Romantic Comedy

ROMANTIC COMEDY
Romantic Comedy
This type of drama involves the theme of love leading to happy conclusion. We find romantic comedy in Shakespearean plays and some Elizabethan contemporaries. These plays are concerned with idealized love affairs. It is a fact that the true love never runs smooth; however, love overcomes the difficulties and ends in a happy union.
The Plays of William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) is considered to be the greatest writer in English Literature. He composed over 150 sonnets and wrote some of the most famous plays in the English language. His plays are generally categorised as Comedies, Tragedies and Histories. There is some debate about which category some of the plays should be included in as there are often crossovers between the genres. So, which plays did he write and what are the features of the different genre?
Shakespeare's Comedy
Comedy is not necessarily what a modern audience would expect comedy to be. Whilst there may be some funny moments, a Shakespearean comedy may involve some very dramatic storylines. Usually what defines a Shakespearean play as a comedy is that it has a happy ending, often involving a marriage. The main characteristics in Shakespeare's Comedies are:
• A struggle of young lovers to overcome problems, often the result of the interference of their elders
• There is some element of separation and reunification
• Mistaken identities, often involving disguise
• A clever servant
• Family tensions that are usually resolved in the end
• Complex, interwoven plot-lines
• Frequent use of puns and other styles of comedy
The Shakespearean plays which are usually classed as Comedy are:
The Merchant of Venice, Twelfth Night, All's Well That Ends Well, The Tempest, Taming of the Shrew, The Winter's Tale, As You Like It, The Comedy of Errors, Love's Labours Lost, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Measure for Measure, Much Ado About Nothing, Pericles, Prince of Tyre and The Two Noble Kinsmen.