, and apparently meant for each other, yet they are kept apart by some complicating circumstance (e.g., class differences, parental interference; a previous girlfriend or boyfriend) until, surmounting all obstacles, they are finally wed. A wedding-bells, fairy-tale-style happy ending is practically mandatory. Examples: Much Ado about Nothing, Walt Disney s Cinderella, Guys and Dolls, Sleepless in Seattle. * Satirical Comedy. The subject of satire is human vice and folly. Its characters include con-artists, criminals, tricksters, deceivers, wheeler-dealers, two-timers, hypocrites, and fortune-seekers and the gullible dupes, knaves, goofs, and cuckolds who serve as their all-too-willing victims. Satirical comedies resemble other types of comedy in that they trace the rising fortune of a central character. However, in this case, the central character (like virtually everybodyShow MoreRelatedEssay on Compare and Contrast Comedy and Tragedy914 Words   |  4 PagesCompare and Contrast Comedy and Tragedy In a comparison of comedy and tragedy, I will begin by looking at narrative. The narration in a comedy often involves union and togetherness as we see in the marriage scene at the end of Midsummers Night Dream. William Hazlitt tells us that one can also expect incongruities, misunderstandings, and contradictions. I am reminded of the play The Importance of Being Ernest and the humor by way of mistaken identity. Sigmund Freud tells us to expect excessRead More Reflective essays1316 Words   |  6 Pages The classic tragedy, as defined by Aristotle, has six major parts. These parts include a plot, characters, theme, melody, spectacle, and language. All stories, according to Aristotle must have a beginning, middle, and end, and must follow a logical sequence according to these six elements. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;The plot is the series of events, or sequence in which the action of the play occurs. Plot must follow a cause and effect relationship, which follows a logical pattern. CharactersRead MoreOedipus the King a Tragic Hero936 Words   |  4 PagesMarietta Shaw English 1302-6504 Mrs.Weatherford 21 November 2011 A Tragic Hero Indeed! In Sophocles tragedy Oedipus the King, King Oedipus swears to solve the murder of former King Laios in order to free the city from the plague. The plague taunts the city destroying crops and livestock and making the women unable to bear children. 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Before proving the claim that it is a tragedy, first, I would like to emphasize why it is not comedy. As a director in theatre and of this play, specifically, I received a lot of negative feedbacks from professors and worse, my own mentors in DLSU about HarlequinRead MoreMimesis: Plato and Aristotle1536 Words   |  7 PagesMimesis: Plato and Aristotle 1,515 Words Philosophy 2348: Aesthetics\ The term ‘mimesis’ is loosely defined as ‘imitation’, and although an extensive paper could be written about the cogency of such a narrow definition, I will instead focus on Plato and Aristotle’s contrasting judgements of mimesis (imitation). I will spend one section discussing Plato’s ideas on mimesis and how they relate to his philosophy of reality and the forms. I will then spend a section examining Aristotle’s differingRead MoreThe Origins Of Drama And Theatre2001 Words   |  9 Pagestheir journeys. Ancient Greece Comedy was a popular type of play in Ancient Greece, only second to Tragedy. These types were described in many details in Poetics, by Aristotle. He expressed that a comedy is â€Å"an imitation of inferior people - not, however, with respect to every kind of defect: the laughable is a species of what is disgraceful. The laughable is an error or disgrace that does not involve pain or destruction† (Aristotle 9). In plainer words, Aristotle is saying that as long as no one