Tragicomedy

Features of tragicomedy

Tragicomedies incorporate the features of both tragedies as well as comedies to create a blend that is serious and moving, as well as lighthearted and funny.

Tragic hero

The tragic hero is a type of protagonist that is a convention of most tragedies.

The tragic hero possesses typical heroic traits such as bravery, kindness, virtue, honour and the desire to do good. However, they also possess a hamartia, or a fatal flaw, that usually leads to their downfall. This ensures that the tragic hero is able to earn the sympathy of their audience, as they are typically 'good' characters who suffer due to one of their shortcomings or a lapse of judgement.

In tragicomedies, the hamartia may, in some cases, be humorous and cause the hero to get stuck in unfortunate, yet ridiculous, circumstances.

Hamartia: A flaw or shortcoming in the tragic hero that ultimately is the reason for their downfall.

Sarcasm

Since tragicomedies attempt to make gloomy events lighthearted and funny, the specific type of humour that these works use is dark humour, sarcasm and irony.

In the tragicomedy Waiting for Godot (1953) by Samuel Beckett (1906-1989), sarcasm is frequently used to offset the dark and gloomy atmosphere of the play. Here is a humourous quote from the play:

Funny characters

In tragicomedies, there are many side characters who are only there to provide comic relief. While the tragic hero often has to deal with the misfortunes in the plot, these side characters, often with their commentary, add humour to these situations.

Bathos

While most tragedies end by invoking pathos, tragicomedies do the complete opposite. They end in bathos.

Pathos: A literary device where writers deliberately try to evoke strong emotions of empathy and identification between the readers and their protagonists, with the use of certain word choices, meaningful language, characterisation etc.

Bathos: a literary device where there is a sudden shift in the mood of a story, from serious and elevated to funny and absurd.

Tragicomedies create a build-up of tension and anticipation whilst leading up to the climax. However, this tension is quickly resolved by a sudden shift in tone, where the situation is downscaled from being serious and significant to silly and ridiculous. This leads to a sort of anti-climax, where the reader's tension and anticipation for a climax amount to nothing.

Tragicomedies achieve bathos by inserting jokes in between intense and climactic scenes. Bathos can also be achieved by inserting a Deus ex Machina, a plot device where an intense climactic scene is suddenly resolved by a simple and funny solution, leading to a happy ending.

Contradictions

Juxtapositions are at the heart of tragicomedies. Gloomy and dark subjects are contrasted with absurdity and humour.

Catch-22 (1961) is a tragicomedy novel by Joseph Heller (1923-1999) that details the horrors and absurdities of war. For example, the protagonist Yossarian writes to his friends and family telling them that he is going on a dangerous mission, and then promises to write when he's back. However, he forgets to do so, and from the reader's perspective, it is funny to think that Yossarian's friends and family think that he had died at war when he was, in fact, alive.

Exaggeration

In tragicomedies, often trivial and insignificant issues are exaggerated and glorified to make them seem like they are extremely intense and climactic. The use of sophisticated and lofty language and epic-style narration to describe seemingly silly and ridiculous events adds to the humour of tragicomedies.

Chaos

Tragicomedies involve a lot of chaos and confusion that leads to moments that are both unfortunate yet absurd and ridiculous.

The play Twelfth Night (1602) by William Shakespeare (1564-1616) features twins Viola and Sebastian, who are separated in a shipwreck. The play features many cases of mistaken identities where characters are often confused with others, causing chaos and confusion in their relationships and romantic affairs.

Wordplay

As is typical with comedy, tragicomedies experiment with words and grammar to add humour to simple normal language. This takes the form of witty repartee, puns or malapropism, that is, the accidental use of incorrect words.

Universal themes

Works of tragicomedy have universal themes such as justice, honour, love, etc., that drive the plotline of the story.

John Dryden's (1631- 1700) Marriage à la Mode (1673) is a restoration comedy that has two plotlines with characters that are struggling to get married to their love interests due to various unfortunate yet absurd and often humourous circumstances.

Happy ending

The biggest difference between a tragedy and a tragicomedy is that most tragicomedies do not end with the death of the protagonist, that is, the main character that the readers are supposed to sympathise with.

In tragicomedies, there is a moment of climax where it seems like all hope is lost and the tragic hero might die. However, in most tragicomedies, a Deus ex Machina is used to achieve a happy ending.

Social commentary

Writers of tragicomedies aim to make the readers laugh at the absurdities occurring in the story whilst also making them think. As is typical in the satire genre, writers have often used tragicomedies to criticise individuals, governments, religions, traditions and society in a humourous and witty way.

Satire: Fictional literature that uses wit, sarcasm, irony, imitation and exaggeration to ridicule or shame an individual, company, government or even society itself. It is a form of social commentary that makes use of humour to draw attention towards a certain subject.

Types of tragicomedies

Throughout their existence, the tragicomedy genre has been improvised by writers from various time periods and literary movements. Here is a table that splits the tragicomedy genre into four different types, based on the different forms it has acquired over time.

Tragicomedy: examples

Here are some notable examples of literary works that classify as tragicomedies.

The Merchant of Venice (1605) by William Shakespeare

The Merchant of Venice is one of the most popular tragicomedies that has all the conventions of the genre.

Antonio is the tragic hero of the play. He comes across as gentle, good-natured, loyal and giving, as he is willing to sacrifice his own life in order to help his friend Bassanio win the heart of his love interest, Portia. However, in an attempt to help his friend, Antonio blindly accepts a loan from Shylock in return for a pound of his flesh as interest, despite being penniless. This brings forth the central conflict of the play.

In the climax scene, just when it appears that Antonio is going be skinned for a pound of his flesh, Shakespeare expertly employs a Deus ex Machina where Portia, disguised as a male doctor, nullifies Shylock's contract and saves Antonio's life. The scene is both absurd and humourous and evokes a sense of bathos following an intense and climactic scene.

Waiting for Godot (1953) by Samuel Beckett

Waiting for Godot is a play where two characters, Vladimir and Estragon, are awaiting a man named Godot by a leafless tree. By the second act of the play, the tree has grown quite a few leaves. However, the man named Godot has not yet arrived. Throughout the play, Vladimir and Estragon have many humorous conversations, mindless activities and interesting encounters during their wait. In the end, a boy comes to tell them that Godot will not arrive, after which Vladimir and Estragon consider suicide. However, they do not have a rope with which to hang themselves.

ESTRAGON: All the dead voices.
VLADIMIR: They make a noise like wings.
ESTRAGON: Like leaves.
VLADIMIR: Like sand.
ESTRAGON: Like leaves.

(Act 1)

The Winter's Tale (1611) by William Shakespeare

This complex plot is structured in a way where the first three acts of the play contain tragic elements such as misfortune and death. However, the last two acts of the play evoke a strong sense of bathos by downplaying the tension created in the first half by incorporating comic elements like misunderstandings and chaos. This blend of struggles, sadness, death, humour, songs, romance and reunion in the play confirms its label as a tragicomedy.