Tragedy and Comedy Contrasted

Tragedy	Comedy
sad ending	happy ending
ends in death	ends in marriage
ideal	real
absolute	relative
acceptance of life	rejection of life
noble hero	likeable hero
shows man's great potential	shows man's limitations, foibles
shows man's grandeur	exposes pretense
shows the dignity and courage of man	mocks excess
nobility of spirit	wit and sophistication
high character	exaggeration and caricature
man in godlike state	folly, incongruity of human behavior
hero has a tragic flaw	hero has many weaknesses
hero of titanic size	ordinary mortal
man made sublime	man made ridiculous
the individual	society
one hero	many characters
isolated figure of heroic size	people in groups
alienation	disagreements with parents
full characterization	limited characterization
hero retains our sympathy	audience distanced by mockery and humor
audience feels pity and terror	audience feels amusement
we see ourselves	we see others
we feel our own limitations	we feel superior
we experience catharsis	we laugh at the folly of others
serious and profound concerns	petty concerns
order and stability in the world	the world is absurd
restoration of order	quarreling ends in marriage
action with magnitude	engaging amusement
themes such as revenge and honor	themes such as appearance vs. reality
Freytag Pyramid	many interwoven plots and characters
Aristotle, The Poetics	Oliver Goldsmith
Renaissance/romanticism	Restoration and Eighteenth Century
Ahab, Heathcliff and Catherine, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, King Lear	Falstaff, Don Quijote, Tom Jones, Portia and Bassanio, Becky Sharp and Amelia Sedley, Emma