The Love Story In Shakespearean Comedy

In this fascinating study, Anthony J. Lewis argues that it is the hero himself, rejecting a woman he apprehends as a threat, who is love's own worst enemy. Drawing upon classical and Renaissance drama, iconography, and a wide range of traditional and feminist criticism, Lewis demonstrates that in Shakespeare the actions and reactions of hero and heroine are contingent upon social setting—father-son relations, patriarchal restrictions on women, and cultural assumptions about gender-appropriate behavior. This compelling analysis shows how Shakespeare deepened the familiar love stores he inherited from New Comedy and Greek romance. Beginning with a penetrating analysis of the hero's contradictory response to sexual attraction, Lewis's discussion traces the heroine's reaction to abandonment and slander, and the lover's subsequent parallel descents into versions of bastardy and death. In arguing that comedy's happy ending is the product of the gender role reversals brought on by their evolving relationship itself, Lewis shows in meticulous detail how sexual stereotypes influence attitudes and restrict behavior. This perceptive discussion of male response to family and of female response to rejection will appeal to Shakespeare scholars and students, as well as to the theater community. Lewis's persuasive argument, that Shakespeare's heroes and heroines are, from the first, three-dimensional figures far removed from the stock types of Plautus, Terence, and his continental sources, will prove a valuable contribution to the ongoing feminist reappraisal of Shakespeare.

An accessible, wide-ranging and informed introduction to Shakespeare's comedies, dark comedies and romances, first published in 2001.

A key work in Shakespeare criticism & one of the pioneering modern studies of romance & romantic love in Shakespearean comedy.

Shakespeare's Comedies of Love is a tribute to Alexander Leggatt, a critic who has shaped the way the world understands Shakespeare and his comedies.

Fair Em' is an Elizabethan-era comedy written in 1590. It explores the story of William the Conqueror, who falls in love with a Danish princess, Blanch, after looking at her portrait. So, he disguises himself as a knight called Sir Robert of Windsor and travels to the Danish court. But things take an unexpected turn when he rejects the princess in favor of Mariana, a captive of the Danish King Zweno.

Nominated for the Carnegie Medal 2011 Shakespeare in Love meets Twelfth Night - A gripping and evocative historical novel by bestselling Celia Rees

Seminar paper from the year 2015 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Literature, Works, grade: 1,7, University of Heidelberg (Anglistisches Seminar), course: Literature & Film – Adapting Shakespeare for the Screen, language: English, abstract: William Shakespeare’s "As You Like It" portrays love and marriage in a comical, amusing manner. The play represents passionate love on the one hand, as well as disguised, blind and even manipulated love on the other hand. Love as a state of being is omnipresent throughout As You Like It. As the play’s major theme, love is illustrated essentially by eight characters who all marry at the end of the play. However, As You Like It cannot be interpreted as a typical love story. In fact, only one twosome, namely Rosalind and Orlando, illustrates a relationship of true love which ends in a happy, mutually agreeable marriage. By falling in love at first sight, they symbolize the typical Shakespearean romantic lovers whose love overcomes any obstacles. The other couples in the play, however, seem to pursue rather different goals. Audrey and Touchstone simply wish to act on their sexual desire, which they cleverly hide behind marriage in order to prevent any “Vorwurf der Unzucht” – a serious matter in Elizabethan times. Phoebe and Silvius are both in love, though not reciprocally. Silvius does love Phoebe; she, however, falls in love with Ganymede and is merely tricked into committing herself to Silvius. Celia and Oliver are simply following the lead of Rosalind and Orlando, but seem to strive for companionship rather than passion or true love. Shakespeare illustrates four different kinds of love in As You Like It in a humorous way. He demonstrates that love and marriage do not necessarily have to go hand in hand and adds comical aspects of love by turning some characters into fools. In this way, Shakespeare builds on the Elizabethan assumptions about love as a sickness, but still validates it as a valuable aspect of a happy marriage.

Examination Thesis from the year 2003 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,3, Bielefeld University, 71 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: "Love" is a central topic in Shakespeare′s plays. Many of his couples have gained a status of immortality: Antony and Cleopatra, Romeo and Juliet, or Beatrice and Benedick are only a few examples. These lovers share one experience, which Lysander in "A Midsummer Night′s Dream" sums up very clearly: "The course of true love never did run smooth ..." (1,1,134) This dilemma is the "raw material" I am interested in. I will take three Shakespearean plays with "love" as their central issue and examine the protagonists′ courses of love in them. This involves the beginning, the obstacles in the way, the reactions to these obstacles and the final failure or success to overcome them. The plays chosen are "Romeo and Juliet", "All′s Well that Ends Well", and "The Taming of the Shrew". In the First Folio edition the first one is classified as belonging to the literary form of "tragedy", the latter two as "comedies". This leads me to the second element in the title, which is "dramatic genre". What Northrop Frye says about comedy is also valid for tragedy: "If a play in a theatre is subtitled ′a comedy′, information is conveyed to a potential audience about what kind of thing to expect, and this type of information has been intelligible since before the days of Aristophanes." One such expectation concerns a play′s mood. Here lies a fundamental difference between tragedy and comedy. Generally speaking, the audience expects that a comedy creates a happy mood and a tragedy a sad one. However, I am not alone finding that "Romeo" is a rather happy play over long stretches, whereas "The Taming" and "All′s Well" are anything but thoroughly happy pieces. In these three dramas Shakespeare only partly fulfils the expectations, which are evoked. Their generic structure does not generate