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Types of Comedy in British-American Literature

’Comedy’ as an academic definition is associated with the comic theatre

this theatrical genre can be described as a dramatic performance which pits two societies against
each other in an amusing way or through conflicts

most of the comedies contain variations in the element of surprise; conflict; repetitiveness

the origins of comedy: the word comedy has a classical Greek origin and had the original meaning of
‘village revel’

the adjective ‘comic’ in modern usage: the meaning is confined to the sense of provoking laughter

The word ‘comedy’ came into modern usage through the Latincomoedia and Italiancommedia

Greeks and Romans: restricted the word comedy to descriptions of stage-plays with happy endings

Middle Ages: term expanded to narrative poems with happy endings

later: the term became associated with performances intended to cause laughter

comedy is one of the original genres of literature defined by Aristotle in his work Poetics

this genre is defined by a certain pattern according to Aristotle’s definition

Aristotle’s comedy combines several kinds of mischief, including the satirical mockery of living
politicians and writers

in general, all comedies begin with a low, typically ugly man who cannot do anything right

by the end he has won the pretty girl due to achieving something else

element of the supernatural

includes the unrealistic

the genre comedy is a play (or other literary composition) written to amuse its audience

it uses humour to parody or satirize the behaviour and mannerisms of its members

its tone is humorous or satirical

its ending is usually happy for the leading characters

normally, a comedy is closer to everyday life in its representation than tragedy, and explores
common human failings rather than disastrous crimes that are more common in a tragedy

Types of comedy:

FARCE: characterized by broad satire and impossible situations; it goes to extremes, deals with the
ridiculous (but not physically) and it is put on a plausible basis (less sophisticated)

ROMANTIC COMEDY: ranges from farce to the tragicomic  Shakespeare, the master of romantic
comedy

BURLESQUE: deals with a serious, well-known subject in an absurd manner

SATIRE: ridicule of public institutions and figures (Jonathan Swift: Gulliver’s Travels)

DOMESTIC COMEDY: involves home, deals with humorous situations of everyday life

COMEDY OF MANNERS/WIT: the comedy of manners typically takes its subject from a
particular part of society (usually upper class society); witty/ aristocratic characters  wit and word
plays are more intellectual forms of comedy based on clever, often subtle manipulation of the
language  sophisticated and witty comedy of manners: Oscar Wilde: The Importance of Being
Earnest (1895)

SHAKESPEAREAN COMEDIES: there are three distinguished types of comedies: bitter-,

romances-, strictly speaking

STRICTLY SPEAKING COMEDIES:

a, bona fide comedies: Much Ado about Nothing, As You Like It (they focus on love and violent
opposition about love relationship

b, vision of mankind: focusing on young generation, where people are imperfect (they are nice,
however, full of imperfections)  they need education, vision of mankind is optimistic; these works
deal with love, love is a metaphor of self-identity (through getting to know each other); establishing
love relationship through learning about themselves; these works may end in marriage, dance or feast

BITTER COMEDIES:

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focus on love; e.g.: Measure for Measure; they end in marriage; love in these plays are concerned
with sexual attraction (the opposite of bona fide comedies); love is threatened by a sort of public
power; mankind similar to the other characters; people are imperfect and not strong enough to risk
anything for love (there is no reason for risking, there is another love); youngsters have no chance of
living in the future (comic providence keeps the character alive); solution: multiple marriages; most
of the time one from the married couple does not love the other person

ROMANCES (tragic comedies):

families live separately for a long time and finally they unite; incidents without logical relationship;
characters are not credible figures (they are not to be trusted); the world is an unreal world (fairy
tales)  absolutely chaotic world  they cannot fight against it, optimism: virtue is gained at the
end; pessimism: shallow characters

RESTORATION COMEDIES: public stage performances are not banned any more

The great period of European comedy, 17th century, was partly influenced by the commedia dell' arte
(shortened from "comedy through the art of improvisation")

less sophisticated forms are burlesque, farce and black comedy

character comedy derives humour from a persona  much character comedy comes from
stereotypes

