Friedrich Duerrenmatt and the Tragic Sense of Comedy

Extract

From its origins in the comos and mimos to the complicated gyrations of the Paris avant garde, the term comedy has come to mean different things to different people. Taking a glance at its development in modern literature, we discover that the very basis of comedy is tragic; indeed, the modern playwright no longer cares to separate his worlds into tragedy and comedy but prefers to use the term tragicomedy or, like Brecht, omit any designation altogether. However, we need not be too surprised if we remember the tragic background of The Birds or Lysistrata, The Merchant of Venice or The Tempest, The Misanthrope or Georges Dandin. The reason for calling a play a comedy or a tragedy frequently is historical or personal. Were Wozzeck to be written today it certainly would have been called something like a tragicomedy. After all, Eliot's The Cocktail Party is a comedy, Beckett's Waiting for Godot is a tragicomedy and Ionesco's The Chairs a tragic farce.