MERHANIE D.

BANTILAN ENG-II

1.Comedy

Comedy is a broad genre of film, television, and literature in which the goal is to make an
audience laugh. It exists in every culture on earth (though the specifics of comedy can be very
different from one culture to another), and has always been an extremely popular genre of
storytelling.

Example : Jerry Seinfeld, on airplane travel:

“They show you how to use the seatbelt, in case you haven’t been in a car since 1965. ‘Oh, you
lift up on the buckle! Oh! I was trying to break the metal apart. I thought that’s how it works.’”

2.Fantasy

A genre in literature that includes magical and/or supernatural elements as part of the plot,
setting, or theme. Mythology and folklore often play a strong part in fantasy literature. There
must be an internal consistency to the magical elements in a work of fantasy and a logic that, if
not completely explicable, is understood to be reality by the characters. However, fantasy
works can often combine the real world with a second fantastical reality, such as in the Harry
Potter series where the protagonist grows up in contemporary England and is only introduced
to the world of magic at the age of 10.

Fantasy example:

 The Princess Bride

 Labyrinth
 Pan’s Labyrinth
 How to Train Your Dragon
 Pirates of the Caribbean
 Snow White and the Huntsmen
 Beauty and the Beast
3. Tragicomedy

Tragicomedy is a literary device used in fictional works. It contains both tragedy and comedy.
Mostly, the characters in tragicomedy are exaggerated, and sometimes there might be a happy
ending after a series of unfortunate events. It is incorporated with jokes throughout the story,
just to lighten the tone.

Example : The Merchant of Venice (By William Shakespeare)

The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare is considered one of the most popular
traditional tragicomedy examples. Though it has a comedic structure, there are tragic
characters, such as Shylock (who is a central character), and tragic events, such as Antonio’s
“loss” of life (because he is not really dead).

Although the play ends on a happy note with the union of the lovers in the story, and Antonio is
saved from a tragic incident, readers are left with a taste of Shylock’s sufferings. Hence, the
feeling and mood of the play at the end is neither happy nor gloomy. Though, this play
definitely has a comic structure, it also has a strong tragic story. Therefore, it can be classified
as a tragicomedy.

4. Melodrama

Melodrama is a subgenre of drama, which is an exaggerated form of this genre. Melodramas

deal with sensational and romantic topics that appeal to the emotions of the common
audience. Originally, it made use of melody and music, while modern melodramas may not
contain any music at all. In fact, a melodrama gives preference to a detailed characterization
where characters are simply drawn, one-dimensional, or stereotyped. Typically, melodrama
uses stock characters including a heroes, heroines, and villains.

Example : Still Life, Brief Encounter (By Noel Coward)

Noel Coward’s heartbreaking drama Still Life, Brief Encounter, tells the story of two people who
seemed destined to be unhappy. In the film, a leading role and married woman, Laura Jesson,
encounters a doctor, Alec Harvey, in a train station. They decide to meet once in a week at the
same station. Soon they begin to feel delighted in each other’s company and share everything.
Eventually they come to realize that they are in love with each other. Their realization,
however, leads to a tragic notion that they cannot leave their families, which finally ends up in
unrequited love, with their lives doomed into despondency.