Shakespeare

  Although we have read more comedies than tragedies or histories this semester, I have suggested that at key moments many, if not all, of Shakespeare’s comedies could veer off to tragedy were it not for a single, saving event. As a result, the possibility of a tragic outcome produces dramatic tension that reinforces the sense of relief that occurs at a comedy’s conclusion. Identify key moments in As You Like It, Twelfth Night, and one comedy or tragedy from earlier in the semester wherein a single event might have led or did lead to a tragic rather than comic outcome. For each play you discuss, explain the significance for the play of that specific action that, in the present case, leads to comic resolution. Based on Titus Andronicus and Richard III is the process reversible for tragedy—that is, can one identify a key moment in that tragedy wherein a comic rather than tragic resolution could be achieved?