Different Types of COMEDY

      

                Generally, Comedy means the form of literature, which ends happily. History of comedy begins with the ancient Greek Comos. Out of these grew the comedy of Aristophanes, generally in satirical tone. Menander, the so called New comedy, which was imitated by the Latin dramatists Plautus and Terence, which was resembled to so called "Comedy of Manners" some 18 century later. The true origin of English comedy however is to be found in the mystery and miracle plays of the modern age.

               When we are talking about the comedy, we shall be acquainted with the various types of comedy. Here, we shall discuss about the five major types of comedy.  

               1. Romantic comedy

               2. Comedy of humours

               3. Comedy of Manners

               4. Sentimental comedy

               5. Black or Dark comedy

              Here, we will discuss four types of comedy which are the most important type of comedy:

1. Romantic comedy:-

                 It is the most popular of all forms of entertainment. This kind of comedy has a pleasant mixture of love and laughter.

               The earliest English romantic Comedy is probably Ralph Roister Doister by Nicholas Udall. Some twelve years later another famous comedy was produced in doubtful authorship which is Gammer Gurton's Needle. Both has farcical and love interest. Shakespeare carried romantic Comedy in such a perfection with A Midsummer night's dream, As you like it and Twelfth night which are best examples of this kind of comedy at its best. 

               Other writers of romentic comedy in Shakespeare's time was Beaumont and Fletcher. Thomas Dekker wrote The Shoemaker's Holiday which is one of the liveliest of English comedies.

2. Comedy of Humours:-

   

            Ben Johnson was the most influential dramatist of this kind of comedy. He is extremely productive writer, not only of plays but also of masques, poetry and critisism. Johnson's idea was that "Comedy should not be 'true to life' but 'larger than life'. Each person should not be real, who has some human passion or weakness. His best comedies were...

• Every man in his Humour
• Every man out of his Humour
• The silent Woman
• Volpone
• The Alchemist
• Bartholomew 

               In "Every man in his Humour", the rich merchant Kitely has a young and pretty wife of whom he is madly jealousy: here jealousy is his Humour, OLd Knowell, is always worried about his son's behaviour and safety: Anxiety is his humour.         

              Johnson's importance does not depend on his theory of comedy, but upon his success as comic dramatist. In some ways they are more acceptable to modern audiences than romantic comedies. This seems clear when we compare a film comedy of that 1930-50 period with one produced during the last decade, not because that love and laughter are out of favour but that so many of us prefer comedy with a satirical tone.

3. Comedy of Manners/ Restoration Comedy:-

                 The phrase Comedy of manners often used in literary history and criticism, though its meaning is not always clear. It applied in England to the Restoration dramatists, especially Congreve and Wycherley. It make fun not so much of individual human beings and their humours as of social groups and their fashionable manners. It generally more or less satirical though in a good natured way. The comedy of manners is most likely to be found in an aristocratic group. It is highly artificial form of drama, full of verbal wit, and sometimes inclined to be cynical and hard. Oscar Wilde and Sheridan is also the biggest writers of this kind of comedy.

Ex.,

•  Wycherley's "The Country Wife"; it was showing the moral weakness of a particular social group, asking us to laugh at it but not necessary to approve of it.
• Sheridan's "The School for Scandal"; it depicts immoral behaviour of Lady Sneewell and Sir Benjamin- presumably because it is not sexually immoral 

                                          

4. Sentimental Comedy:-     

            The chief writer of sentimental comedy was Sir RIchardson Steele. A sentimental comedy was one written with the intention of expressing moral sentiments. In other words it contained an element of preaching, even though the preaching was disguised as entertainment. Steele agreed with Collier that the English stage needed cleaning up. He thought that the cleaning up could best be done by writting new plays rather than by attacking the old ones. He wrote a comedy called The Funeral, which was not very successful at all. In 1722 he produced The Conscious Lovers which had some success on the stage. After this work sentimental comedy ceased for some two centuries to be taken seriously. It was indeed amusingly satirised by several comic writers of the time.

