The way to tell if a Shakespeare play is a comedy or a tragedy is to look at the ending. If, at the end of the play, most of the cast is lying on the stage dead, then you are watching a tragedy; if, at the end of the play, everyone is still alive and a whole bunch of people are getting married (or those who used to be unhappily married are now happily married) then it's a comedy.
Some plays are hard to fit into a category. Troilus and Cressida ends with everyone unhappy, the lovers are not married, but on the other hand nobody except Hector is dead. Cymbeline ends with the evil queen dying but with Imogen and Postumus reconciling.
So while you may think that comedy is funny and tragedy is sad, these ideas apply only to modern works, not Shakespeare, as follows:
Modern Definition: The comedy is designed to make the audience laugh and the tragedy is designed to make the audience cry (or at least go very quiet)
Shakespearean Definition: Comedy ends with a marriage, Tragedy ends with a death.
A Shakespeare comedy's plotline is generally funny and confused. Tragedies usually end with the death of every main character.
Tragedy: Romeo and Juliet
Comedy: The Comedy of Errors
The biggest difference between tragedy and comedy is that comedy makes you laugh where tragedy does not. Tragedy is something bad that happens so one will feel sad and upset when they experience a tragedy.
A comedy is funny (ha! ha!), and a tragedy involves misfortune and death. That applies in all cases, not just to plays that Shakespeare wrote.
A comedy is funny, a tragedy is sad.
Tragedy is sad, comedy is funny, or satirical.
In comedies everyone gets married; in tragedies everyone dies.
Comedy is generally funny. Tragedy is generally REALLY sad.
Comedy plays of shakespeare have a happy ending while tragedies, the hero of the play will end up brokend or defeted mentally or physicaly
In Shakespeare's plays, the major difference between a tragedy and a comedy is that the main character dies in a tragedy. A Shakespearean comedy can be very tragic and depressing, but so long as the main character remains alive, it is not actually a tragedy.
No, the concepts of tragedy and comedy were well-known to the Greeks two thousand years before Shakespeare lived.
The chick died at the end, the difference between comedy and tragedy is that someone dies in a tragedy.
No, Pericles is a comedy written by Shakespeare.
A Shakespearian comedy always ends on laughter however a Shakespearian tragedy ends with death.
snot head
At the end of the play you see whether or not the main characters are still standing. If it's a comedy, they should be on their feet and getting married to each other.
No, it was a comedy.
A tragedy normally centers on a single individual.
Uses an extraordinary hero.
usually features an extraordinary hero.
a comedy is funny whereas a tragedy is not
The difference between classic comedy and tragedy is a difference in outcome. Tragedies end with the destruction of most of the characters, and usually their death. Comedies end with happiness and often marriage for most of the characters.
It is a comedy by William Shakespeare
Comedy, history, tragedy.
basically the only difference is the ending. a comedy will have a happy ending i.e. wedding, whereas a tragedy will have a sad ending usually the death of the main character. either one can have funny or sad parts throughout but the ending is what makes it a comedy or a tragedy.
Comedy, tragedy, and history
They are: Historical, Tragedy and Comedy.