As You Like It Act V, Scene iv

"Proceed, proceed: we will begin these rites, as we do trust they'll end, in true delights." - Duke Senior.

For this blog, I am going to answer a question found on p. 1119 of my text book.

Is the play a tragedy or comedy, a melodrama or a farce?  If a comedy, is it primarily romantic or satiric?  Does it mingle aspects of these types of drama?  How important to experiencing the drama is the audience's awareness of the classification of the play?


This play is considered a comedy rather than a tragedy.  In Shakespeare's time, comedy did not mean something that was to be funny.  Instead, comedy referred to something happy, or something that ended joyfully.  The play As You Like It ends with lots of marriages and a dance.  Also, any conflicts between characters were resolved by the end of the play.  Since the play was not sad or depressing, and it ended in something very happy, it is considered a comedy.  This comedy could further be characterized as romantic.  This is because the play literally ended with three marriages.  It wasn't satiric because I was definitely not sitting there laughing when I was reading the play.  Experiencing the drama is very important when it comes to the audience's awareness of the classification of the play.  One must truly be immersed in the play and experience it as if he or she was actually in it to be able to classify it.  Without being immersed in the play, one would not be able to realize that it is appealing to the emotions and that it is in turn a melodrama.  Then, if one didn't really care about the characters who died, he or she might not really feel as if it were a tragedy.