The literary works which end happily we call comedies. So their final parts define whether they are tragedies or not. William Shakespeare wrote many comedies, and all of them give the readers a lot of pleasure – you read them fast, you laugh, imagine the characters and their actions and you understand that they are alive even today. How can anybody read seriously the scenes when Nick Bottom is boasting and representing the kind of people we often meet nowadays. Or what about Pack, who is so witty that his tricks make everybody smile. But apart from this, I suppose that each comedy by William Shakespeare has a tinge of tragedy in it and this is the topic I am going to discuss.
I hope we all know the plot of “ The Taming of the Shrew”. The main character can’t be easily detected, but I suppose it’s Katharina, Bapista’s elder daughter. The whole comedy goes around her – she is the character who should be tamed. Because of her independence and strong desire not to be a weak person, who always relies on other, she is thought to be out of range – yes, she is not a part of society, nobody can understand her and her wishes are unknown for everybody in that play. During the play she once says :
“Why, and I trust I may go too, may I not?
What, shall I be appointed hours,
As though, belike, I knew not what to take,
And what to leave? Ha! “ – from these words we can deduce that she is an independent woman, who can chose her path of life herself. She does not obey the rules reigned in the society where she leaves – she is supposed to be nice and calm, as she is a woman, but she does not act like that. Simply, she does not agree that women have to please men. She desires to demonstrate the power of will which has a woman, who is strong a self-confident. But people around her, even her father or her sister can’t understand her feelings. She is rude not because of her inner character, but only in order to show that not all women are obedient, that women also have their own opinions and aims which may not match with those of others. The outlook on the positions of male and females are the reason why Baptista chooses Bianca as his favourite daughter. Baptista can’t get on with Katharina’s rebellious character, with her actions that are out of norm. Instead of trying to understand her, he chooses simply not to pay attention on her at all and takes care of only Bianca. Katharina suffers from jelousy and her pain grows. She knows that, if she continues to defend her ideas and positions, nobody will merry her, neither her father nor her sister will be next to her. Being a “shrew” as they call it, means being all alone, isolated from everyone. May be if she had felt the support from her family she would not have married to Petrucio so fast, but she know that the rules which are followed in her neighborhood will never let her be what she wants to be.
Although “ The Taming of the Shrew” is considered to be a comedy, I do think that the marriage between Katharine and Petrucio is a tragedy of a heroine, who distinguishes from other because of her individuality. She is so open-minded, so progressive and suddenly she gives up and obeys her husband. Her fate is tragic – she has to refuse her wills in order to avoid lonliness. Yes this literary work by William Shakespeare ends happily and the lovers make couple, nobody stays single and the harmony is achieved, but let us think a little – is it fair to sacrifice your character in order to fit in the society? That’s what Cathareine had to.
“A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is also another comedy by William Shakespeare. Here we meet a lot of magic, unbelievable scenes and characters made out of fantasy. At the end of the play, Hippolyta is with Theseus, Hermia with Lysander, Demetrius with Helena, Oberon with Titania. It’s obvious that the ending is satisfying but even in this play, we can find a character who suffered a lot. That’s Helena. As Lysander says :
“Demetrius, I’ll avouch it to his head,
Made love to Nedar’s daughter Helena, ..” Helena and Hermia are the best friends. They grew up together and share a kind of priceless memories . Helena falls in love with Demetrius, who used to love her too. But suddenly his heart changes and he admits his infatuation for Hermia. Just imagine, a man who you love, and who loves you too ( or at least says that loves you), one day declares loving your best friend. How would you feel? – may be frustrated or devastated, but would you follow him in a dark forest, while crying out your grief and misery? Would you face a danger in the name of love? Even if you were disdained, would your love be so deep that you could carry on fighting for you happiness? I think really few people are able of committing such deeds. Despite the fact that Helena’s efforts are infertile, she keeps trying, she never gets frustrated and in contrast every single “no” from Demetrius gives her a power to fight even stronger. But nothing seems to help – only magic. If we pretend to be Helena, whose lover follows her best friend, and the only way to obtain your happiness is to go to the foreteller – that’s what modern pattern of that situation is.
Next comedy by William Shakespeare I would like to discuss is “The Merchant of Venice”. The first theme that surprised me is that unfortunately we can’t find unconditional love there – instead the reason why Basanio decides to get married is his economical condition – he is short of money, wholly in debts and he needs a fiancée who would restore his fortune. So he goes to Portia, and after passing a very difficult test he is able to marry her. Despite the fact that Basanio’s deeds stem from pragmatic reasons, Portia praises him a lot and they make the example couple in the play and that is really sad.
Another problem that we face in that play is about Shylock and the theme of racism. He is depicted so as the readers think he is mean, materialistic and cruel. But I don’t really get why the actions of Bassanio are considered to be virtuous and those of Shylock pragmatic. In fact they both are interested in the economical benefits they can get. In addition, I do believe that Shylock’s a character who was always mocked at because of his nationality. May be in order to become respected by the higher classes of society he decided to earn a lot of money and become powerful. His action toward Antonio reflect all the pain he suffered from during the years. And at the end of the play, it is not Shylock who wins, and the mockers are not punished – instead, he is left without any money and even his daughter ran away from him. He is so tragic. He is unable to defend himself and attack the people back, who disdain him because he is Jewish.
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