Thursday, March 28, 2013

What are the names of the tragicomiedies or problem plays written by William Shakespeare?

All's Well and Measure for
Measure
are considered tragicomedies, or problem plays, but also included
would be The Merchant of Venice. Plus the four late plays,
Cymbeline, Pericles, The Winter's Tale, and The
Tempest
are often included under the term problem
plays.


Actually the four late plays all fall under the
Romantic tradition and thematically share the loss of a daughter.  The first three deal
with the loss of and gain of a daughter at the end.  In The
Tempest
, Propero is willing to "lose" his daughter because in the end, he
will gain.


The problem plays are called problem plays
because they deal with problem issues.  They are usually classified as comedies because
they follow the rule of comedy.  They begin with a "bad" situation which gets better at
the end.  In other words, the situation goes from bad to
good.


Since Shakespeare tried various things in his writing
and didn't conform to the "rules", it is often difficult to classify his plays. For
example, Troilus and Cressida can classified as one of the
Greek/Roman plays or plays influenced by Plutarch's
Lives
.

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