Although Othello is a tragic play in nature, Shakespeare's subtle use of comedy in the play's various scenes adds effect to its overall tragic downfall. In a standard comic play, one would expect a story of love and courtship with some deceptive twist of plot, all worked out to a happy en...

Comedy and tragedy in Antigone and Lysistrata Horace Warpole wrote "The world is a comedy to those who think, a tragedy to those who think, a comedy to those who feel." This quote holds much truth behind its meaning. It can also be translated to mean that comedy evokes thought we...

The plays in ancient Greece were made up of several genres. One of these genres was comedy. Comedy came from two main factors, the major one being known as the "Choral Element" which has ceremonies to encourage fertility at the Festival of Dionysus. The second influence was from Sicilian mimes th...

In 500 B.C., Greek theatre was the most popular form of entertainment. It is important to understand that drama began in the Greek world as a form of religious ritual, but it was good entertainment especially if it contained a lot of blood or gore. Greek drama was not only performed in the theatre b...

Modern drama began by turning toward realism and away from the fantasy of nineteenth-century melodrama and farce. Realism gave rise to various innovations that served to express the dramatist\'s vision of what reality is. These attempts to be \" more real than real\" can be called expressionism. ...

Marie FleurimondTuesday, September 12, 2000Period 2 ShontyAP English Composition & LanguageWhat's So Funny...Catch 22?Comedy and tragedy have always been separated into separate categories. Certainly most tragedies have humorous moments, and even the craziest comedies were at times serious. Neverthe...

The Cherry Orchard The Misunderstood Comedy EssayWhen the first production of The Cherry Orchard was performed on stage in Moscow, there was a significant difference of opinion between the author and directors. Chekhov strongly faulted the director's interpretation that the play should be preformed ...

'The Winters Tale' seems to adhere to the genre of tragicomedy perfectly as the play is infact in two halves, tragedy and comedy, as the genre's name would imply. The idea that it is a picture made of two halves, winter and summer, seems to be a good way of describing the separate ge...

For many centuries people have found theater to be an excellent form of entertainment. The public's appreciation for such entertainment is based upon different theatrical themes. Whether it is a lighthearted comedy, that is most certain to lift anyone's spirits, a passionate romance, that stirs ou...

COSTUMES AND MASKS IN GREEK DRAMA Greek Drama originated at the beginning of the 5th Century. It began as religious festivals and continued on to purposes such as entertainment and dealing with political, social, moral or ethical issues of the time. There were many famous Greek Playwrights such ...

Very early in history, the Greeks began to collect poems that had been written in honor of their brave ancestors. These poems were often recited in public and almost everyone in the city would come to listen. Many people think that Greek entertainment evolved from these poems, but actually it did ...

Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire is considered by many critics to be what is called a flawed masterpiece. This is because William's work utilizes and wonderfully blends both tragic and comic elements that serve to shroud the true nature of the hero and heroine thereby not al...

Before the year 479 BCE, most of the innovations from the Greeks were art in its most common form and in the mathematics and sciences. Examples of this are Pythagoras in 525; he developed a throm about right triangles. It wasn\'t until aproxiamtely 458 Bce that the first tragedy was created. Drama h...

The theatre in the City Dionysia was a great semi-circle on the slope of the Acropolis, with rows of stone seats. The front row consisted of marble chairs; these were reserved for the priests of Dionysus and the chief magistrates. Beyond the front row was a circular space called the orchestra, where...

Although the Fool may seem strange to us, an Elizabethan audience would have greeted the Fool with great familiarity. The position was a historic one in Shakespeare's time, with the monarch appointing an official court jester (Fool). In conventional drama of the day he was a hold over from morality ...

The tension of illusion and reality present a tremendous problem for the characters in Moliere's Misanthrope. Another tension, to a lesser extent, is that of love and principle. Throughout the play the characters are saying or thinking one thing, but saying or doing the complete opposite. The conf...

Imagine this following scene: You are sitting in a dark, fairly crowded large room. There are hundreds of other people, in hundreds of other seats surrounding you. In front of you, there is a large stage, with people acting out a play. Lights, music, and different sound effects set the mood of th...

Greek TheatreThere have been many artistic achievements that have had a substantial role in shaping outlooks and tastes for cultures and generations for 1000's of years. Of all the different kinds of productions the Greeks have established, the tragedy is the most extraordinary of their spiritual co...