SENTIMENTAL COMEDY
Introduction:
“Life is a comedy to those who
think and a tragedy for those who feel.”
―
There are different types of comedy in English literature.
1. Romantic
Comedy of Shakespeare
2. Comedy of
Humours
3. Comedy of
Manners
4. Sentimental
Comedy
5. Anti-Sentimental
Comedy
During the 18th century, a new form of drama emerged in English literature which was later on known as The Sentimental Comedy. It was a reaction against the Comedy of Manners which was popular during the Restoration Period. (17th century)
The Comedy of
Manners was characterized by light-hearted fun, rude and severe dialogues. The
aim of the writers of Comedy of Manners was to make fun of holy characters.
Middle-class
morality was ridiculed and the writers made an attempt to bring virtue and
virtuous characters were satirized. The Sentimental Comedy of the age was a
reaction against the Comedy of Manners.
In this
comedy, laughter and humour were completely driven out and in place of comedy,
sadness was introduced. The Sentimental Comedy lacked the true spirit of
comedy, comparatively.
Characteristics Sentimental Comedy:
·
Humour was replaced by pathos and humorous situations in
pathetic situations.
·
Middle-class life characterized by virtue without vices.
·
The writers of Sentimental Comedy were moralists and wanted to
teach morals through the medium of their plays.
·
It provided moral lectures in place of entertainment.
·
It appeals our heart more than the mind.
·
It was characterized by emotions of pity and sympathy and lacked
wit or humour.
·
It was serious from beginning to end and was entirely removed
from the realities of life.
·
Its characters were not real men and women, but the production
of minds of playwrights.
·
The keen observations and realistic touches which had always
brightened the earlier comedy completely disappeared.
Examples of Sentimental Comedy:
1. Sir Richard Steele’s The Conscious Lovers (1722)
2. Oliver Goldsmith’s She Stoops to Conquer (1773)
3. Richard Sheridan’s The Rivals (1775)
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