The first thing that came to my mind about the
word comedy was "something funny that produces laughter;
to entertain". To me, comedy simply means a movie/show/act/drama/etc. that
has people acting foolishly to make you laugh. It was not something
that I would put much effort in thinking about the whys and hows; it was just
something that I would watch and laugh it off at the end of the day (usually to
make myself feel better on a sad day). I definitely did not expect to “dissect”
comedy to this extent before attending this class.
Well, in this class one thing that struck me most
that now I would look at comedy differently was the fact that there could be a
tragedy in a comedy. Frye related tragedy with comedy in two ways: 1) tragedy
is implicit or uncompleted comedy and 2)
comedy contains a potential tragedy within itself. I really like how Frye incorporate
the idea of tragedy in his definition of comedy. In order to be classified as a
comedy, a play does not necessarily contain ONLY humour; it could include a
certain amount of tragedy as long as the ending is happy.
Let’s take The
Venetian Twins for example. Before the death of Zanetto this play was very laughable
and amusing, though sometimes frustrating, when the mixed identity of the twins
led up to many comical events. The death of Zanetto had certainly cast a shadow
on the play but when we looked at the ending, we could see how the play is
still a comedy. Tonino resolved the misunderstanding, couples were paired, broken
friendship was reconciled, and the villain was dead. The death of Zanetto was redeemed by the reestablishment of social order when the misunderstanding was cleared up. This resolution made the death
of Zanetto more acceptable although I still have a sense of pity towards the
poor Zanetto.
This is an entirely novel way to look at a comedy
and I have certainly gained a brand new perspective of understanding a comedy.
I like the directness of your example for a comedy that certainly contains a tragedy within it. It's like in comic sketches, there's always some kind of controversy involving the laughter. In the modern drama or comic act, it's blameless to laugh at the misfortune of the man on stage, for after all, it's what you pay for. If you take the comedy "I Love You, Man," for example, you've got tragic elements in the film when the main character's fiance walks, and a clear conflict of interest developing between the main character and his shame about not having male friends in the beginning of the movie. If it ended there, it would hardly be anything but a tragedy. However, resolution of the plot brings about the feel-goodness that only comedy can provide.
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