A Comedy? To the reader, The Merchant of Venice, may seem horrible and it be impossible to find the "comedy" at all. Perhaps, Shakespeare may have been simply trying to make people laugh at the appalling injustice we cause one another because of the small differences among us. Or...

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...

The Comedy of ErrorsThere are several themes that Shakespeare uses which are only loosely related to the actual comedy. The conflicts between bondage and liberty, law and sympathy, death and rebirth all form a very serious undertone within the play. There is also the serious effect of time. Shakespe...

Appearance vs. Reality: Disguise and deception in Merchant Of Venice, Twelfth Night and Keeping Up Appearances A recurrent theme in Shakespeare's plays is the idea that things are not always what they seem. This is one of the major themes of literature, a serious theme even in comedies. Twe...

Shakespeare wrote many plays during his lifetime. Some of his plays have similar comedic characteristics and then other plays are the exact opposite of comedy. Shakespeare wrote tragedies, romance, history, comedy and problem plays all with great success. During the performance of these plays there ...

Twelfth Night – "Do you regard Twelfth Night simply as a lighthearted festive comedy, or do you feel it contains more serious themes and issues?" The first known performance of Twelfth Night was on the 2nd February 1602, which is in fact Candlemas Day. It was a traditional festiv...

In the Taming of the Shrew Shakespeare creates humour in at least three different ways. First, with the amusing induction which makes the audience laugh and anticipate more comedy. Second, the Taming of the Shrew is a comedy of characters where false realities are everywhere. Finally, it is also a c...

Over the weekend, I attended a one-act play competition to see the high school I graduated from in their presentation of Act IV of Shakespeare\'s \"The Comedy of Errors.\" I didn\'t know what to expect, having never read or seen the play, but I was excited because Shakespeare is always entertainin...

'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...

To create humor in drama, one must either make witty wordplay, create an amusing situation, or use physical comedy. Often jokes may be incorporated into a play, or a comic situation may result in a series of complicated antics. The tradition for some of these comic devices has been carried over for ...

Twelfth NightBen BonomaAs a comedy, Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, is not only meant to entertain its audience but also bring attention to problems in society. One must let go of several realistic concepts before they can truly understand Shakespeare's intentions. The audience must suspend their log...

A Midsummer Night\'s Dream is an excellent, humorous play written by Shakespeare. It is highly characteristic of Shakespeare, bringing several subplots into one masterful story. I have seen this play presented in a classical format and I found it thoroughly entertaining. Directed by Robin McKee, ...

The first thing that struck me about The Merry Wives of Windsor was the appearance of some characters from Henry VI: Falstaff, Bardolph, Nym, and Pistol. The second thing that struck me was the complexity of the plot. Shakespeare is tough enough for me to understand on its own, without the int...

A Midsummer Night\'s Dream was written in 16th century England. In 1595, life was, as you can imagine, very different. During this period Queen Elizabeth I was at the throne. England was a Christian country, and people greatly honored the queen. Shakespeare was Elizabeth I\'s poet laureate, so his w...

I did my project on Shakespeare's "Much Ado about Nothing" I just so happened to see the movie and the play and will be using both for my comparison. "Much Ado About Nothing'' is a postwar love story. Its principal subject is that of romance that may settle over the land after ...

The first two years of Shakespeare's education came from the most elementary level of schooling called petty school. You learned to read and write in English and math, but the main thing was to try and get you to grammar school. Most petty schools where run by a young wife. The main thing that...

As You Like It surprised me most with its blatant dealing with sexuality and sexual identity. Shakespeare dealt with a great deal of issues here that I never would have expected to see brought up here. This play was not a typical romantic comedy. This is perhaps what I admire most about him ...

When I viewed \"Silver Cords\" I was overwhelmed by the talent I saw on stage and behind the scenes. The amount of talent and work that goes into such a masterpiece must be very time-consuming and I believe spectators must have very good patience to put up with so many different views and attitudes...

Friend or Fairy?A Midsummer Night's Dream is the best of Shakespeare's early comedies. It is an unrealistic fantasy concerning lovers, fairies and royalty. Its action centers around four lovers' plights brought about by the fantasy world in which they enter. All through this play, there is a supe...

` Known as the" Comedy of Glams", "that play", "Scottish business", "the nameless play", or just "unmentionable", the play macbeth continues to have a curse surrounding its name and performance. Macbeth is an incredibly dark drama, full of witchcraft, ghosts, bloodshed and murder. First performed f...

The three overriding Biblical concepts in the play are the fruits of folly, the cancer of deception, and the poverty of unbiblical love. Many examples of each of those themes can be found in the text, which corresponds closely to what the Bible says on the same subject. Folly abounds in the Twelfth...

In Irène, Voltaire wrote, \"Shakespeare is a savage with sparks of genius which shine in dreadful darkness of night.\" One of Shakespeare\'s sparks of genius was in his use of masks. These masks put characters in a sort of \"darkness of night,\" allowing them to become someone else. They are used...

The forest of Arden is the setting where the majority of As You Like It takes place. As inhabitants of the court enter the forest they experience people and an environment very different from what they are accustomed to and each perceive this experience differently. The environment is consistent so ...

'Troilus and Cressida appeals to the iconoclastic and sceptical temperament of the contemporary era. Its anxieties about the problems of locating stable values and meanings, and its distrust of the claims of military and political authority, have obvious applications to the personal and public cris...

Named after the Latin word meaning shepherd, we can trace pastoral traditions as far back as the third century B. C. in Greece, when the Sicilian poet Theocritus included poetic sketches of rural life in his Idylls. Furthermore, we can assert that the Greek pastorals existed in three main forms. One...