Research On Tragic Elements Of Shakespeare's Comedies

No matter at home or abroad, Shakespeare as the well-known talent is ranked as one of the dramatists that readers are most familiar with. Since ancient times, scholars have interpreted his works from many angles with their own insightful views. However, they tend to put much of their attention on tragedies. But, the author holds that Shakespeare's tragedy, historical drama and comedy, as well as his profound dramatic thought are a consistent whole. While today people are getting to appreciate and value comedies, their studies mainly center on the nature of comedy, the character, the image, the comparison with other works, and so on, but the study of tragic elements in comedies is comparatively much less.This thesis, using new criticism as theoretical foundation, is devoted to analyze the tragic elements which seems to conflict with the comic effects, and probes into the intrinsic necessity of this unique structure from the political, economic, cultural and historical background. In the age of Shakespeare's, England under the influence of emerging capitalist economy has enjoyed a rapid development, however, behind such economic prosperity, various sharp social conflicts simmer under the surface. Shakespeare must have suffered the impact of change and then realizes the great gap between his harmonious ideal and social reality, and refers it to his works.In this thesis, Shakespeare's representative comedies from each period are chosen to study, and the essence lies in the analysis of tragic elements. When his comedies become more and more mature, the somber atmosphere that hangs over the whole play, the audience and the reader sinks all the deeper and heavier, from the tragic pattern in early play, to the death image, tragic hero, and capricious love in mid term plays, then to the somber tragic tone and atmosphere which permeates through the late stage of Shakespeare's career with a trace of tragedy. Tragic elements in his comedies have caused the dramatic conflicts and threaten the comic world. In Shakespeare's early and mid term comedies, the conflicts can be resolved by the power of love, but when comes to the late comedies, it can only turn to the supernatural power for resolution. At last, the significance of this mixture of tragic and comic elements is discussed from aspects of psychological aesthetics and educational function. Tragic elements and comic elements are not merely disjointed binary opposites, but are auxiliary to each other and ingeniously merged together, without the damage of basic comic tone. Hence the mixture is the embodiment of Shakespeare's harmonious idea, a true reflection of real society, as well as a deepening of Shakespearean works' humanism theme.This thesis is divided into three parts. Introduction gives a brief presentation of the research background, object, literature review, theoretical format and research focus. Part Two is made up of three chapters. Chapter One elaborates on the background of Shakespeare's comedy creation; Chapter Two analyzes the concrete tragic elements in comedies; Chapter Three discusses the aesthetic significance and educational function of the integration of tragic and comic elements. Conclusion gives a comprehensive summary of the whole thesis.