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'There is a kind of comedy which must be capable of tragedy': Coleridge.
How is this tragic capacity evident in Shakespeare's comedies?
A comedy, according to Guarini, should contain "the delight, not the
sadness, the danger, not the death," (Kenneth Muir, Shakespeare's Comic
Sequence, p.150) and indeed this is the case with Shakespeare's comedies,
for tragic elements are always balanced with joviality and potential happiness,
and no event is ever irreversible as is usually the case in pure tragedy.
However, according to Professor Charlton, this balance of mirth and tragic
potential is "but a very partial mitigation" (Shakespeare's Comic
Sequence, p.148) and does not dispel the entire tragic tone of the comedies.
How then, does Shakespeare negate the tragic potential inherent beneath
the mirth and laughter? What techniques of characterisation, play structure
and thematic manipulation are necessary to dispel the tragic tone before
it oppresses the lighter, delight of comedy? This is the focus of my discussion.
Shakespeare's comedies largely, though with some exceptions, follow a tripartite
structure, beginning with an exposition (the sad situation), progressing
through a complication and anastrophe (the problem), towards a resolution
(the solution of the problem). This structure inevitably negates the tragic
resonance within the comedies, as events always culminate in some degree
of joy by the close of the plays. However, Shakespeare's use of the tripartite
structure is occasionally breached, as is the case of A Midsummer Night's
Dream, where the final act stands alone, following after the resolution.
This is the mechanicals' humourous and inept performance of the tragedy
of Pyramus and Thisby; the audience is frequently encouraged, through commentary
by Duke Theseus and Lysander, to mock and belittle the tragic tone of the
story, and thus, more subtly, the tragic elements of A Midsummer Night's
Dream. Songs, too, are a structural feature for minimising tragic potential.
In As You Like It, the audience is made to fear for the safety of Rosalind
and Celia in the forest of Arden:
"Alas, what danger will it be to us,
Maids as we are, to travel forth so far!
Beauty provoketh thieves sooner than gold."
Rosalind, I.III, Lines 108-10
but in Act II, Scene V, the audience is spared this anxiety through song:
"Here shall he see
No enemy
But winter and rough weather."
Lines 6-8
and Arden becomes "a region defined by an attitude of liberty, a festive
place where the folly of romance can have its day." (L. Lerner ed.,
Shakespeare's Comedies, p.228) It is not a place of danger or evil, and
denies the audience of anxiety for the characters' safety.
In comedy Shakespeare offers characters in the form of a balanced equation:
Rosalind and Orlando, Oliver and Celia, Touchstone and Audrey, Phoebe and
Silvius in As You Like It; Oberon and Titania, Lysander and Hermia, Demetrius
and Helena in A Midsummer Night's Dream; Bassanio and Portia, Lorenzo and
Jessica in The Merchant of Venice: in the equation males balance females,
for Shakespeare inevitably intends to resolve this equation with the solution
of marriage -the principle form of resolution in his comedy. However, though
one sees the potential happiness and mirth from the outset of the plays,
the potential for wedded harmony, it would be wise to remember characters
outside of the equation. What of the melancholy brooding figure of Jacques
in As You Like It, or the supposedly wronged Shylock in The Merchant of
Venice -what is their contribution to the comedies? They are in opposition
to the mirth and laughter of the plays, they serve to mock and condemn the
world around them. They are, in my opinion, figures with the potential for
tragedy.
The character of Jacques "can suck melancholy out of a song, as a weasel
sucks eggs" (II.V Lines 12-13, As You Like It) thus demonstrating his
desire to be mournful, even when confronted with the beauty and delight
of music: his mournful disposition is heightened by his desire to "suck"
and feed on sadness -this is not a naturally cheerless character, but one
for whom sadness is food and sustenance for his downcast, cynical soul.
Indeed, when entreated by Duke Signor to stay and enjoy the festivities
at the close of the play, Jacques will "see no pastime" (V.IV
Line 195) preferring to retire from the comedy to a cave. Jacques, in his
morose ponderous state, bares some similarity with the eponymous character
of Hamlet. In his use of language there is occasionally a resemblance of
imagery. When confronting Duke Signor with the desire to become a jester,
Jacques entreats the Duke to forget of his prior wisdom:
"Weed your better judgments
Of all opinion that grows rank in them
That I am wise."