Renaissance English Literature: Shakespeare - Much Ado about Nothing

• one of the Bona fide comedies
• difficult to decide who the main character is (or which pair)
• two love affairs, two plots
o we only see struggling (“much ado”)
• the title is speaking: “nothing” meant female genital organ in slang that time
• approach: Hero & Claudio are the main characters, the main plot is theirs
o they have many lines, go through the greatest perils
• Hero: heroine, displays the qualities of Christian resurrection (metaphorically)
o Hero and Claudio have to face the greatest enemy (Don Juan deceives Claudio)
• Hero cannot take it fades, father disowns her
• she plays her death, deceives Messina
• depth of human existence: death
• Claudio has to publicly humiliate himself (lamentation)
• the other pair (Beatrice & Benedick) is not so important; they are comic low characters
 tricked to their love-relationship
• on stage: Beatrice and Benedick are comic figures
o they entertain us
o another approach: full of colours; they are the main characters
• Beatrice interested in Benedick from the first moment
• love relationship of Hero and Claudio: deep pattern: love at first sight; they know each other later
• but there are problems
• Claudio asks Benedick what to do with that girl then asks Don Pedro
 he asks his friends and superiors
• Don Pedro proposes marriage in Claudio’s name
o Hero would say yes anyway
• Claudio becomes sad when he thinks that Don Pedro proposed Hero but he doesn’t do anything after
he has Hero and he is not talking to her directly
• they are not allowed to talk to each other (Don John’s intervention)
• Claudio is only a conventional courtier, man of duty

• Beatrice and Benedick seem to be created to each other in their names

• “she who blesses” “he who is blessed”
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 o seemingly they had a love relationship in the past
• Why do not they just jump into each others’ arms? they do “merry war”
o they pull each others’ legs
• they defend themselves from a possible hurt
o at the end of the play they restart the game
• but in the chapel: confession: Beatrice wants Benedick to kill Claudio
 Benedick is ready to risk his life by challenging his fellow
 ultimate understanding of what love is
• at the end all Messina is on stage when they pull each others’ legs, they don’t confess love
publicly
o they learn much from Claudio’s and Hero’s relationship: mistaken type of love
• love is between two people and only two people
• ultimate disbelief in women (Claudio, Hero's Father)
• preconception: women are whores, unconscious fear of women
• Beatrice does not believe that Hero is a whore
• + Benedick: first he is part of the male-chauvinist attitude, but then in love he has feelings

English Literature 1660-1900: Wycherley: The Country Wife

Restoration comedy

reflects an aristocratic and anti-puritan society

two plot devices (egység):

1. a rake: a man in the Restoration period who is an aristocrat tends to be sexually irresistible and
thus make immoral sexual relationships with women

the rake in the plot has some tricks of pretending impotence (inability to have erection) in order to
safely have immoral affairs with married women

2. the arrival of an inexperienced young country wife with her discovery of the joys of town life, esp.
London men
• the play reflects an aristocratic and anti-Puritan ideology, and was controversial for its sexual
explicitness even in its own time
• rake: stock character of Restoration plays (witty, carefree, seduces women)
• after Commonwealth: triumphant aristocratic dominance: humiliating the Londoner, middle-class
husbands
• 3plots:
 Horner's impotence trick: pretends to be impotent in order to be allowed to be
socialised with married women
 Pinchwife and Margery: middle-aged man who has married a naive country girl in the
hope that she will not cuckold him
 the courtship of Harcourt and Alithea: witty Harcourt wins the hand of Pinchwife's
sister Alithea from the hands of the Upper-class town snob and dandy Sparkish whom
she was engaged to until she discovered he only loves her for her money and nothing
else
• key scenes:
 "the china scene": double entendre dialogue (ambiguous): Horner is purportedly discussing
his china collection with two of his lady friends. The husband of one of the ladies and the
grandmother of the other are listening front stage and nodding in approval, failing to pick up
the double meaning which is obvious to the audience
 Lady Fidget's self-styled "virtuous gang" meet up at Horner's lodging to carouse, throw off
their public virtue, and behave exactly like male rakes, singing riotous songs and drinking
defiant toasts
 Pinchwife's attempt to force Mrs Pinchwife to write a haughty farewell letter to Horner. Like
all Pinchwife's efforts, it misfires, giving Mrs Pinchwife instead an opportunity to send
Horner a fan letter

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J. M. Synge: The Playboy of the Western World

J. M. Synge was an Irish playwright, poet, prose writer, and collector of folklore; he was one of the
cofounders of the Abbey Theatre (Irish Renaissance)

- Synge used a special language in the play which was considered foul
- the plot was said to be vile, inhuman and violent (Christy tries to kill his father twice then the locals want
to hang him)
- disgraced Irish peasants and disgraced Irish women even more - confirmed the English stereotypes
about the Irish
- set in western Ireland (County Mayo), this county was seen as the “wild west”
- west of Ireland idealized because of the beauty of the landscape. Irish still spoken by the most truly Irish
men and women, working as fishermen, farmers… for writers were seen as the ideal, true Irish.
- play is written in English, but in Hiberno-English (unusual word order and syntax) ->The author of this
play is seeking to find a new style of writing in English that captures the lost language of the Irish.

