SHAKESPEAREAN COMEDY critical quotes Flashcards
McDonald
“Comedy moves from confusion to order, from ignorance to understanding, from law to liberty.”
Laroque (festive comedy)
“Shakespeare’s festive comedies revel in a carnival spirit of liberty and irreverence… They praise the wisdom of folly, as constancy and happiness are ultimately proved right once the young lovers are allowed to leave the labyrinth of errors, tricks, or illusions.”
Maslen (tragedy and comedy)
“Tragedy dealt with times that were safely past… Comedy, by contrast, dealt with the dangerous present.”
Kerr (comedy 1)
“Comedy cocks an eye upward at the very same man who is straining to divinize himself and notices that he is packing a little extra weight.”
Kerr (comedy 2)
“Comedy occurs when there is no way out.”
Kerr (comedy 3)
“Tragedy speaks always of freedom. Comedy will speak of nothing but limitation.”
Kiernan Ryan - Malvolio
‘The complicity of comedy with cruelty is unforgettably dramatized in the tormenting of Malvolio ‘
C.L. Barber - Shakespearean Comedy
‘Holiday occasion and the comedy are parallel manifestations of the same pattern of a way that men cope with their life’
Dr Emma Smith - Shakespearean Comedy
‘We the audience tend to feel a sense of superiority over comic characters’
Dr Emma Smith - Gender roles
‘Shakespeare’s comedies seem to challenge conservative orthodoxies and present themselves as socially transgressive’
Dr Emma Smith - Social Status
( Shakespeare’s) ‘comedies reveal themselves as socially conservative, reinforcing hierarchies and boundaries’
Carter (comedy)
“Comedy is tragedy that happens to other people.”
