ENG 202 Drama

1. Comedy Elizabethan Theatre ENG 202 Drama

2. Comedy • What constitutes a comedy is a closer representation of everyday life than tragedy. • Explores human weaknesses not the horrible stuff in tragedies • The ending is typically happy for the main characters • Written to amuse-appeals to our sense of superiority to the characters—”At least I’m not that foolish.”

3. Comedy • Origins: Greek playwright Aristophanes 5th century b.c. wrote plays that made fun of politicians, characters typically got themselves into trouble unwittingly • 4th century b.c. Menander developed the comedy where young lovers have problems getting together (think our Romantic Comedies) • Its heyday was in the 17th century when the generation after Shakespeare like Moli’ere and Restoration comedies developed the great comedies of Europe

4. Comedy • Kinds of comedy: • Sentimental, romantic, satire, comedy of manners, and comedy of ideas • Lesser forms include: burlesque, pantomime, and farce. • Also, black comedy, tragiccomedy • A genre in which the ending of the play proclaims happiness through a love match, a wedding, a triumph over adversity, or a reconciliation. • Uses plot devices such as coincidences, misunderstandings, and confusions of identity.

5. Comedy • Many classical and Renaissance critics consider comedy an inferior dramatic form. • Its educational function its only good quality. • In comedy we see others shortcoming and learn to be better or avoid them.

6. Elizabethan Theatre • It is believed that after the Romans built amphitheatres in Britain, there were no theatres built until the mid 1500s. • The early theatres retained the circular shape of the Roman amphitheatres. • Before this acting troupes toured and used portable stages or town squares, in the houses of nobles, at inns. • At first these were open-air playhouses. • Indoor (upper class) theatres typically had performances divided into 5 acts with musical breaks between them. • All theatres were closed by order of Parliament in 1642 due to war and those building which still stood were used as homes.

7. Elizabethan Theatre • Referred to acting as “playing.” “Acting” was reserved for the movements and gestures of speakers. • Short rehearsals periods and large number of plays performed so characters were not thought through like actors today. • Players were usually given only their characters’ speeches and not the whole play script. • Players were male! Always! • After 1600 players became a recognize profession with a guild and apprentice system. • Players were fairly well educated for their time. Acting was taught in grammar school and they had to be able to read and write.

8. The Globe Theatre • The primary playing space of the Chamberlain-King’s Men (a players group of Shakespeare) between 1599-1608. • The Chamberlain-King’s Men were part owners (shareholders) in the theatre. • Located in south London • Open-air, circular, amphitheatre approximately 80-100 feet in diameter with a thatched roof. • Burnt down in 1613 but was reconstructed several times including 1999. • Most of Shakespeare’s plays were first performed at the Globe.

9. William Shakespeare • Born in 1564 in Stratford-on-Avon (NW London) • -father was a tanner and glover but traded wool and held several civil jobs • Educated and likely studied: reading, writing, Latin, classical literature • Raised in a middle-class family • 1582 married Anne Hathaway, had 3 children but left • By 1592 was working in London • 37 plays and 154 sonnets • Died 1616

10. Shakespeare: Comedies • Established standards of romantic courtship, e.g. choice of marriage partners • Early comedies: use of twins, frame plot (story within a story), wordplay and rhetoric, battle of the sexes • Romantic comedies: partial knowledge, not as good as they seem, ambivalent endings, double plot, combining high and low class, things/people not what they seem,

11. Shakespearean Comedy • Borrowed from classical Greek comedy as the saturnalian pattern of release from restraint through recognition and clarification. • Also from Greek comedy he took dramatic elements: stock characters and plot lines. • For Midsummer he borrowed English popular traditions, the fairy world. • Yet Shakespeare so altered the genre that he is given his own dramatic category.11

12. Shakespearean Comedy • Principles include: • The Clown: caustic wit, ironic detachment, puns and wordplay • Exotic locations or “green-world”: a pastoral, partly utopian dimension where the law, parental control, and social conventions are temporarily suspended. • Love Obstacles: Hermia's father tells her she must be with Demetrius even though she loves Lysander! • Mistaken Identities: Puck mistakes Lysander for Demetrius, and Titania mistakes Bottom for a person (even though he looks like a donkey) • Plot Twists: Hermia and Helena are split by jealousy. The men want to fight over someone neither of them loves. Titania is fooled by her own kind. But, it all works out in the end. • Marriage or Reunion: In the end, Helena marries Demetrius, Hermia marries Lysander, and the Duke marries Hippolyta.