                     In the present century there been a rebirth of the sentimental comedy, but under the name of 'the drama of social consciousness' and  'the drama of commitment' uses by writers who felt that comedy should be morally instructive as well as entertaining. thus writers as different as Wilde, Sir James Barrie, Sir Noel Coward and Sir Terence Rattigan have sometimes been criticised for being frivolous and for having no serious social purpose, whereas Shaw has been praised for using comedy as propaganda for his own. 

Let's wind up...

            So, the four types of comedy which are mentioned above are very useful. All this kind of comedy is very essential part of english literature. It can be called soul of literature.

Thanks for visiting...

               

 

How to write Reported speech

 

Introduction:-

                       Reported speech is simply when we tell somebody what someone else said. It is part of daily english conversation. Reported speech is very different form of direct speech. It shows what somebody said. In reported speech we don't need to quote somebody directly. It is a linguistic technique which presents someone else's direct speech.           

 

            In indirect speech, words generally have referents appropriate to the context in which the act of reporting takes place, rather than that in which the speech act being reported took place. The two acts often differ in a reference point – the point in time and place and the person speaking – and also in the person being addressed and the linguistic context. Thus when a sentence involves words or forms whose referents depend on these circumstances, they are liable to change when the sentence is put into indirect speech. 

              If we report what another person has said, we usually do not use speaker's exact word, but reported speech. Therefore, we need to learn how to transfer direct speech into reported speech. The structure is a little depending on wherever you want to transform a statement, question or result. When transforming statements, we need to make some changes;

1.  Changes in reporting verb and   conjunction
2.  Changes in tense
3.  Changes in pronoun
4.  Changes in place and time Expression

      

1. Changes in reporting verb and conjunction:-

      The reporting verb is usually given as 'said' in direct speech. The reporting verb varies depending on the type of statement as well as the conjugator used when converting a direct statement to an indirect statement depending on the type of statement. The following table shows the type of reporting verb as well as the type of conjunctive statement;

 

No.	Type of sentences	Reporting verb	Conjunction
1.	Assertive sentence	Said/ told	That
2.	Interrogative sentence	Asked	If / wherever ‘wh’ if asked by pronoun. Ex. What, how..
3.	Exclamatory sentence	Exclaimed Exclaimed with joy Exclaimed with sorrow Exclaimed with surprise	That
4.	Imperative sentence	Requested Ordered Suggested Advised	To

              

Ex. 

Direct speech: 'I work in a bank,' said Daniel.

indirect speech: Daniel said that he worked in a bank.

2. Changes in tense:-

          To convert direct speech to indirect speech, change the tense as shown below;

Am/ is                                           -   was Are                                                - Were Have/ has                                   - Had Do not/ does not                      – Did not Was / were                                -  had + p.p. Did not                                       – Had Not + p.p. Can.                                             – could Will/ shall                                  – would May                                            – might Simple present                        – simple past Simple past                              – perfect Past

Ex.,

       Direct:- He said "This is his pen".

        Indirect:- He said that that was his pen.

3. Changes in pronoun:-

          To convert direct speech to indirect speech, we need to make some changes regarding pronoun are given below;

Direct speech               /   Indirect speech  ____________________________________________                                  

                             Subject  pronoun

I	He, She
You	I,  She, He, We, They
We	They

                             Object pronoun

Me	Him, Her, Us, Them
You	Him, Her, Us, Them
Us	Them

                             Possessive adjective

My	His, Her
Your	My, His, Her, Our, their
Our	Their

                            Possessive pronoun

Mine	His, Hers
Your	Mine, His, Hers, Ours, Their
Our	Theirs

Ex., 

   Direct:- My friend said to me "let me give my pen''.

   Indirect:- My friend suggested me to let him give his pen.

Direct:- Anju said ''Let's thank our boss''.

Indirect:- Anju suggested to to thank their boss.

