Tragedy, Comedy and Human Nature

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the three theater genres that reconstruct human experience: comedy, tragedy and drama. The paper first discusses the theater genre of tragedy using Shakespeare's "Hamlet" as an example and then describes the genre of comedy using Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" as an illustration. The paper also discusses the origins of drama genre and points out how it differs from the tragedy genre. Furthermore, the paper then points out that despite notable difference in characters, plot, outcome and tone, these three genres all reflect human nature. The paper concludes that whether comical or tragic, the main function of the theater is to stir emotions by portraying the frailties of the human condition.

From the Paper:

"The theater can be considered as a reproduction of the fundamental conditions of human existence. The theater can be seen as a set of symbols reconstructing the conditio humana as a basic theater representation contains all the trials and tribulations of life. Acting can be deciphered as the attempt to assume a different identity. In this sense, the theater is a continuous creation and changing of identities. Irrespective of cultural and epochal differences, this has remained a constant as far as theatrical performance. There are three theater genres each reconstructing human experience: comedy, tragedy and drama. Nonetheless, despite notable difference in characters, plot, outcome, tone etc. these three genres have one thing in common, i.e. they reflect human nature."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Fischer-Lichte, Erika. History of European Drama and Theatre. London: Routledge, 2001: 1-8.
• Silk, M. S., ed. Tragedy and the Tragic: Greek Theatre and Beyond. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.
• Storey, Robert. "Comedy, Its Theorists and the Evolutionary Perspective." Criticism 38.3 (1996): 407.

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