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Shakespearean comedies

William Shakespeare's plays come in many forms. There are the histories, tragedies, comedies, and tragicomedies. Among the most popular are the comedies, which are full of laughter, irony, satire, and wordplay.

Comedies treat subjects lightly, meaning they don't treat seriously such things as love. Shakespeare's comedies often use puns, metaphors, and insults to provoke "thoughtful laughter." The action is often strained by artificiality, especially elaborate and contrived endings. Disguises and mistaken identities are often very common.

Comedies had happy endings - usually with the marriage of unmarried characters, and a lighthearted style to the entire play. Shakespearean comedies often had:

  • A struggle of young lovers to overcome difficulty that is often presented by elders.
  • Separation and unification.
  • Mistaken identities.
  • A clever servant.
  • Heightened tensions, often within a family.
  • Multiple, intertwining plots.
  • Frequent use of puns.

A further subgenre of the comedy is the tragicomedy - a serious play with a happy ending. For example, Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale could be considered a tragicomedy because it reaches a tragic climax but ends with a happy conclusion. Here is a list of Shakespearean comedies:


  • All's Well That Ends Well
  • As You Like It
  • The Comedy of Errors
  • Cymbeline
  • Love's Labour's Lost
  • Measure for Measure
  • The Merchant of Venice
  • The Merry Wives of Windsor
  • A Midsummer Night's Dream
  • Much Ado About Nothing
  • Pericles Prince of Tyre
  • Taming of the Shrew
  • The Tempest
  • Twelfth Night
  • The Two Gentlemen of Verona
  • The Winter's Tale


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