Shakespeare’s Comedies

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Comedy in the Elizabethan era was much different than comedy found today. Shakespearean comedy can be characterized as always containing a happy ending that usually coincides with a marriage. There are some of Shakespeare’s plays that contain both tragic and comedic elements and are therefore are often characterized as “problem plays” as they cannot be defined solely by one category.

Shakespeare’s Comedies generally contain the following elements:

A move to the “green world”

The struggle of young lovers to overcome difficulty

Separation and re-unification

Internal and external conflicts

Deception usually due to mistaken identities

Intertwining plots

A clever servant

One of the most dominant themes of Shakespeare’s Comedies is love. Although in the First Folio, Shakespeare’s plays are broken into four categories: comedies, tragedies, histories and sonnets many characterize his comedies as romances because the theme of love is so distinct. Love is found in many forms in his plays, the most popular forms being:

Requited or unrequited

Frustrated or fulfilled

Mistaken or misjudged

Competitive

Crossed by mischief or magic

Rivaled by power or the claims of friendship

All's Well That Ends Well - It was first printed in 1623

As You Like It - It was first printed in 1623

Comedy of Errors  - It was first printed in 1623

Cymbeline - It was first printed in 1623

Love's Labour's Lost  – Written in 1594-95, first printed in 1598

Measure for Measure - It was first printed in 1623

Merchant of Venice  - It was first printed in 1600

Merry Wives of Windsor  - It was first printed in 1602

Midsummer Nights Dream  - It was first printed in 1600

Much Ado About Nothing  – Written around 1598, first printed in 1600

Pericles, Prince of Tyre  - It was first printed in 1609

Taming of the Shrew  - Written in 1592 or earlier, first printed in 1623

The Tempest  – Written around 1610, first printed in 1623

Troilus and Cressida  - It was first printed in 1609

Twelfth Night  - It was first printed in 1623

Two Gentlemen of Verona  – Written in 1590 or 1591, first printed in 1623

Winter's Tale - It was first printed in 1623

Sources:

Shakespeare, W. (2008). The Norton Shakespeare (S. Greenblatt, Ed.) New York: Norton & Company.

Shakespeare, W. (1974). The Riverside Shakespeare (G Blakemore Evans, Ed.) Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.