4. Changes in place and time Expression:-

                 The Place as well as the Time indicator words that definitely change when converting a direct to an indirect speech are listed below:

Direct speech	Indirect speech
This	That
These	Those
Here	There
Now	Then
Thus	So
Today	That day
Tonight	That night
Yesterday	The day before / the previous day
Tomorrow	The next day / the following day
Ago	Before

  

Ex., 

Direct:- He said "Arti will come tomorrow".

Indirect:- He said that Arti will come the next day.

Direct:- Ved said "Daxa is reading now".

Indirect:- Ved said that Daxa was reading then".

Let's look at some examples of reported speech:-

   

• Direct:- "Can I go home now?" he asked her.
• Indirect:- He asked her if he could go home then.

• Direct:- "May I call you by your first name?" he asked.
• Indirect:- He asked if he might call me by my first name.

• Direct:- "She must try harder if she wants to succeed," he said.
• Indirect:- He said that she had to try harder if she wanted to succeed.

• Direct:- "My father will be angry with me if he finds out," she said.
• Indirect:- She said that her father would be angry with her if he found out.

• Direct:- "You had better speak to the manager," she said to him.
• Indirect:- She told him that he had better speak to the manager.

Conclusion:- 

      

                     Thus, Reported speech is the essential part of English grammar as well as English conversation. It makes the language very effective.

Jonathan Swift as a satirist at the point of view of R. J. Rees

 

Jonathan Swift:-

                   Jonathan Swift was a well known satirist of his time. His satirical writing, in prose and verse is inspired by a general hatred of Mankind. Yet he was known in life for his kindness to his friends, and his untiring and unselfish work for the sick and poor people of Ireland. His suffering and his own frustration caused him to see the world as a place ruled by criminal lunatics. Fortunately, Swift's moral indignation was equalled by his wit and inventiveness: he was able to tell the most ridiculous stories and make the most outrageous jokes while appearing utterly serious.

                 His most popular work was Gulliver's Travel, which is the most famous of all satires. It was published in 1726, it contains Captain Gulliver's story of four seperate voyages;

1. Lilliput
2. Brobdingnage
3. Laputa
4. The land of Houyhnhms

                 It contains full irony. It is one of the most powerful attack against man's wickedness and stupidity, is now thought of by most people as a charming fairy tale for young children.

                 The character of Gulliver himself is one of Swift's cleverest invention; a decent, practical and patriotic. Yet somehow at same time stupid, credulous and gullible. Wherever he goes he is always eager to show his devotion to his own country and his willingness to bring benefits of civilization to other less enlightened people. For instance, in the fourth voyage, he is surprised at his host's ignorance of art of war as practised in 'civilized' countries.

                The character of this SELF- SATISFIED  traveller is a key to the whole book. 

               Swift's invective genius is seen equally in his descriptions of the countries Gulliver visited. He had invented many incidents, amusing in themselves yet capable of carrying satirical meaning. Even the proper names in Gulliver demonstrate Swift's wit.

            Almost every later satirist has been influenced by Swift. Negative utopias modelled on Gulliver's Travel have included many which are now forgotten, as well as important books like, Erewhon, Brave new World and Nineteen Eighty - Four. But no other English writer had observed the nastiness of mankind with such disgust, or attacked it with such anger. He was in almost every respect a tragic figure.

              

John Dryden and Alexander Pope as a Satirists at the point of view of R. J. Ress

 

        *John Dryden*:-

                        John Dryden was one of the most productive of all English writers, greatly admired in his own time and successful in almost every field of literature. He was nicknamed "Glorious John". As a keen realist he welcomed the restoration of king Charles II with a poem, called "Astraea Redux".

                      The most important of Dryden's satires is Absalom and Achitophel, It is not easily understood or appreciated by a reader who is ignorant of the historical event. For the modern reader the whole poem naturally has none of the news like quality which made it so successful when it first appeared. 

  

                      It can still be enjoyed however assistance of notes as one of the most powerful verse satires in the language. His well known heroic couplets be the perfect medium for satirical wit and invective, It was also in Dryden's later satires, like...

• Mac Flecknoe (1682)

• The Medal (1682)

• The Hind and the Panther (1687)

                  

                The Hind and the Panther is chiefly a philosophical poem about religion.

