On the face of it, romantic comedy is a celebration of youth, love, laughter, poetic justice, and happy endings – and it seems there could be nothing wrong in that. But then reality creeps in, to remind us that youth can be selfish and thoughtless; that love can be obsessive, oppressive, or self-destructive; that laughter can be mindless or cruel; that what goes by the name of justice can be fraudulent, self-righteous, or vindictive; and that happy endings can be hollow, or a matter of perspective. We will look closely at how three of Shakespeare’s plays draw heavily on these generic elements of romantic comedy to give audiences what they came for, while at the same time subjecting those elements to various kinds of irony and scepticism that raise deep questions about their real significance.
In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the sense that the comic world is a charmed space, in which all will magically come right in the end, is taken literally. But far from being all sweetness and light, the play raises profound questions about whom that magic serves, what its limits are, and on what terms it offers a happy ending. In The Merchant of Venice and Twelfth Night, magic gives way to fortune as the comic force guiding the romantic heroes towards their charmed destiny; but questions about the nature of this fortune, and attention to those who are excluded from its charmed circle, are pressed on us to such an extent that at times it seems comedy has reached its limits and will tip into tragedy.
In asking who wins and who loses in Shakespeare’s comedies, we will give close attention to the following opposing pairs (amongst others) whose perspectives the various plays bring into focus: men and women, young and old, high-born and upstarts, insiders and outsiders. We will ask how these oppositions intersect, and whether a common thread runs through them.
The course will involve extensive close reading of the set texts, so students must bring copies of the plays to every class (including the first), and should also become as familiar as possible with them in advance.
What our students say
"Dr Paul Suttie's enthusiasm and passion for Shakespeare's plays was infectious."
