Plot in Shakespearean Comedy

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the way in which Shakespearean Comedy has been formulated by elements of plot that are viewed as typical. It provides a brief outline of Shakespearean Comedy and explores the plot elements of the green world, multiple intertwined plots, disguise, mistaken identity and the conventional young lovers. It shows how many plot sequences, seen as typical to comedy, are demonstrated through Shakespeare's various stock characters. The paper then demonstrates how Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing" is one of his plays that presents slight deviations from this typical structure.

From the Paper:

"Since its origin, Shakespearian Comedy has developed having specific and identifiable elements viewed as typical, in regards to plot. Much Ado About Nothing contrasts the other comedies. The setting is not in the magical green world and there are two plots. The young lovers do not demand and obtain the role most interesting to the reader and the 'placing of the comic initiative in the hands of its vivacious heroine Beatrice' not a servant. Beatrice and Benedick appear to captivate the comic progression of the play and other than Dogberry present most of the absurd, wit and humour. The basic foundations of Much Ado About Nothing centre on the typical progression from of conflict to a happy resolution that ends with two marriages not just one. Don Pedro, the disturbingly sinister character for a comedy, is expelled, all is forgiven and society is restored to its festive note. 'Strike up, pipers.'"

Sample of Sources Used:

• Abrams, M. H. 'Articles on Comedy, Irony, Satire and Wit & Humour,' A Glossary of Literary Terms, 6th ed., Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1993.
• Greenblatt, S. & Cohen, Walter. & Howard, Jean E. & Maus, Katherine Eiasaman. The Norton Shakespeare Based on the Oxford Edition, W.W. Norton & Company, 1997.
• McCutchan, J. Wilson. 'Reading Shakespeare's Plays,' Plot Outlines of Shakespeare's Comedies Scene by Scene, Barnes and Noble Inc, New York, 1965
• Nevo, Ruth. Comic Transformations in Shakespeare, Methuen & Co. LTD London and New York, 1980.
• Wells, Stanley. The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare Studies, Cambridge University Press, Great Britain, 1986.

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