What is the difference between a (Shakespearean) romance and a comedy?

Question

I was flipping through my complete works of Shakespeare book and saw that The Tempest was labeled a romance. I read the play and although it seems to have similar characteristics to a comedy (a love story with a planned marraige in act 5) it seems somehow different. I can't quite put my finger on it though, any information would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

You are right. Shakespeare's plays that were classified as romance, were also classified as tragi-comedies. They contained enough tragic elements (e.g., near deaths and serious themes like betrayal ), which kept them from being considered a full comedy, yet also contained enough comic elements (e.g, a love intrigue and a happy ending) to keep them from being considered a full tragedy. Debora B. Schwartz basically summed it up with the following statement:

"While tragedy emphasizes evil, and comedy minimizes it, romance acknowledges evil -- the reality of human suffering."

Dr. Debora B. Schwartz, who is in the English Department at California Polytechnic State University, also gave the following explanation:

"Romance" was not a generic classification in Shakespeare's time. The modern term "romance" refers to a new kind of play, a hybrid of comic and tragic elements, developed and popularized by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher between 1607 and 1613 (their Philaster, 1609, is typical of the genre). At the end of his theatrical career, Shakespeare wrote four such plays which are now commonly grouped together as the Romances:

-- Pericles (1607-1608); not included with SH's works until F3 (1664)

-- Cymbeline (1609-1610); published in F1 as one of the Tragedies

-- The Winter's Tale (1610-1611); published in F1 as one of the Comedies

-- The Tempest (1611); published in F1 as one of the Comedies

Presumably, Condell and Heminges grouped Cymbeline with the tragedies and The Winter's Tale and The Tempest with the comedies because they felt that tragic elements predominated in the former and comic elements in the latter.

Because romances combine both tragic and comic elements, Fletcher called them "tragi-comedies" (a term which he coined in the preface to The Faithful Shepherdess, 1608; see As You Like It background materials for the influence of this play on pastoral comedy). According to Fletcher, a tragi-comedy "wants deaths, which is enough to make it no tragedy, yet brings some near it, which is enough to make it no comedy." Like comedy, romance includes a love-intrigue and culminates in a happy ending. Like tragedy, romance has a serious plot-line (betrayals, tyrants, usurpers of thrones) and treats serious themes; it is darker in tone (more serious) than comedy.

You might want to visit the URL to Dr. Schwartz's Document below for more details on The Tempest and its Romance categorization.

Answer 2

Shakespearean Romance

Answer 3

Romances written by Shakepeare:- Romeo and Juliet, 12th night Shakespearean comedies are between the three (specifically circumstances 4) genres of performs by William Shakespeare. traditionally, his works have been grouped into: tragedies, comedies, and histories, with some pupils including a fourth type, romances. A Shakespearean tragedy many times includes right here:# A doubtless admirable protagonist who falls from grace and into doom simply by a deadly flaw in his/her character.# a honest majority of the main characters death.

Answer 4

From the text accompanying your question, it seems you know that traditionally, Shakespeare's plays were divided into two groups: comedies and tragedies. The comedies of course always ended with a marriage having taken place, the tragedies with a death (or several).

More recently some scholars have taken to classifying some of his late works as 'romances' rather than comedies. There is often magic involved, some sort of unexpected character or event that suddenly manifests itself to solve a problem, reunion of long-separated family, and a few other elements. Personally, I think this is kind of an unnecessary separation of comedy to romance.

Hope this helps. :)

Answer 5

I've never heard of his plays labeled "Romance" and "Comedy", I've typically heard them divided into "Tragedies" and "Comedies". I'm not sure the difference between a romance and comedy, but I think that the difference between a tragedy and a comedy is that tragedies start out typically good and then end up worse (like Romeo and Juliet or Caesar.) Comedies I think start out bad and get better. I hope that helps a little bit.