Tragicomedy in the Works of William Shakespeare - Research Paper Example

?                                                        Tragicomedy in the Works of William                                                               Shakespeare                                                     Student name                                     Professor name                                     Course number                                     Date of submission   Tragicomedy in the Shakespeare               William Shakespeare is known for the ease with which he sought to circumvent water-tight divisions that had been established by the intelligentsia of the time that chose to work according to the principles of tragedy and comedy that were set down by Aristotle in The Poetics. The rules of comedy and tragedy began to get bent during the times of Shakespeare even though there were exceptions like Ben Johnson who chose to abide by the classical rules. Writers who followed Shakespeare, like John Webster, took the route that Shakespeare had chosen, one which had very few precedents, probably only in the works of Boccaccio and Chaucer. All these developments led to the formation of a new genre known as the tragicomedy. This mixed elements of both the comedy and the tragedy to create new forms of theatre on the stage that replaced the traditional ones that relied on catharsis and the comic resolution. This paper shall look at the plays, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hamlet and Macbeth to examine the nuances of this genre that was a new addition to the Elizabethan theatre. These plays were noteworthy for their combination of tragic elements with those of comedy to challenge classical norms of drama while retaining the popular appeal that these plays held for the masses and the elites.              Shakespeare was not educated in the same manner that his contemporary writers like Ben Johnson and Christopher Marlowe were. Having run away to London at a young age, it was not possible for Shakespeare to acquire the classical education that his contemporaries could and would enable him to acquire the kind of knowledge that would enable him to be familiar with works like those of Aristotle that prescribed a certain format for a certain form of literature. As a result of this, Shakespeare had to face a lot of criticism from critics who did not feel that his works were of a high quality; however, the novelty that his works afforded endeared him to the masses and certain sections of the elite classes of the society (Bevington). He enjoyed the support of these sections of the society and more importantly, of the monarchs of the period in which he wrote and this resulted in immense popularity for the bard. Many of these people thought that the representation of life that Shakespeare presented on the stage was more realistic than those that were seen till then in those plays that, in their efforts to adhere to the classical norms, failed to produce a life-like representation of events on stage. Shakespeare, in his plays, is able to accommodate the sensibilities of all sections of the society also because of his varied experiences as an actor and a dramatist that gave him ample scope to understand the nuances of the roles that people in various positions of life could play.             The censure which he has incurred by mixing comick and tragick scenes, as it extends to   all his works, deserves more consideration. Let the fact be first stated, and then   examined….             …   Shakespeare has united the powers of exciting laughter and sorrow not only in one     mind, but in one composition. Almost all his plays are divided between serious and   ludicrous characters, and, in the successive evolutions of the design, sometimes produce seriousness and sorrow, and sometimes levity and laughter.                                                                                                                         (Johnson) These words by the great critic and poet, Samuel Johnson point to the production of the new form of drama that Shakespeare may not have invented but was the greatest proponent of. As Johnson says, these resulted in the mixing of tragic and comic scenes that do not, as certain critics of his age argued, lessen the intensity of the play but produce a play that is able to integrate elements of daily life better than those plays that strictly followed the Greek norms of theatre. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, there is such an integration of comic and tragic scenes into the fabric of the narrative that results in the creation of an atmosphere that is similar to that of the carnivalesque that Mikhail Bakhtin talks about (Bakhtin). These are represented in the work, by the forest that the lovers in the play walk into. This space, inhabited by fairies and other creatures that are capable of magic, is one that is able to combine the features of the sordid and the joyous. The love potions that puck creates and uses on Lysander and Demetrius is at once, both comic and tragic in the effects that it produces. The audience’s awareness of the consequences that may follow the events in the forest allows such an integration of the tragic and the comic. This reaches a height during the play that is conducted by the workmen. The play that they choose to play out in front of Hippolyta and Theseus is one that is a tragedy that was familiar to the Elizabethan audience and was originally a Greek tragedy. The manner in which it is played out is ludicrous, with the explanations that are offered to the audience so as to not frighten the ladies being an example of how Shakespeare manages to create the comic out of an entirely ridiculous situation. This device, characteristic of the tragicomedy, enables Shakespeare to critique conventions of the courtly traditions where ladies were considered to be frail and unable to withstand difficulties, real or virtual. The facade of chivalric traditions are also exposed through the events in the forest where the men threaten the women with physical violence. The forest has a quality of darkness that pervades it and offers a space to the women that is at once liberating and threatening, an aspect that is intrinsic to a tragicomedy. All these features ensure that A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of the finest examples of a tragicomedy to date. It remains one of Shakespeare's finest plays and offers a unique blend of the tragic and the comic. This also offers us a view of the kind of love triangles that existed in Elizabethan and Jacobean tragicomedies that demonstrate changing ideals of masculinity during the age (MacFaul). These situations also make the genre of the tragicomedy more intense, creating a temporary rivalry that produces comic situations; at the same time holding the potential for tragic consequences.             