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Differences between Tragedy and Comedy

The key difference between comedy and tragedy is found at the drama’s ending (Johnston par 1). A comedy usually has a happy and vivacious ending while a tragedy is characterized by a depressing and sad ending. A tragedy play covers a sequence of grief-stricken events caused by or happening to its heroine or hero. On the other hand, a plot of a comedy often generates laughter in the audience. In other words, the plot of a tragedy comprises of a grave action that creates feelings of fear and pity, while the plot of a comedy concentrate on an ordinary problem that is commonly faced by people (Johnston par 5). A comedy does not necessarily have to arouse or provoke laughter; it is normally a story of worthy individuals who succeed.

Much Ado about Nothing is a funny comedy that ends with a number of marriages and no deaths. Some of the prices that characters of Much Ado about Nothing had to pay to make things work at the end are as follows: Claudio had to be in agreement with Hero’s father demand that he marry Antonio’s daughter for having “supposedly” caused the death of Hero. However, during the wedding the bride turned out to be Hero and Claudio was overjoyed for having married love of his life (Massachusetts Institute of Technology Scene III). Beatrice and Benedick had to pay the price of declaring their love in public despite the fact that Benedick had vowed never to marry at the beginning. Don John’s evils plans were discovered and a force was sent to capture him for he had fled the city after tarnishing the name of Hero. Don John planned an evil plan in order to embarrass his half-brother, where he used Margret and Borachio, his associate, to falsely accuse Hero of infidelity.  To pay his price, Don John was captured and was to be punished after honeymoon of newlyweds. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology Scene III) After some characters have paid their prices, the story has a happy ending especially for the main characters or comic heroes. The comic heroes in this story were Claudio and Hero, and Beatrice and Benedick. But from the look of the things in the story, Hero was the comic hero of the story. 

A number of changes could have been made to turn the Much Ado about Nothing comedy into a tragedy. Before making changes to the plot, I would have maintained the battlefield setting and the whole story would have taken place in the battlefield.  To make the story a tragedy, I would have made changes in the plot in such a way that a sequence of events in the story would have led to the deaths of the main characters. Another change that would have made the story a tragedy is by making Don John the main character and makes sure that by the end of the story he dies. His death will be set in such a way that his downfall and suffering would be overcome by the forces he was struggling against. Just like how he was to be punished for his evil plans, in the tragic story he would have been brought down by his own internal flaws. As the main tragic hero, he would suffer a lot in the story before meeting his tragic death at the end of the story. To make this plot a tragedy, I would have made Don John the most daring character that undergoes a series of suffering because of conflict with his half-brother, before meeting his tragic death.

Works Cited

Johnston, Ian. Dramatic structure: Comedy and Tragedy. 14 June 2012. Web. 15 December 2014. <http://www.siue.edu/~ejoy/eng208NotesOnComedyAndTragedy.htm>.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "Much Ado about Nothing." 31 January 2014. Web. 15 December 2014. <http://shakespeare.mit.edu/much_ado/full.html>.