II.VII Lines 45-47 (As You Like It)
The imagery focuses on the human mind, particularly that thoughts and opinions
are a garden which grows rank with weeds when left unchecked. This is highly
reminiscent of Hamlet's speech in Act I, Scene II of the eponymous play,
where Hamlet observes that the world is "an unweeded garden/ That grows
to seed; things rank and gross in nature/ Posses it merely." (Hamlet
I.II Lines 135-137) Although both characters are saying quite different
things, the common idea is that complacency in thought and action leads
to corruption -either of the political State, or of the human condition.
Indeed, this is not the only common ground between Jacques and Hamlet, for
Jacques believes that Duke Signor has usurped the forest and natural order,
just as Hamlet believes Claudius has usurped the state of Denmark. While
we would all agree on Hamlet as a tragic character, the interpretation of
Jacques as such is more contestable. Indeed, as Kenneth Muir observes
"We are prevented from accepting Jacques' comments as authorial by
the fact they are undercut by the Duke, by Orlando and by Rosalind."
(Shakespeare's Comic Sequence, p.86)
It is difficult, therefore, to credit Jacques with the sombre tone required
of tragedy, for his character is constantly mocked as a limited being, he
has the intellect of "a post" according to Rosalind (IV.I Line
9). However, I do not profess that Jacques is a tragic character; he merely
bears occasional resemblance with the tragic character of Hamlet, and thus
Jacques has the potential to become tragic. Indeed, this is not the only
link between Hamlet and As You Like It, for Rosalind's speech to Orlando,
on how lovers should appear, states:
"Your hose should be ungarter'd,
your bonnet unbanded, your sleeve unbutton'd,
your shoe untied, and every thing about you dem-
onstrating a careless desolation."
Rosalind, III.II Lines 374-381 (As You Like It)
And this is reflected in Hamlet, where we learn by report that Hamlet appeared
to Ophelia with
"His doublet all unbrac'd,
No hat upon his head, his stockings foul'd,
Ungarter'd and down-gyved to his ankle"
Ophelia, II.I Lines 78-80 (Hamlet)
The occasional similarity in the character of Jacques with Hamlet, and the
subject matter of As You Like It with Hamlet is one of great interest. Although
the first folio edition of Hamlet (1623) corresponds with the first folio
edition of As You Like It in the same year, the occasional similarities
to the plays cannot be easily explained without digressing from the focus
of my discussion. Permit me, therefore, to leave the reader to personal
discretion, by stating that the similarities in the plays demonstrate the
potential that As You Like It has to become a tragic play.
Shylock is a more complex character than Jacques, seen by some as comic
and others as tragic -a short-sighted money lender, yearning for revenge
on Antonio who deprives him of further wealth:
"I hate him...
For that in low simplicity
He lends out money gratis, and brings down
The rate of usance here with us in Venice.
If I can catch him once upon the hip
I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him."
Shylock, I.III Lines 42-7 (The Merchant of Venice)
And a wronged father who loses both daughter and religion to Christianity,
when consumed by the desire for justice against the inhumane actions of
the Christian Antonio:
"He hath disgrac'd me,
and hind'red me half a million, laugh'd at my
losses, mock'd at my gains, scorn'd my nation,
thwarted my bargains, cool'd my friends, heated
mine enemies; and what's his reason? I am a Jew.
Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs,
dimensions, senses, affections, passions; fed with
the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject
to the same diseases, heal'd by the same means,
warm'd and cool'd by the same winter and summer,
as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed?
If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you
poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall
we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we
will resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian,
what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian wrong
a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Chris-
tian example? Why revenge. The villainy you teach
me, I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will
better the instruction."
III.I Lines 54-73
As John Palmer discusses in his essay, "Shylock, (Shakespeare's Comedies
p.133-5), whatever Shylock's sadness at the loss of his daughter Jessica,
we can not misconstrue his desire for a pound of Antonio's flesh as a metaphor
to redeem his own "flesh and blood" which has rebelled (III.I,
Lines 37-8) for his desire for revenge is with him from the outset, as Jessica
observes:
"I have heard him swear
To Tubal and to Chus, his countrymen,
That he would rather have Antonio's flesh
Than twenty times the value of the sum."