It is usually said that the protagonists of a comedy faces perils that are of a smaller scale than that of a tragedy, where the protagonist is someone who is of an exalted stature and is likely to face dangers of a much larger magnitude (Snyder). In Hamlet, however, the protagonist, till the end of the play does not face any large dangers that are created by fate. Most of the dangers that he faces are those that are created by his own actions, like that of a comic hero. However, the ultimate fate that befalls this hero causes us to classify him as a tragic hero. There is thus, a fusion of the comic and the tragic in this portrayal of the protagonist that seems to be inspired by the humanist discourses of the age that sought to strip man of the bravado and grandeur that ancient tragedies sought to equip him with. Hamlet is an example of this tendency that Shakespeare exhibits in other plays of his as well. As a result of this, the character of Hamlet becomes a symbol of Shakespeare’s critique of the Danish court that stood for the values of an older world (Knight). Hamlet, even though he is educated in the discourses of humanism, is unable to break himself away completely from the values that are embodied by the corrupt Danish court that can be seen in his absence of remorse at the accidental death of Polonius. Other murders in the play are treated in a serious as well as a comic manner, thereby, making the whole proceeding tragicomic. The murder of Prince Hamlet’s father, King Hamlet, suffers the same fate. William Empson Comments upon this tendency when he says,             In Hamlet tragicomedy is to be seen in the multiple layers at which meta-theatricality operates in the play. The murder of Hamlet’s father is enacted several times within the       play, often rendering the originally tragic event, comic. (The Ghost’s speech, the mime and the play ‘Mousetrap’).                                                                                                             (Empson) The main murder having lost the sanctity that would have been associated with it, had it been a pure tragedy, the other murders lose the little sanctity that is associated with them and all the proceedings end up seeming both comic and serious at the same time. As a result, Hamlet turns into a character who is similar to the characters of twentieth century existential literature (Cory). It is perhaps equally impossible to analyze Shakespeare’s Macbeth exclusively as a tragedy. The three witches, who essentially act as passive catalysts to Macbeth’s murder of King Duncan, can be said to symbolize chaos and conflict. They also produce the effect of morbid humor. The line "Fair is foul, and foul is fair: Hover through the fog and filthy air" (1.1.11-12) represents obfuscation between the categories of morality as well as those between the tragic and the comic. The numerous hallucinations which are witnessed by the characters during the course of the play also add to the element of tragicomedy. While Lady Macbeth’s sanity is threatened as a consequence of the gruesome events and she is prone to somnambulism, Macbeth imagines seeing a floating dagger when he is about to kill Duncan. The bizarre nature of these hallucinations is also noticed in Macbeth’s viewing of the ghost of Banquo. Though these hallucinations have a definite ominous quality and can be said to be symbolic of the acute guilt that Macbeth experiences, they often also assume an absurd, comic character. The catharsis which is to be seen in the play is not necessarily tragic in nature. Even in the climactic scene which portrays Siward and Macduff’s open conflict with Macbeth, there exists ironic humor in Macbeth’s hubris as he declares that he cannot be killed by any man born of a woman, to which Macduff says that he was  "from his mother's womb / Untimely ripp'd"(5.8.16-19), and thus not born of a woman. This mingling of comedy and tragedy also serves the purpose of belittling all lofty ideals and unfounded pride in human beings. At every level, it is perhaps imperative to bear in mind that the categories of tragedy and comedy were intrinsically linked with certain socio-economic factors which shaped these. It was traditionally believed that tragedy is the genre favored by the intelligentsia, while comedy has mass appeal for the common folk. Thus mingling these two categories was a radical thing to do for a playwright as it could have potentially led him to compromise the commercial success of his plays as well as his credibility as a playwright. However, as mentioned earlier, this amalgamation proved to be instrumental to Shakespeare’s success as a playwright.   Tragicomedy in Shakespeare’s plays also questions and subverts prevalent ideas of gender identity. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, there is an obvious reversal of gender roles and the rituals of courtship as the men are seen to be pursued by the women. The constant battle for supremacy between Oberon, the fairy king and Titania, the fairy queen can also be seen in this regard. Stephen Greenblatt in Shakespeare's World observes that women during the Elizabethan age were perceived to be guided primarily by their passions. This widespread misogyny was perhaps paradoxical since the monarch of England herself was a woman (Greenblatt). Shakespeare’s women were however, often seen to possess “masculine” energies and intellects. The reversal of conventional gender roles in A Midsummer Night’s Dream portrays the grave danger of physical and psychological violence that women face in a patriarchal society, besides providing comic relief which would appeal to the sensibilities of the contemporary audiences. Thee arguments that indicate the nature of the tragicomedy indicate that Shakespeare used the existing conventions of the tragicomedy to create new situations that were pleasing to the Elizabethan audience and has enhanced his position as the greatest dramatist of all time. Works Cited Knight, Wilson G. “The Embassy of Death: An essay on Hamlet”. Hamlet. Ed. Cyrus Hoy. New York: A Norton Critical Edition, 2006. Empson, William. “Up-Dating Revenge Tragedy”. Hamlet. Ed. Cyrus Hoy. New York: A Norton Critical Edition, 2006. 296.  Johnson, Samuel. Preface to Shakespeare. New York: Oxford U.P., 2004. 28. Hirst, David L. Tragicomedy. New York: Methuen and Co., 1989. Snyder, Susan. “The Genres of Shakespeare’s Plays”. The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare. Eds. Grazia, Margareta de; Wells, Stanley. New York: Cambridge U.P., 2001. 83-86. Bevington, David. Shakespeare and Biography. New York: Oxford U.P., 2010 Bakhtin, Mikhail. Rabelais and his World. Tr. Iswolsky, Helene. Bloomington: Indiana U.P. 1998. Meyer, Michael. The Bedford Introduction to Literature. New York: Bedford, 2010. MacFaul, Tom. The Changing Meaning of Love-Triangle Plots in Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama. Accessed on 10th July, 2011. Cory, Mark E. Shakespeare and Durrenmatt: from Tragedy to Tragicomedy. Accessed on 10th July, 2011. Read More