TOPIC: AN ANALYSIS BETWEEN COMEDY AND TRAGEDY: A COMPARISON OF THE EFFECT OF TRAGIC AND COMIC ENDINGS IN THE WORKS OF ART IN CLASSICS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

Abstract

The study aims at exploring the notion that tragedies can be more influential and impactful in comparison to those works of art that deal with humour. The theoretical framework of the study is taken from Aristotle’s ‘Poetics’ where he highlighted the importance of tragedies and according to Aristotle, the comparison for supremacy may be about tragedy and epic but not about tragedy and comedy. Method of data collection was qualitative in nature in which personal interviews were conducted as the research tool. The population of the study were 10 professors at university level from three institutions who were teaching in English Literature discipline.  The findings of the data through responses reveal that the deep impressions on the minds of the readers are mainly the tragic ones depicted through tragedies in comparison to the comic effects that the comedies contain. The study might be helpful in the re-assessment of the greatest classics of tragic literature in which tragedy acts as a vehicle of social reform.