Essay Sample on Differences Between Comedy and Tragedy

There are differences between comedy and tragedy plays. These differences appear in the setting, plot, and characters in a play. The tragedy plot consists of events that stir up feelings of pity and fear. These feelings of fear and pity are experienced by the audience of the play "Oedipus Rex". After Oedipus finds out that he killed his father, King Laius, and married his mother, he is forced to leave Thebes and he gouges his eyes out because he is tormented by this finding. The audience sympathizes with Oedipus due to this cruel fate which he was unable to escape for all his life. His mother, Jocasta, chooses to hang herself after the painful discovery which indices the feelings of fear and pity.

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Unlike a tragedy which consists of serious action, a comedy play focuses on an ordinary problem that regular people face. A comedy play deals with problems that the audience is likely to face in their lives. In the play "Lysistrata” the women are having a sex strike to force their husbands to end a war. Wars are inevitable in human history, and therefore they are common people's problem.

A tragedy ends with a rigid finality while a comedy moves from rigidity to freedom. The rigid finality of a tragedy play is seen in "Oedipus Rex" when Jocasta hangs herself. Her death gives the play a painful and rigid ending which is associated with human death. Oedipus's loss of vision also contributes to the rigid finality of the play because after gouging his eyes, he permanently loses his vision. However, the play "Lysistrata" demonstrates how comedy moves from rigidity of war to freedom where both sides negotiate, end the war and celebrate.

Tragedy plays mostly laments man's fate, while comedy plays to celebrate life. In the play "Oedipus Rex" Oedipus is fated to kill his father and marry his mother. His fate shows how people are unable to escape their fates despite the efforts they make trying to escape from their destinies. In the play "Lysistrata" the celebration of life is seen when two groups end the war between them and hold parties to celebrate.

In tragedy, the hero is larger than life while in a comedy, the hero is a common person. Oedipus is larger than life because he is born in a royal family. He also later becomes the king of Thebes which is larger than life position. Lysistrata is a middle-class woman in Athens which demonstrates the average life of a comedy hero. In tragedy, the hero struggles against unchangeable fate while in comedy, the hero struggles against the movable situation. Oedipus struggles with the fate of killing his father and marrying his mother, which occurs despite all attempts to avoid it. Lysistrata tries to end a war and succeeds.

Reliance on Deity

The play “Oedipus rex” has many prophesies foretelling the fate of people in the play. When Oedipus is born, a prophecy is told that he will kill his father and marry his mother. Due to the prophecy, his parents take him to the mountain to prevent the prophecy from happening. Their attempt to kill their son shows that they believed the prophecy and were superstitious and religious.

When Oedipus overhears that the man he thought was his father was not his father, he consults with the Oracle of Apollo at Delphi. The society depicted in the play relied on prophets and deities to determine things which were difficult and beyond their means. When Oedipus needs to find out who killed king Laius in, he seeks Teiresias, a prophet.

The people of Thebes also believe that the plague causing women and field to be barren will end once the person who killed their former king is exposed and banished from Thebes. The play shows the strong beliefs of people living in this time periods in their deities and the finality of fate prophesied by their prophets.

In the play "Everyman", Everyman believes that after death, a person ends up in heaven or hell. A deity, God, laments about the sinful lives of humans. According to the play, God judges people after their death to determine if they end up in heaven or hell. The play shows morals as per the Christian religion. The play indicates a society which was religious and believed in the Christian religion even though they struggled following its teachings.

Use of Deus Ex Machina

Deus ex Machina is when an unlikely occurrence is used to solve a seemingly unsolvable problem in the plot. This unlikely occurrence is mostly gods who appear and change the outcome of the play or resolve a problem in the play. Deus ex Machina is employed in the play "Oedipus rex" to solve problems on the story on several occasions. For the prophecy of Oedipus killing his father and marrying his mother to come to true Oedipus survives the attempts by his parents to kill him. The device of Deus ex Machina is employed again when finding the identity of the person who killed king Laius. Oedipus consults Teiresias to find out who killed the former king. The prophet reveals that it is Oedipus even though there were witnesses who claimed that the king was killed by thieves.

The device Deus ex Machina is used in Euripides play "Medea" when the sun god sends a dragon drawn chariot to carry his granddaughter away from his husband Jason to Athens. The outcome is unlikely; therefore, only the action of gods rescues the storyline to achieve a favorable outcome.

In the play "the love suicides at Sonezaki," the device is used when Tokubei meets his old friend Kuheiji the oil merchant who happens to need a loan of two kamme which is the exact amount Tokubei was carrying to repay his uncle. Tokubei had successfully retrieved the money from his stepmother; therefore, it was unlikely that he lost the money.

Tartuffe

Tartuffe is a hypocrite who uses his devout religious and moral behavior to deceive Orgon and his mother, Madame Pernelle, into accepting him into their home. Due to his perceived moral behavior, Orgon trusts him and even agrees to marry his already engaged daughter to him. Tartuffe lusts after Orgon's wife, Elmire, and is entrapped and exposed as a result.

The play is a comedy due to its ending. The play ends as Tartuffe is exposed as he tries to seduce Orgon's wife. As Tartuffe tries to evict the family from their home, a king’s messenger arrives and arrests him for deceiving Orgon's family, and he is sent to jail. The king also nullifies the papers indicating that Orgon had signed off the ownership of the house. Overall the play has a happy ending where lovers get married, and the villain gets punished, which is common in comedy. Comedy is also observed by the gullibility of Orgon when he trusts a stranger and even disowns his son, Damis due to his naivety.

The play was set in the 1600s in France and people were very religious. Their belief that religious people constituted a person with good morals is demonstrated when Orgon trusts Tartuffe after he appeared to be a devoutly religious person. The play teaches people that appearances can be deceiving. Tartuffe's appearance deceived Orgon and his mother into trusting him. The lessons learned from this play can be applied in the modern world when dealing with people since many people are deceptive and want to take advantage of unsuspecting strangers. It is therefore important to know a person character before trusting them.