COMEDYCaesar and Cleopatra

By Bernard Shaw

COMEDY

Focuses on people’s social behaviour.

Exposes and unmasks human weaknesses and vices.

Explores the discrepancy between the seeming and the real.

Starts with a problem, ends with its resolution.

Depends on a complicated plot (obstacles, confused identities, misunderstandings).

Instructive by nature and purpose. Comic relief instead of catharsis

History of ComedyHistory of Comedy

Originated in Greece, 4th cent. BC.

First comedies (“Old Comedy”) were bawdy social satires. Aristophanes, “the father of comedy.”

Later, “New Comedy” formed the love-meets-obstacles model.

Main Genres of Main Genres of ComedyComedy

Farce (ex., commedia del arte)

Romantic comedy

Comedy of humours

Comedy of manners

These types can be mixed together within one dramatic work.

Types of ComedyTypes of Comedy

“Low comedy” appeals to baser sense of humour (farce, slapstick comedy).

“High comedy” appeals to intellect (romantic comedy; comedy of humours; comedy of manners).

Brief HistoryBrief Historyof English Comedyof English Comedy

Farcical elements in medieval mystery and morality plays (The Second Shepherds’ Play);

Renaissance comedy (Shakespeare, Ben Jonson);

Restoration comedy of manners (William Congreve, Aphra Behn).

Brief HistoryBrief Historyof English Comedyof English Comedy

18th cent. sentimental comedy (Richard Steel) and comedy of manners/humours (Oliver Goldsmith);

19th cent. comedy of manners (Oscar Wilde);

20th cent. black/dark/absurd comedy (Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter).

Elements of ComedyElements of Comedy

Slapstick humour

Situational humour; qui pro quo.

Satire.

Verbal humour.

George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)(1856-1950)

Irish playwright, writer, critic, journalist, social activist.

The only person to have received both the Nobel prize and an Oscar.

Famous for “Shavian” witticisms.

Co-founded the London School of Economics.

Tried to promote a reform of English spelling.

What do we knowWhat do we knowabout Cleopatra and about Cleopatra and

Caesar?Caesar?

Caesar and CleopatraCaesar and Cleopatraby G.B.Shaw(1898)by G.B.Shaw(1898)

The prologues

Language

Role of stage directions

Themes

Characters

Anachronisms

Intertextual references

Humour