What type of plays did Shakespeare write?

Answer 1

Traditionally, his plays have been put into the categories of Histories (stories taken from English history), Tragedies (stories that end badly for the main characters), and Comedies (stories which end well for the main characters). Sometimes people invent new categories for the plays which do not fit into those three. It's also fair to say that Shakespeare's plays do not as a rule have realistic dialogue; the characters speak often in heightened poetic dialogue. Nor are the plots naturalistic--some are fantasies, and others have a folk-tale quality.

Answer 2

In the first officially published versions of Shakespeare's plays, known as The First Folio, the plays were categorised as Histories, Comedies and Tragedies.

The full title of this volume is: Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies.

Later critics have called some of the plays "Tragicomedies", "Romances" or "Problem Plays" because they do not readily fit into the original three categories.

In this context "Romance" is not the same as "Love Story."

See the related question links below.
Shakespeare did not put his plays into the categories Histories, Comedies and Tragedies. His publishers did. It has proved to be a rather unsatisfactory classification, and there is considerable inconsistency between the way the plays were classified even among Shakespeare's publishers. For example, Henry VI Part 3 and Richard III are called Histories in the Folio and Tragedies in the Quartos, whereas King Lear was called a Tragedy in the Folio and a History in the Quarto.

Answer 3

Shakespeare's most famous plays are comedies and tragedies. He also wrote several history plays, which dramatize and recount famous historical stories, and two romance plays - The Winter's Tale and The Tempest.

Answer 4

When the first collection of Shakespeare's plays was published in 1623 it was called "Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories and Tragedies." All of his plays which they had on hand were sorted into these three categories on the following basis: If the title was the name of an English King, it was a history. No matter that Richard III had already been published as "The Tragedie of Richard III". The tragedies were all those that ended badly for the protagonists, including plays drawn from history like Macbeth, Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra. Troilus and Cressida was included since although the characters were not actually dead, they were miserable. Everything else was a comedy. So varied are these plays that scholars have sought to recategorize some of them into new categories like "Problem Plays" or "Romances". The Romance category comprises the four late plays The Tempest, Cymbeline, The Winter's Tale and Pericles. Although these plays have elements in common (particularly in theme), they show enormous differences in structure: The Tempest takes place in one day (follows the unity of time), whereas The Winter's Tale and Pericles show both the birth and adulthood of the same character; Cymbeline has a complex interlaced plot, The Tempest has a group of very simple plots, and Pericles is episodic.