Comedy
Comedy is a term used to describe a play or performing art which generally ends in a happy ending. Webster's Dictionary Comedy describes a drama or any work with a happy ending.It distinguishes from a problematic, tragic, or serious and is also defined as any comic or ludicrous incident or series of incidents.(262)The term is comedy also includes exaggerated forms of comic entertainment called farce and burlesque.(700) Its best form of work is described as humourous entertainment.(143)
Comedy developed from ancient Greek festivals in honor of Dionysus, the god of revelry. Greek comedy reached its highest development in the plays of Aristophanes.(700)
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Comedy is a term that is defined in so many ways and credits it is easy to see why it is one of the more difficult terms to define. Abrams and Harpham state,in the most common literature application, a comedy is a fictional work in which the materials are selected and managed primarily in order to invest & amuse us(Abrams,Harpham 39). Beckson and Ganz suggest comedy is any literary work, but especially a play, less exalted and less serious than tragedy, commonly having a happy ending (Ganz,Beckson 43). Vincent de Beauvis describes comedy as a poem changing a sad beginning into a happy ending(Cuddon 148).
In today's sociey we see it in the farce variety of comedy. Farce is a type of comedy designed to provoke the viewer or audience to a simple hearty laughter or-"belly laughs"(Abrams,Harpham 40). One of the earliest forms of this type of comedy came during the Middle Ages Period, where works such as "Noah" and "The Second Shepherd's Play" were created by Wakefield Cycle. However, comedy has a come a long way from what it has been seen today. Greek comedy was from the beginning associated with fertility rites and the worship of Dionysus(Cuddon 148). Aristophanes, a Greek dramatist, created works such as: "Acharnians", "Knights", "Clouds", "Wasps", and "Birds"(Cuddon 148).
Comedy has many types of itself: farce, romantic, satiric, and comedy of manners. Romantic Comedy was developed by Elizabaethan dramatists represent a love affair that involves a beautiful & engaging heroine(Abrams,Harpham 39). Althought the course of this love does not run smoothly it overcoms all the difficulties to end in a happy union(Abrams,Harpham 39). Satiric Comedy ridicules political plicies or philisophical doctines or else attacks devations from the accepted social order (Abrams,Harpham 39). They do this by making ridiculous violators of its standards of morals or manners(Abrams,Harpham 39). The early master of this was Aristophanes(Abrams,Harpham 39). Comedy of Manners orginated in he new comed of the Greek Menander & developed by Roman dramatists Platus & Terrence in the third & Vicissitudes of young lovers(Abrams,Harpham 39). This also included what became the stock characters of much later comedy, such as the clever servant, old & stodsy parents, and the wealthy rival(Abrams,Harpham 39).
Works Cited
- Cuddon, J.A. "The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory Fourth Edition"
London: Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 1998
- Abrams, M. H., Harpham Geoffrey Galt. "A Glossary of Literary Terms 8th Edition"
The Thomson Corporation. 2005
- Beckson Karl E., Ganz Arthur. "Literary Terms A Dictionary 3rd Edition"
Farrar, Straus and Giroux: New York, 1975.