13. A Midsummer Night’s Dream • First printed in 1600 though usually dated 1594 • Considered his first “original” play: though the plot has elements of Chaucer’s “Knight’s Tale” Ovid’s Metamorphoses, and English folklore. • Many versions/interpretations have been made: other plays, opera, musicals, movies

14. A Midsummer Night’s Dream • Setting: ancient Athens: town and forest • Characters: Hermia, Egeus, Demetrius, Lysander, Helena, Theseus the duke, Hippolyta, Oberon, Titanian, Puck, Bottom the weaver. • Dramatic poetry • Layering and parallels in plot

15. A Midsummer Night’s Dream • Set in ancient Athens • Theseus, ruler and hero from mythology—related to Hercules and conquered the Amazons • Uses classical references with English folklore..fairies • 4 parallel plots which take place over 3-4 days in the city and forest • “green-world” of the forest—a metaphor for the imagination • Those who act superior do not see themselves in those they mock.

16. A Midsummer Night’s Dream • Themes: • Love and different kinds: Throughout the play, the actions of impetuous lovers create continuous conflict. The tangle of affections that has left out Hermia shows that love is often difficult and unbalanced. When the theme is carefully examined, the reader can see there are multiple types of love working throughout the play. However, the underlying message is that love is not always perfect or reciprocated. What kinds of love can you identify? • love isn’t easy, • Magic and Fate: Magic, wishes, or attempts to avoid fate often fail or need reversal. Whether this is is frowned upon, or simply futile, messing with something that has already been determined is rarely a good idea. In this play, Puck causes a mess that inevitably needs fixing when he uses the magic flower to play Cupid. • Dreams are curious and bizarre. Perhaps why Shakespeare employed them so often. They can be used to explain desires, but they can also be ambigious; dreams can create feelings and desires that can be either wonderful, or terrifying. Moreover, they prove how we are not in control and add a dimension of illusion to any situation. • Order vs. Chaos • Contrast

17. Examples of Conflict in A Midsummer Night’s Dream • Man vs. Self: In the beginning, Helena betrays her friend Hermia when she tells Demetrius that Hermia has run off with Lysander. Helena betrays her friend just to get closer to Demetrius, who she is in love with, even though he does not reciprocate these feelings.  • Man vs. Nature: Puck, as a faerie, and the Flower of Love, can both be seen as representing nature. Puck's mischief, and the fickle nature of love cause endless confusion among the mortals as they are controlled by the power of love.  • Man vs. Man: Once Puck tries to ‘rectify’ the situation, and both men to fall in love with Helena, the young Athenians are set against each other by jealousy. Hermia, she becomes livid with Helena for "taking" both of the men. Demetrius and Lysander are driven to the point of dueling over Helena.

18. Motifs and Imagery • Theseus and Hippolyta: The sub-plot of the Duke and his Amazon Queen suggests rationality and reality. Unlike the dream state that much of A Midsummer Night’s Dream takes place in, Theseus and Hippolyta are the only ones who seem to be in control during this entire charade. • Love Potion: In the play, the love potion causes most of the mischief and represents the fickle nature of love. We can fall in and out of love just as quick as the drink can make us love and then take love away. • Pyramus and Thisbe:This play within a play is highly ironic. The play about Pyramus and Thisbe contains many of the same elements as A Midsummer Night’s Dream!

19. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8v859_a-midsummer-nights-dream-trailer_shortfilmshttp://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8v859_a-midsummer-nights-dream-trailer_shortfilms • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCZndWMALOo