Not all plays evoke the same kind of reaction from an audience. Some make you laugh while others make you feel sad as you empathize with the characters. Different categories, or genres, of plays and screenplays create different reactions.
Do you want your audience to feel happy and cheerful at the end of your play, or is more important to make them think and feel deeply about your play's message? The category of play you choose to write can make a big difference in the audience's overall reaction. Study the tabs below to review the differences between plays written as comedies and plays written as tragedies.
A comedy is essentially a dramatic work with a happy ending. Comedies are usually funny, but not always. In fact, the only real requirement for a comedy is that things end well for most of the characters. Comedies often use character flaws as a tool for creating humorous situations that have a happy resolution.
Earlier in this course, you may have read the play Porcelain and Pink by F. Scott Fitzgerald. In the play, a young man thinks he is speaking to his girlfriend from outside her bedroom window. In fact, he is speaking to his girlfriend's sister from outside the bathroom window. Porcelain and Pink is considered a comedy because it is based on a humorous situation that is resolved without causing any of its characters a significant amount of suffering or unhappiness.
Question
What literary devices work well in comedies?
Now that you've reviewed the key differences between a comedy and a tragedy, which will you write? What tone or effect do you want your script to have on the audience?
