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SHAKESPEARE'S SIMILAR SCENES: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE COMIC AND THE SERIOUS
Abstract
In different plays Shakespeare often treats similar subject matter in radically contrasting ways. A basic situation may be comic in one play, quite serious in another, even when the human relationships are essentially alike. This dissertation asks what makes one scene funny while its twin is tragic? How does Shakespeare manipulate his material for quite different ends? Does examining a number of these contrasting though fundamentally similar scenes point to dramaturgical patterns? By pairing scenes and comparing their individual characteristics we understand some of Shakespeare's basic techniques and thus come to a fuller delight in his drama. This study centers on five techniques that Shakespeare frequently uses to control the tone both of scenes and whole plays. Sometimes he introduces choric figures who directly label the dramatic situation even though such characters may or may not be directly involved in the total action of the play. On other occasions the responses of other, involved characters in the scene guide our responses. The rhetorical pattern of the action in a scene also influences our understanding because the position of the single scene within the total action helps us know how we are to respond. Shakespeare, who is very careful about staging, instructs us through the lines about how an action is to appear to the audience. Often stage movements that are inherent in the lines themselves show us how to react to a situation. Finally the social or even the metaphysical organization in which action occurs may control our responses. Dramatic action takes place in a large context that helps determine its essentially comic or serious nature. While Shakespeare guides our responses in other ways beside these five techniques, these five--choric characters, the responses of characters, the rhetorical pattern of action, the implicit staging, and the dramatic society--often determine how we see a situation. By a careful comparison of scenes whose fundamental action is similar, however different they may be in their total effect, we can come to an understanding of these scenes, the plays, Shakespeare's dramatic technique, and ultimately his habits of mind.
Subject Area
British and Irish literature
Recommended Citation
BROWN, JODY DEVEN, "SHAKESPEARE'S SIMILAR SCENES: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE COMIC AND THE SERIOUS" (1982). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI8306474.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI8306474