"Come, here's the map": Charting Shakespeare's Genres

             In 1623, 17 years after Shakespeare died, his friends and colleagues published what is called “The First Folio,” a collection of 36 plays.  They grouped them under three genres, or categories: Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies. In modern times, plays were shifted from one category to another, and one added to create a fourth genre: Romance. Some of the plays have been dubbed by various editors as “Problem Plays,” in part, because of uncertainty over which genre characterizes them. This post is a mapping of Shakespeare’s genres. Here’s a panoramic view of what distinguishes them:

                                                                                    SHAKESPEARE’S GENRES

                                                                                           © Susanna Rich, 2020

GENRE	TRAGEDY	COMEDY	ROMANCE	HISTORY
Characters	Rulers	Daughters, Siblings	Travelers	British Royals
Themes	Pride/Hubris	Love and Marriage	Journeys, Bereavement	Power/Continuity
Communication	Deceit	Secrecy, Manipulation	Retreat	Confrontation
Stress Response	Freeze	Flight	Forfeit	Fight
Seven Deadlies	Anger/Pride/Envy	Lust/Sloth	Gluttony	Greed/Envy
Cardinal Virtues	Courage	Prudence/Loyalty	Loyalty	Justice
Identity	Stuck identity	Mistaken identity	Identity Loss	Changing
Choices	Monolithic	Diversity	Mono vs Multi	Monolithic
Primary Setting	Throne and Bed Rooms	Woods	Sea	Field/Castle
Emotion	Fear, Grief	Desire	Hope, Imagination	Distrust, Will
Expression	Deep/Weeping	Light/Laughter	Mixed	Dark
Nature	Supernatural	Natural	Supernatural/magic	Natural
Shadow Strategies	Takes Over	Humored	Punished/Redeemed	Conquered
Death	Suicides/Murders	Life/sex	Resurrection	Murder/Violence
Gender Treatment	Patriarchal	Switching	Questioning	Patriarchal
Attitude	Optimistic	Pessimistic	Optimistic	Optimistic
Cognition	Focused	Distracted	Delusional	Focused
Virgins	Killed/suicide	Married off	Saved	Owned/bartered
Crones	Maligned	Missing	Missing	Maligned
Ending	Blood Bath	Marriages	Revenants	Battle/Crowning

                    Many of the distinguishing features are self-explanatory. A counter-intuitive category of the genres is “Attitude.”  Tragedies end blood baths, as some Histories do.  What’s optimistic about that?  And Comedies end in Marriages—misogamists (marriage haters) aside, what’s pessimistic about that?  The attitude addressed in this row is that of the protagonists.  In Tragedies, the protagonist(s) believe(s) that he or she can defy social and personal limitations to assume power and glory.  For example, in Hamlet, Claudius believes that killing his brother will assure him power and glory; as do the Macbeth’s in killing King Duncan.  That holds true for the History plays.  Most everyone’s motivation is to “get to the top,” despite the odds. Richard III (in Shakespeare’s interpretation) kills his nephews to assume the throne.  Falstaff, in the Henry IV plays, is both a comic and tragic figure, who assumes he will always have Hal’s royal favor.

            The History plays are limited to British history.  The Roman and Greek history plays are placed in Tragedies, with the Cymbeline, based on the Celtic King listed as a Romance.

            Shakespeare hybridizes some genres to create special dramatic effects.  Romeo and Juliet is structured in the beginning as a Comedy—two lovers, defying social strictures, cleave to each other.  In a Comedy, the lovers prevail and marry.  No matter how many times I read or watch a theater or film adaptation of the play, I keep hoping that it will end differently.  This is because, structurally, the audience is meant to anticipate the classic Comedy ending.  But Shakespeare turns it into a Tragedy, with a blood bath that includes Paris, Romeo, and Juliet.  And I will never forgive him for that.

            Then there are the Problem Plays—so called for either of two reasons: one is the difficulty of placing them into a particular category.  Troilus and Cressida, again, a play that starts out as Comedy, was called a Tragedy in the First Folio.  Now it’s often called a Comedy.  The Merchant of Venice, although it does end in marriages, as Comedies do, has a most tragic figure at its core. 

            The second reason for calling a work a “Problem Play,” is that, according to The Encyclopedia Britannica definition, it deals “with controversial social issues in a realistic manner, to expose social ills, and to stimulate thought and discussion on the part of the audience.”  The Merchant of Venice, encountering anti-Semitism, is a Problem play on both counts—category placement and social commentary.  So is The Taming of the Shrew, which explores gender bias.  Measure for Measure focuses on the tension between political and spiritual values.  All’s Well that Ends Well exposes, in Marilyn Stasio’s review, “the dehumanizing effects of living in a time of war.”

            Navigating Shakespeare’s works, use the Structuralist’s binoculars, as this post does. Notice the skill with which Shakespeare hybridizes and renews the genres, themselves.

Works Cited:

Cover Art: https://www.amazon.com/Drama-Comedy-Tragedy-Masks-Theatre/dp/B00MOUGK6C

Text:

https://www.britannica.com/art/problem-play

https://variety.com/2011/legit/reviews/all-s-well-that-ends-well-1117945547/

Because I Can Teach:  

“Character: (4) Development in Shakespeare’s Comedies”:

https://becauseicanteach.blogspot.com/2020/03/character-4-development-in-shakespeares.html