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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
This 3 page paper discusses Richard Levin’s dark perspective on the comedies, and compares it to C.L. Barber’s “festive” approach. Bibliography lists 2 sources.
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3 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_HV2crshk.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
a critique by Barber. Discussion Lets start with Barber, very briefly. He writes of Shakespeares "festive" comedies, and says, among other observations, that Shakespeare took much of his inspiration from
various English holidays (Barber). He also says that he the plays have a rhythm to them that suggests the harmonies of nature (Barber). In short, his idea of the comedies
is one of great gaiety, joy, light-heartedness and spirited fun, much of it connected with the idea of holiday celebrations. That is, he sees the comedies as the type of
entertainment that gives audiences the same feeling of festivity that they experience at Christmastime, for example. Levin, however, takes a diametrically opposing view, and his is the piece we want
to concentrate on. He gives Barber his due, saying that the festive and romantic aspects of the plays have been extremely well covered by others, but the anti-romantic view has
barely been mentioned, let alone used to describe the comedies. He also claims that there is a "current discontent with romantic-festive criticism" because criticism of that sort "relies too exclusively
on the melodramatic contours of the play" (Levin 14). That is, the play moves from unhappy to happy; from singles to couples; from disarray to order; and marks a
victory of "Us over Them" (Levin 14). He further argues that 20th century critics have tended to follow a sort of guideline for their work, in which they tend to
divide the characters into groups, and to sympathize with the group that is the most virtuous (Levin 14). This limits both understanding of the play and useful criticism of it.
Levin proposes to come at the comedies from a diametrically opposed direction: he suggests that critics like Barber who see a clear-cut distinction among the characters miss the complexity and
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