III.II Lines 284-7 (The Merchant of Venice)
The tragic interpretation of Shylock is to see his losses as irredeemable,
to see his banishment as the anti-Semitic injustice of a Christian society.
However, this interpretation of Shylock limits the comic resolution at the
end of the play. What we are left with is not a sense of resolution, but
a sense of misgiving, a sense of fundamental injustice. Perhaps, in view
of Shakespeare's resolution, it would be wiser to see Shylock's loss of
a daughter and religion in the context of a Christian society -for this
would be the audience at the Globe theatre, as Judaism was outlawed in England
during the reign of King Edward I. In the context of Christianity, Shylock's
conversion of faith offers him the immortality of the Christian afterlife
in Heaven, equally so for Jessica, who also benefits from the love of a
husband. Surely this interpretation offers a more satisfactory resolution,
a more joyous culmination of the play?
Shakespeare controls the tragic undercurrents of the comedies through deft
handling of themes within the plays. Several themes contain the potential
for tragedy, namely those relating to romance and unrequited love. However,
other themes also demonstrate the potential for a bloody conclusion, the
rivalry between Oliver and Orlando in As You Like It, for example. The rivalry
stems from Orlando's bitterness at having his education suppressed by his
elder brother, and he sees his right to become a gentleman as equally important
as Oliver's right to be master:
"I have as much of my father in me
as you."
Orlando, I.I lines 49-50 (As You Like It)
The audience is made aware of the violence in this relationship from the
outset of the play. Stage directions for lines 52 and 54 indicate that Oliver
"strikes" Orlando, who, in turn, "collars" the protagonist.
This tragic potential, however, is lessened through Shakespeare's subtle
characterisation of Orlando:
"Wert thou not my brother, I would not
take this hand from thy throat till this other had
pull'd out thy tongue"
Orlando, I.I Lines 59-61
While the violence of their relationship is explicit in the desire of Orlando
to harm his brother, there is still the subtle implication that brotherly
love could prevail, for it is the bond of brotherhood that prevents Orlando
committing the threatened atrocity. A potential resolution of their relationship
is therefore implicit in their dialogue, although this is too subtle to
negate the oppressive tone of tragedy as it stands at that precise moment
in the play. Shakespeare mitigates the potential tragedy through another
mode, that of the character Adam.
Adam, the old servant, intercepts the escalation of violence with a sentimental
appeal for brotherly respect:
"Sweet masters, be patient, for your
father's remembrance be at accord."
I.I Lines 63-4
and could therefore be seen as a functional character, as one of Shakespeare's
tools for preventing further tragic resonance, for preventing a violent
and bloody conflict. Indeed, the privileged audience is later made aware
of Oliver's hatred for Orlando, whom he sees as
"an envious emulator of
every man's good parts, a secret and villainous
contriver against me his natural brother."
I.I Lines 143-5
and this bitter rivalry bodes ill for Orlando when he goes to Oliver's household
in act II, scene III, for the audience is aware of Oliver's desire to have
Orlando dead, to have Charles the wrestler "break his neck as his finger."
(I.I Lines 146-7) However, Shakespeare intercedes with the character of
Adam to lessen the tragic potential of the scene:
"Come not within these doors! Within this roof
The enemy of all your graces lives."
Adam, II.III Lines 17-9
Although the violence in the relationship is still explicit in the dialogue,
for Orlando's "house is but a butchery" (II.III Line 27), by spurring
Orlando to flee to the forest of Arden, away from his "bloody brother",
Adam dissipates the tragic possibilities of the scene.
Lysander and Demetrius, in A Midsummer Night's Dream, are also engaged in
bitter rivalry. However, unlike Orlando and Oliver, their rivalry stems
from the exposition of unobtainable love. Both characters love Hermia, but
neither may have her hand in marriage. Although she loves Lysander, they
may not marry because her father, Egeus, has promised her to Demetrius;
although Hermia is promised to Demetrius, she will not take to him as a
lover. Lysander rails before Theseus, Duke of Athens, protesting:
"I am, my lord, as well deriv'd as he,
As well possess'd; my love is more than his;
My fortunes every way as fairly rank'd
(If not with vantage) as Demetrius';
And (which is more than all these boasts can be)
I am belov'd of beauteous Hermia.
Why should not I then prosecute my right?"
