Endgame Case - How Can a Tragedy Be Funny? Discuss Using one Modern Play

How can a tragedy be funny? Discuss using one modern play

According to Aristotle a classical tragedy is “the imitation of an action that is serious and also, as having magnitude, complete in itself”. A Tragedy typically includes incidents arousing pity and fear, where with to accomplish the catharsis of such emotions. The elements of a classical tragedy include: The tragic hero who is not perfect, is in some way morally superior to most of the audience, but this hero also makes an error of judgement which often causes the hero to believe he can outwit fate or violate a moral law. This leads in turn to a catastrophe which results in a reversal of fortune from happiness to disaster. In saying this as serious as some tragedies can be humour can also be an important element which can be seen in Samuel Beckett’s modern drama “Endgame”. Even though Samuel Beckett would not describe his modern drama as a tragedy nor would Aristotle, Beckett has self-consciously used elements of classical tragedy within this drama.

Tragicomedy has become the most dominant theatrical genre in the last half century thanks to Beckett. The one act play “Endgame” is based around four characters Hamm, Clov (Hamm’s servant) and Nagg and Nell (Hamm’s parents) and can be classed as a tragicomedy. Each character is far from normal and they also have a disability. Clov cannot sit down, Hamm is blind and cannot stand up and Hamm’s parents are legless from the beginning you can see the elements of humour creeping in for example Hamm’s Mother Nell and his father Nagg live in dustbins. This is a scenario which is not seen in everyday life. From the beginning audiences can begin to see that humour will be included in this play from the opening scene especially. Nagg and Nell who live in separate dustbins tell each other jokes and also think back on their romantic past, however Nagg barely reacts when his wife dies. For example Nagg told the joke of a Jewish man who made trousers. It took him 3 months to finish a pair of pants but when they were done better than gods attempt in creating the world in 6 days. It shows Nagg makes humour out of the world around him because who else would compare a pair of pants to the entire creation of the world we live in. This humour added lightens the situation for the audience. As the situation in front of the audience isn’t the most joyful of atmospheres and as this play can be classed as tragedy it shows that pieces of humour included can work and bits and pieces throughout the play can be funny. Another incident that occurs is when a flea gets trapped in Clov's pants and he attempts to kill by pouring insecticide powder down his pants. This does create comedy in the play but it is a low form of comedy according to Aristotle. He says "Comedy aims at representing men as worse,