The Physicists: Comedy through Tragedy

At the beginning of the semester, I did not believe that a comedy could be associated with tragedy.  However, during one class, we talked about how comedy was born from tragedy.  It still didn’t make all that much sense to me, but after reading The Physicists, I can definitely form a relationship between the two.

When I first started reading this book, I thought how in the world could this be a comedy?  It starts off with the investigation of two murders.  There seem to be a bunch of mad men in an insane asylum that tend to kill their nurses.  However, by the second act of the play, I found myself somewhat amused.  What seemed most comical to me was the use of the mistaken identity.  “Newton” starts off by claiming he is actually Albert Einstein on page 20, just because he knows “Einstein” is crazy.  However, by page 67, he now reveals himself to be Alec Jaspar Kilton, when in fact he is none of the above.  Even though they were all madmen, the fact that they all thought they were different people than who they actually were entertained me.  The mistaken identities in The Physicists reminded me somewhat of The Venetian Twins.  Even though in The Venetian Twins it was outside people mistaking the identity of the twins, it still was the main aspect of comedy in the play.  However, different results came from those mistakes.  In The Physicists, the mistaken identities caused no harm.  Deaths occurred throughout the play, but the mistaken identities were not the reason behind the murders.  The physicists think they are different people than they are in reality, but nothing bad comes from it.  However, in The Venetian Twins, a death results from the mistaken identities. 

Still, as I look back on both of these plays, I can see the humor in them.  Although while reading them I did not necessarily think comedy at first, I see how the way the characters are developed can lead to comical circumstances.