Dramatic Comedies
One of the two main types of drama, comedies are light-hearted and humorous. The humor in a comedy may include slapstick, satire, puns, jokes, and other devices aimed at making the audience laugh. The plot resolution is usually a happy ending where all problems are overcome and all main characters are content.
All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players: They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts, His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant, Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms. And then the whining school-boy,…
George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion was the basis for the famous musical My Fair Lady. First performed in 1913, Pygmalion is the story of Eliza Doolittle, a poor and unsophisticated flower seller on the streets of London, who wants to learn to speak “like a lady.” In this passage from…
Persons in the Play-Little Red Riding-Hood, Mother, Bird, Wolf, Miller, Grandmother ———————————— Scene I.-At Red Riding-Hood’s Home MOTHER: Would you like to go to grandmother’s to-day, my child? The sun is bright and the air is warm and pleasant. LITTLE RED RIDING-HOOD: Yes, mother, you know I always like to…
In Shakespeare’s comedy The Merchant of Venice, the merchant Antonio has taken a loan from the money-lender Shylock who dislikes him very much. The terms of the loan say that if Antonio does not pay the loan back on time, Shylock may take a pound of Antonio’s flesh which would…