4c. Introduction

In the previous section, we explored the genre of tragedy. Its polar opposite is the comedy. It is defined as a dramatic performance with a light and humorous tone and in which the characters ultimately triumph over adversity. If you want to make a blunt statement, you could say that where tragedies always end in death, comedies always end in weddings.

The introduction to our previous section already contains most of the information you need to understand comedies. These, too, are divided into acts and scenes, and can contain dialogue, monologues and asides. An additional technique that sometimes happens in theatre, and that we will look at in our text fragment, is the breaking of the fourth wall, which is when the players momentarily step outside the play, as it were, and address the audience directly.

Watch the videos below to get an idea of why studying A Midsummer Night's Dream is a good idea and what the story is about.