Traditional Distinctions: Comedy versus Tragedy

 Traditional Distinctions: Comedy versus Tragedy

elements	tragedy	comedy
reader response	strong emotions: pity and fear	lighthearted: laughter
reader distance	attraction aversion: close enough to feel pity but wanting to escape from fear, terror	ironic or comic distance, we cannot be too close or sympathize too much with the "victim" of a comedy
reader focus	on an individual, we are inside the hero's head, emotions, dilemma; often sense the entire play is about this individual	on a collective, on a group of people therefore not a strong concern about a single individual, more on relationships between people than the inner life of a single character
plot	unified,strong sense of coherence and cohesion of events, serious, 24 hours, imitation(mimesis) of reality but with a "beginning, middle and end"; sense of individual quest, typical plot is a character against fate or destiny as determined either by the gods or society, often a double-bind situation where no positive result is possible	incongruity, wit, humour, repetition, exaggeration, error; accidents  surprising, ridiculouos series of events; most typical plot of comedy is a young couple being blocked from each other by someone older
character	hero is a superior character, or what Frye calls high mimetic; important role in society, but also displays personal characteristics like courage, strength, determination, desire for truth, capacities for leadership or self expression	characters tend to be like us or below us, low mimetic or ironic in Frye's terms; inferior characters means that we do not take their destinies or behaviour too seriously
themes and issues	most serious themes and abstract issues: future of the state, death of a king, taboos like incest and patricide/regicide; tied to gods, religion, justice, honour; transcendence and fate, existentialism, the meaning of life and the ultimate truth of our existence	bawdy and body themes; body parts and body functions are at issue, sex and cuckoldry are common themes
language and imagery	language is of the highest level and tone to correspond to the most serious of themes and issue abstract issues: religion, the gods, honour, truth, justice, and seriousness of tone, regicide, incest, matricide, the future of the state	language is expected to be of a lower register and we expect to hear about body parts and body functions therefore vulgar, vernacular, and colloquial
ending	ends in death, disaster, destruction of the central character and others; Frye observes that tragedy ends with the hero separated or alienated from his society--if he survives	a happy ending, or at least one in which people get what they deserve (as in "poetic justice"; Frye observes that in comedy the characters end up being brought closer to and into line with their society.