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Essay / The Effectiveness of Comedy in Conveying Morality to an Audience
In a general sense, morality refers to the ability to decipher the difference between good and bad or right and wrong behavior (Webster) . Morality has proven to be a pervasive theme throughout the life of the theater. By incorporating morality into drama, it gives the audience an opportunity to not only be entertained, but also allows the audience to learn a life lesson through a non-threatening and easy to understand approach. Morality within theater has its roots in tragedy and morality plays, but as comedy continued to develop from the early Greek comedies, to the Comedia dell'arte, to Molière, it showed that she had an increasingly effective voice when speaking to the masses. Comedy's capacity to translate a given moral or life lesson was greater than that of tragedy because of its happy endings and its satirical character; thus making it more appealing to the audience while having the power to effectively convey a moral, theme and/or life lesson. This article will examine the effectiveness of comedy in conveying morals to an audience, also studying Greek comedy, Comedia dell'arte. like La Tartuffe by Molière. Using these examples will provide insight into the effectiveness of comedy's ability to communicate a life lesson to a given audience. Ancient Greek comedy was an influential and remarkably popular form of theater. It was one of the “three main dramatic forms” of classical Greek theater (the others being both tragedy and satyr) (Csaspo 27). The development of Greek comedy was divided into three periods: Old Comedy, Middle Comedy, and New Comedy (Cartwright 1). Due to the lack of artifacts when it comes to new and middle comedy, both forms eventually fade...... middle of paper ......Library, 2005. Print.Bellinger, Martha Fletcher . “The Commedia dell’Arte.” A brief history of the drama. Np: np, 1927. 153-57. Rep. in Theater History. Np: np, nd N. pag. Print.Cartwright, Mark Z. "Greek Comedy". Encyclopedia of ancient history. Np: np, 2013. 1-5. Print. Ley, Graham. A brief introduction to ancient Greek theater. Rev. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2006. Print. Meagher, Jennifer. “Commedia Dell’arte.” Heilbrun Chronology of Art History. New York: np, nd 1-5. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Internet. November 6, 2013. .WD Howarth and Ron W. Tobin. “Molière: a playwright and his audience.” The French Review: 1-2. JSTOR. Internet. November 7. 2013. .