The Shakespeare comedy plays have stood the test of time.

Today, Shakespeare comedy plays like The Tempest, The Merchant of Veniceand Much Ado About Nothing continue to enthrall and entertain audiences worldwide but these plays are not comedies in the modern sense of the word. Indeed, the comedy of Shakespeares time was very different to our modern comedy. The style and key characteristics of a Shakespeare comedy are not as distinct as the other Shakespearian genres and classification of the Shakespeare comedy plays is therefore difficult. Common Features of a Shakespeare Comedy What makes a Shakespeare comedy identifiable if the genre is not distinct from the Shakespeare tragedies and histories? This is an ongoing area of debate, but many believe that the comedies share certain characteristics, as described below: Comedy through language: Shakespearecommunicated his comedy through language and his comedy plays are peppered with clever word play, metaphors and insults.

Love: The theme of love is prevalent in every Shakespeare comedy. Often, we are presented with sets of lovers who, through the course of the play, overcome the obstacles in their relationship and unite. Complex plots: The plotline of a Shakespeare comedy contains more twists and turns than his tragedies and histories. Although the plots are convoluted, they do follow similar patterns. For example, the climax of the play always occurs in the third act and the final scene has a celebratory feel when the lovers finally declare their love for each other. Mistaken identities: The plot is often driven by mistaken identity. Sometimes this is an intentional part of a villains plot, as in Much Ado About Nothing when Don John tricks Claudio into believing that his fiance has been unfaithful through mistaken identity. Characters also play scenes in disguise and it is not uncommon for female characters to disguise themselves as male characters. Shakespeares 17 comedies are the most difficult to classify because they overlap in style with other genres. Critics often describe some plays as tragi-comedies because they mix equal measures of tragedy and comedy. For example, Much Ado About Nothing starts as a Shakespeare comedy, but takes on the characteristics of a tragedy when Hero is disgraced and fakes her own death. At this point, the play has more in common with Romeo and Juliet, one of Shakespeares key tragedies. When studying Shakespearean comedy, you will notice that there are several traits that are common to all of The Bard's comedic works. It is important to note that the term "comedy" didn't quite have the same meaning to Elizabethan audiences as it does today. While there is certainly quite a bit of humor to be found in Shakespeare's comedies,

"comedy" generally referred to a light-hearted play with a happy ending, as opposed to his more dramatic tragedies and history plays. Shakespeare's Comedies The comedies of William Shakespeare are All's Well That Ends Well, As You Like It, The Comedy of Errors, Cymbeline, Love's Labour Lost, The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Merchant of Venice, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, Pericles Prince of Tyre, Taming of the Shrew,The Tempest, Troilus and Cressida, Twelfth Night, Two Gentlemen of Verona, A Winter's Tale andMeasure for Measure. Some of these works are truly funny from beginning to end, while others, likeThe Merchant of Venice, have a very serious tone or strong dramatic moments. In all of these works, you'll find the following elements: Young lovers struggling to overcome obstacles: These obstacles are typically brought about by the elders in the play, often parents or guardians of the lovers. Various circumstances cause the lovers to be kept apart, either literally or figuratively, and thus they must find their way back together in the end. Mistaken Identity: Whether it takes the form of mixed-up twins or a clever disguise, mistaken identity was one of Shakespeare's favorite and most-used plot devices. Gender mix-ups were also quite popular. Shakespeare quite often had characters masquerading as the opposite sex, leading to many misunderstandings and comical situations. During Shakespeare's lifetime, men frequently played all the roles in a play, which added another dimension to the comedy. Clever plot twists: Shakespearean comedy always involves multiple plot lines, cleverly intertwined to keep the audience guessing. These unexpected twists are always straightened out in a happy ending. Use of puns: Shakespeare was a master of wordplay, and his comedies are filled with puns and witty language games. Sometimes silly, sometimes bawdy, yet always clever, his plays on words are a distinguishing feature of all his works. You'll need to brush up on your Elizabethan English if you want to catch all of his jokes. Stock characters: Shakespeare, like many classical writers, relied heavily on stock characters for his plays. You'll notice several that keep appearing in The Bard's work: the young couple, the fool, the clever servant, the drunk, etc. These stock characters were instantly recognizable stereotypes to Elizabethan audiences. Happy endings: All Shakespearean comedies end happily. Most often, this happy ending involves marriage or pending marriage. Love always wins out in the end.

The Conventions of Shakespearean Romantic Comedy Conventions assist us in understanding literary works belonging to a particular genre; they help to categorize them and illuminate their common features. Genres set up certain expectations because of their shared characteristics. For example, you know to expect specific features when reading or viewing a western (good guys and bad guys; shoot-outs or duels), a detective thriller (false clues that lead in the wrong direction; ingenious solution to a mystery), science fiction (humans and aliens; futuristic technology; special effects). One's judgment of a given work is affected in part by how it meets or fails to meet generic expectations. An artist may deliberately manipulate or play with

conventions, parodying or transcending the limits of a literary genre: Monty Python's Holy Grail parodies Arthurian romances; Blazing Saddles parodies Westerns; the Pyramus and Thisbe play in A Midsummer Night's Dream parodies Shakespeare's own Romeo and Juliet. The Purple Rose of Cairo transcends sentimental romance by raising questions about the boundaries of art, reality and fantasy; Hamlet transcends previous Renaissance revenge tragedy. The major conventions of Shakespearean Romantic Comedy are: 1. The main action is about love. 2. The would-be lovers must overcome obstacles and misunderstandings before being united in harmonious union. The ending frequently involves a parade of couples to the altar and a festive mood or actual celebration (expressed in dance, song, feast, etc.) A Midsummer Night's Dream has four such couples (not counting Pyramus and Thisbe!); As You Like It has four; Twelfth Night has three; etc. 3. Frequently (but not always), it contains elements of the improbable, the fantastic, the supernatural, or the miraculous, e.g. unbelievable coincidences, improbable scenes of recognition/lack of recognition, willful disregard of the social order (nobles marrying commoners, beggars changed to lords), instantaneous conversions (the wicked repent), enchanted or idealized settings, supernatural beings (witches, fairies, Gods and Goddesses). The happy ending may be brought about through supernatural or divine intervention (comparable to the deus ex machina in classical comedy, where a God appears to resolve the conflict) or may merely involve improbable turns of events. 4. In the best of the mature comedies, there is frequently a philosophical aspect involving weightier issues and themes: personal identity; the importance of love in human existence; the power of language to help or hinder communication; the transforming power of poetry and art; the disjunction between appearance and reality; the power of dreams and illusions).