*Alexander Pope*:-

           In the satire of Pope, we can find him attacking individuals of no particular importance to man, who would otherwise have been forgotten. Pope's long satirical poem "The Dunaciad" for instance, is a brilliant attack in Epic style on the almost forgotten poet and dramatis   Dt Colly Cibber, togather with several important writters of even less importance. His Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnol and his various Imitation of Horace are equally brilliant but equally personal in their choice of subjects. In short, when we think of Pope as a 'great' satirist we are admiring his literary skill - his technical mastery - rather than moral purpose.

                 In the prologue to his satires and Epistles of Horace Imitated, Pope's attack on Lord Hervey, in which he attacked aristocratic insolence to his "low" birth. 

 

                Pope's reputation as satirist doesn't depend entirely on the sort of personal attacks which we have just mention. He was also author of "The Rape of The Lock", which is a true masterpiece of light satire, amusing and good - tempered yet not without an element of serious social criticism. The whole poem depicts rich, fashionable and idle society of Pope's time, with court as its centre, in eloborate style of the classical epic, he reduces it to absurdity. This is a cool, witty and detached, so that one sometimes wishes Popo would be angrier about the trivial society he describes. Anger alone however not enough to make good satire, any more than love alone enough is enough to make a good love poem.

         

Comedy- General Introduction

      

          In ordinary conversational english, the word Comedy and Comic are used for anything that is funny or laughable.

Comedy is generally defined as a literary work that is written to amuse or entertain a reader. In a comedy, characters can certainly suffer misfortune, but they are typically comedic situations with positive outcomes.

            Sometimes, for the comedy like Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale,  an uneducated people complain that it is not funny at all. They would be more disappointed by absence of laughter in Dante's Divine Commedia. The thing is that an ordinary people are not able to dig out the laughter which is hidden behind the  words and action. The truth is that we use the word comedy in confusing  way. When we are talking about comedy we generally mean a play which has a pleasant atmosphere  and happy ending. It's may not be make us laugh, it must at least be amusing or entertaining.

            There is a deep difference between comedy and satire, however both are closely related in the sense of of laughter. But the comedy however is found in other forms of literature. like...

• Chaucer's Poetry
• Dickens's novels
• Plays                    

             In the widest sense much of the comedies has been written about the philosophy of laughter. Yet most of us would find it hard to explain why we laugh at all. But the certain questions may make us think that why some people or situation look always funny. So Let's find our some of the examples related this questions...

1. MOTHER-IN-LAW  have been figure of fun since the Roman comic dramatist Terence

2. An old man with the young wife seen as a comic figure, who make him fool by choosing young and handsome lover

3.  A blind man

               All the things which I have mentioned above are not that sort of things to laugh at. Sometimes it become bitter that how people can laugh at them who have some physical peculiarity.  The better side of their nature may tells them that mother-in-law, deceived husbands, blind man, lunatics and people with big ears are often very nice people- who deserve sympathy rather than laughter. In this sense laughter is like cruelty because comedy has no relationship whith this kind of laughter. It shouldn't be harmful for other and also it shouldn't deal with our moral sense. So it may be that Aristotle's theory of Catharsis applies to comedy as well as tragedy.

                  Another theory of laughter suggests that it is an expression of pleasure and thankfulness of one's own comparative good luck. For instance, we all laugh at a very fat lady and some kind of misfortune of other people because we have our own satisfaction that we are not like them and we ourselves are happy to be freed of them.It doesn't mean that laughter is always cruel or selfish. There is very wide distinction between laughing at someone and laughing with someone. 

                In english literature, there are really great comic figures which are lovable, we may laugh at them but we also laugh with them which we can observe in various works, like....

Cervantes's Don Quixote

Shakespeare's Falstaff

Dickens's Mr. Pickwick

 EXAMPLES OF SOME POPULAR COMEDIES:-

Ralph Roister Doister

Gammer Gurton's Needle

As you like it

Love's labour's lost

The Country wife

Man in his humour

The salient woman