I.I 99-105 (A Midsummer Night's Dream)
However, the protest is a failure and the lovers are forced to seek happiness
in exile by running away to the woods. The theme of patriarchal oppression
in lovers' relationships is one explored in tragedy -notably in Romeo and
Juliet, where the feud of the Montague and Capulet households prevents the
approved marriage of the hero and heroine. Indeed, the potential for tragedy
in A Midsummer Night's Dream is made overt by Shakespeare, as Hermia's father
Egeus "may dispose of her; /Which shall be either to this gentleman
[Demetrius], /Or to her death, according to our law." (I.I Lines 42-4).
The tragic resonance of the play is only mitigated by the paternal figure
of Oberon, and the maternal figure of Titania watching over the woods. They
take it upon themselves to restore harmony, and indeed resolve the question
of unrequited love by placing Demetrius under a spell of love for Helena.
However, the resolution of the comedy is called into question by the spell
over Demetrius. If we see magical spells as the anastrophe of the play -the
confusion by Puck of which man to enchant, and the subsequent comic confusion
amongst the lovers -then is Demetrius' bewitched state a resolution of the
anastrophe, or a prolonging of it to achieve Shakespeare's equation of marriage
amongst the characters? Of course, the alternative solution to the comedy
is to restore Demetrius to a state of unrequited love for Hermia, thus returning
the play to a potentially tragic outcome. In the light of Shakespeare's
resolution, would it not be wiser to see Demetrius' spellbound state as
the best outcome for his character? At least in his bewitched state he is
happy, and benefits from the devotion and love of a faithful wife.
Although marriage is the principle resolution in the comedies and the ultimate
mitigating force against tragedy, it may not always be seen as a case of
"happily-ever-after". If we examine the union of Lorenzo and Jessica
in The Merchant of Venice and their discussion in act V, scene I, of Troilus
and Cressid (she proved unfaithful); of Pyramus and Thisby (a misunderstanding
led to both their deaths); of Dido and Aeneas (he deserted and betrayed
her love), then the audience may come to realise that marriage is not always
a guarantee of happiness. Indeed, these examples bode an ill omen for marriage,
and the concept of marriage as a cure for potential tragedy. Shakespeare's
use of these examples seems to direct our attention to the fallacy of seeing
marriage as the saviour of comedy. Even in A Midsummer Night's Dream, the
mechanicals perform the lamentable story of Pyramus and Thisby, overshadowing
the unions at the end of the play with a sobering tragic tone. It is only
the ineptitude of the mechanicals themselves, their comic attempts to have
a lion peacefully roar:
"I will aggravate my
voice so that I will roar you as gently as any suck-
ing dove; I will roar you and "twere any nightin-
gale."
Bottom, I.II Lines 81-84 (A Midsummer Night's Dream)
and their delivery of the performance like riding "a rough colt"
(V.I Line 119), which dissipates the otherwise tragic shadow of the final
act with comic laughter.
Tragic possibilities are inherent in the comedies, for they provide the
initial expositions of the plays from which the resolutions will be born.
However, as Simon Lesser argues in his essay 'The Aesthetic Experience:
Comedy',
"Tragedy raises -more technically it over-cathects -everything it touches.
It depicts characters of heroic mould, involves them in large events, compels
them to choose between extreme alternatives. It invites us to face and work
through the aspects of our own nature and the human predicament which are
most likely to arouse anxiety. In contrast, comedy tries to spare us anxiety
and to dissipate whatever anxiety we may already feel. It minimises and
belittles." from S. Lesser, 'The Aesthetic Experience: Comedy' (L.
Lerner ed, Shakespeare's Comedies, p.326)
Although Shakespeare does, to an extent, belittle the tragic tone of his
comedies, whether through farcical characters such as Bottom and the mechanicals,
through song and festivities, or through happy unions of marriage, the audience
should always be aware that tragedy is constantly made present beneath the
surface of laughter.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1) G Blakemore Evans ed, The Riverside Shakespeare, second edition (1997)
2) Kenneth Muir, Shakespeare's Comic Sequence (Liverpool University Press,
1979)
3) Laurence Lerner ed, Shakespeare's Comedies (Penguin Books, 1967)
4) Bernard Spivack, Shakespeare and the Allegory of Evil, third edition
(Columbia University Press, 1968)