Comedy in Literature and its Examples

Comedy refers to a literary genre where the speaker conveys the message to the audience in a lighter note or a sarcastic note which brings smiles to the audience and is quite amusing. The main objective of comedy is to gain victory over unpleasant situations by creating comic effects and the end result is spreading happiness. Comedies used in English literature are of multiple types depending on the source of humor, context of dialogue delivery and the way it is expressed. Below are some of the most commonly used comedy types:

• Romantic Comedy: These comedies involve themes of love and mostly have a happy ending. Very commonly you can see these comedies in Shakespeare’s plays. The centrifugal point of these comedies is love affair which involves a beautiful heroine and a prince charming. Of course the path of love is not a bed of roses, but ultimately they overcome all the challenges to have a happy union at the end. One of the best examples of this type of comedy is Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”.

• Comedy of Humors: This type of comedy was introduced by Ben Johnson way back towards the end of 16th century. The word humor in Latin means liquid. This forms the basis of this type of comedy where it is believed that a human has four different types of liquids including phelgm, yellow bile, black bile and blood. It is believed that in a human body if all the liquids are properly balanced than they remain healthy. One of the best examples of this type of comedy is the play penned by Ben Johnson “Every Man in His Humor and Every Man out of His Humor”.

• Comedy of Manners: This kind of comedy was introduced during the middle of the 17th Century. They basically depict the upscale and stylish society, its focus on elegance, fashion and rank. In other words, this type of comedy represents the relations between man and woman living in a sophisticated world. Mostly consists of wits of dialogues, good manners and violations of social traditions exhibited by ladies and gentleman. An example of this type of comedy can be found in the works of Congreve and Wycherley.

• Sentimental Comedy: These are a mixture of both sentiments and tragedy. This type of comedy evolved during the 18th century as a result of reactions by the middle class against indecency and obscenity. These dramas involve scenes of extreme emotions. One example can be Sir Richard’s Steele’s play “The Conscious Lovers”.

• Tragic Comedy: This genre contains both humor and tragic elements. Both the elements blend in such a way that they overall lighten the mood of the play. These comedies are mostly serious comedies which have a pleasant ending. The best example here can be Shakespeare’s play “All is well that ends well.”