PLAY

It is set in Michael James Flaherty's public house in County Mayo (on the west coast of Ireland) during the
early 1900s. It tells the story of Christy Mahon, a young man running away from his farm, claiming he
killed his father. The locals are more interested in vicariously enjoying his story than in condemning the
immorality of his murderous deed. He captures the romantic attention of the bar-maid Pegeen Mike, the
daughter of Flaherty.

- opening scene: It is clear that Shawn wants to get married to Pegeen. She seems to be accepting,
but refuses to be alone with him. Shawn is a good Catholic boy – he would not be alone with her!
He says: he is waiting for a letter from the bishop (letter of dispensation)

-A young woman working in the pub. Night time. On her own but not exactly – she is talking to the man.
Her name is Pegeen Mike: the daughter of Mike. Her father’s name: Michael. To indicate a relative.
Practices are deeply Irish, language deeply influenced by the Irish. The name is Anglicized. (from Pegín)

- tough, masculine type woman.

-community very important in The Playboy – here: it is shown to be an enclosed community (not much
outside influence and not many strangers)  marrying relatives danger of mental or physical disability is
foreshadowed (if children are born)
-this is the first point where the theme of degeneration, madness, violence is hinted

-still in the opening scene Pegeen is afraid to be left alone because of tinkers (who have a reputation for
fighting when drunk), she is afraid of idle soldiers (the “wild west theme”)

-enclosed community opens up when a stranger appears (Christy Mahon)

Common idea: the outsider who comes in and changes everything.
• he seems to be a nobody, but stirs up interest when he gives away that he is on the run 
people are only interested in him when he admits he has committed a crime!, he becomes
the source of admiration

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 • they don’t succeed at guessing, Pegeen accuses him of doing nothing wrong and almost turns
public mood against him, but he confesses having killed his father (Pegeen immediately
starts seeing him as an interesting person, so do other girls in the village)

- women start flocking to the pub to meet him and Pegeen wants to marry him instead of Shawn Keogh, but
so does the Widow Quin
- Because of the novelty of Christy's exploits and the skill with which he tells his own story, he becomes
something of a town hero
- The Widow Quin is also interested in Christy. Woman of about 30. Slightly older woman, wants to have a
young fellow.

- there follows a fight between Pegeen and the Widow, which uses rich language and verbal
insults (contrast: while behavior seems to be primitive, the richness of speech, rhythm of
language and images used compensate for it, while at the same time savage freedom, energy
and passion are shown)

- the effect of the primitive on Christy Mahon: he arrives as a shy person, later he becomes more
confident at the thought of his “crime” and its consequences. Looking in the mirror. As people
speak to Christy in terms of admiration, he becomes more confident. Christy’s identity becomes a
performance
“I’m seeing myself in the mirror for the first time”

- due to the “primitive” attitude of the community, Christy establishes the identity of a violent man
Storytelling – imagination is important, is basis. Via the story, Christy acquires a new identity
- when his father turns up at Fair Day, he actually tries to kill him (second time!) but fails
- when the community discovers that they have been cheated there is public outrage, Pegeen ties Christy
down and burns his leg
- Eventually Christy's father, Mahon, who was only wounded, tracks him to the tavern. When the townsfolk
realize that Christy's father is alive, everyone (including Pegeen) shuns him as a liar and a coward. In
order to regain Pegeen's love and the respect of the town, Christy attacks his father a second time. This time
it seems that Old Mahon really is dead, but instead of praising Christy, the townspeople, led by Pegeen,
bind and prepare to hang him to avoid being implicated as accessories to his crime. Christy's life is saved
when his father, beaten and bloodied, crawls back onto the scene, having improbably survived his son's
second attack. As Christy and his father leave to wander the world, Shawn suggests he and Pegeen get
married soon, but she rejects him. Pegeen laments betraying and losing Christy: "I've lost the only
playboy of the western world."

When it turns out Christy did not kill his father they despise him. It is ironic they claimed Christy’s father
crazy when all the while it seems that it is them who are mad for they do not think about the fact that it is a
murder Christy is boasting about. This boasting is clearly Christy’s weak point for he wants to become
recognized but the crowd receives the murderous “fact” as a heroic deed. In the end when he actually kills
his father it turns from the ‘gallous story’ into a ‘dirty deed’. Synge could not be more crucial concerning
people’s receptivity in an enclosed community, for they contradict themselves within the play when firstly
measuring the words more intensively than deeds, later doing the completely opposite. This shows that
the community is starved for heroism so they establish Christy as their hero. They are who actually play
with him.