Transcript COMEDY
COMEDY
Caesar and Cleopatra
By Bernard Shaw
COMEDY
Focuses on people’s social
behaviour.
Exposes and unmasks human
weaknesses and vices.
Explores the discrepancy
between the seeming and the
real.
Starts with a problem, ends with
its resolution.
Depends on a complicated plot
(obstacles, confused identities,
misunderstandings).
Instructive by nature and
purpose. Comic relief instead of
catharsis
History of Comedy
Originated in Greece, 4th cent.
BC.
First comedies (“Old Comedy”)
were bawdy social satires.
Aristophanes, “the father of
comedy.”
Later, “New Comedy” formed
the love-meets-obstacles model.
Main Genres of Comedy
Farce (ex., commedia del arte)
Romantic comedy
Comedy of humours
Comedy of manners
These types can be mixed together
within one dramatic work.
Types of Comedy
“Low comedy” appeals to baser
sense of humour (farce, slapstick
comedy).
“High comedy” appeals to
intellect (romantic comedy;
comedy of humours; comedy of
manners).
Brief History
of English Comedy
Farcical elements in medieval
mystery and morality plays (The
Second Shepherds’ Play);
Renaissance comedy
(Shakespeare, Ben Jonson);
Restoration comedy of manners
(William Congreve, Aphra
Behn).
Brief History
of English Comedy
18th cent. sentimental comedy
(Richard Steel) and comedy of
manners/humours (Oliver
Goldsmith);
19th cent. comedy of manners
(Oscar Wilde);
20th cent. black/dark/absurd
comedy (Samuel Beckett,
Harold Pinter).
Elements of Comedy
Slapstick humour
Situational humour; qui pro quo.
Satire.
Verbal humour.
George Bernard Shaw
(1856-1950)
Irish playwright, writer, critic,
journalist, social activist.
The only person to have received
both the Nobel prize and an
Oscar.
Famous for “Shavian”
witticisms.
Co-founded the London School
of Economics.
Tried to promote a reform of
English spelling.
What do we know
about Cleopatra and Caesar?
Caesar and Cleopatra
by G.B.Shaw(1898)
The prologues
Language
Role of stage directions
Themes
Characters
Anachronisms
Intertextual references
Humour