Comedy of Manners / Restoration Comedy:
It is a
type of realistic, satirical comedy of the Restoration period (1660–1710) that
questions and comments upon the manners and social conventions of a greatly
sophisticated, artificial society. It is in opposition to the romantic comedy
of William Shakespeare. With the arrival of King Charles II, the theaters were
reopened and new theatrical performances began which were later on named as
Comedy of Manners. These plays presented the manners and ideals of the
aristocratic society. Contemporary topics like religion, politics, love affairs
were the subject matters of such comedies. They appealed and entertained the
servant class, middle class and aristocratic class of England. John Dryden was
the first writer to write Comedy of Manners with his 'Wild Gallant', which was
a failure. He wrote several other Comedies of Manners also which were more
successful. Following were the characteristics of Comedy of Manners.
1.
Unemotional treatment of sex
2.
Rich with wit and satire, appeals
to our intellect.
3.
Heroines are more interesting than
heroes.
4.
Fashion of the time is reflected.
5.
The manners of only the upper
class people are presented realistically.
6.
Realism, social analysis and
satire
7.
Flower girls, immorality politics,
religion and love affairs
8.
Witty dialogues were given much
importance than plots.
No comments:
Post a Comment