Namangan davlat universiteti ingliz filologiyasi fakulteti amaliy ingliz tili kafedrasi

 
More than
 
four hundred 
years after his birth the plays of Shakespeare are performed even more often than they were during 

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his lifetime. They are performed on the stage, in the movies, and on television. They are read by 
millions of people all over the world.

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LESSON 4 
SHAKESPEARE’S COMEDIES 
Plan 
1.
Style 
2.
Influence 
3.
Critical reputation 
4.
Works 
 
Shakespeare’s comedies did not establish a lasting tradition in the theatre, as did those 
written by Ben Jonson. Jonson’s plays portray the everyday life of their time with the exaggerated 
satirical characters. Shakespeare’s comedies are composed on opposite principles. The scenes of his 
comedies are usually set in some imaginary country, and the action is based on stories that are 
almost fairy-tails. But the characters placed in these non-realistic settings and plots, are true-to-life 
and are depicted with the deep knowledge of human psychology for which Shakespeare is famous. 
Each comedy has a main plot and one or two sub-plots, and sometimes sub-plots attract even more 
attention than the main plots. The comic characters of these plays always have English colouring, 
even if the scene is laid in other countries. 
All these plays are written in easy-flowing verse and light, tripping prose. The text is full of 
jokes and puns, but some of the texts contain topical allusions, which are hard to understand for the 
readers of our time. All the comedies tell of love and harmony, at first disturbed, and finally 
restored. In them Shakespeare supports the right of a human being to free choice in love, despite the 
existing conventions and customs. More often Shakespeare embodies this tendency in female 
characters. His typical comedy heroines are brave, noble, free in speech, and enthusiastic. 
Another motif stressed in the comedies is the contrast between appearance and reality. 
Shakespeare makes his readers understand the importance of self-knowledge. In the complicated 
plots of Shakesperian comedies the heroes and heroines often select wrong partners because they 
have formed wrong opinions about their own characters, that is they do not know or understand 
their own self and feelings. But their mistakes are treated good-humourdly and the comedies end 
happily, because at the end of the plays the characters understand themselves and those they love.