Comic spirit- new comedy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Comic spirit- new harlequinade - Essay ExampleThis influenced later comedy till the present day, from Romans to Shakespeare to the West End and Broadway (Perks 76). Roman playwrights Plautus and Terence employed New clowning in their work, as did Shakespeare in his Comedy of Errors.New Comedy deals with a transfer of power from the older to the younger generation. In Terences The Self-Tormentor, Machiavellis La Mandragola, and Stephen Sondheims A preposterous Thing Happened on the demeanor to the Forum, male sexuality and virility are central to the comic plot, and there is a focus on the power shift.Thesis Statement The purpose of this account is to investigate the shift in power from the older to the younger generation in New Comedy portrayed in the Self-Tormentor, La Mandragola, and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. How these plays exploit male sexuality for comic purposes will be identified, and why male sexuality plays such a discern role in the New Comedy for m will be examined.In Terences Heauton Timoroumenos (The Self-Tormentor) which was derived from Menanders play of the same name, a wealthy juvenility Clinia develops a long-term, monogamous liaison with the young woman Antiphila, as evident from the following line, almost now that he has her in the place of a wife prope iam ut pro uxorehaeret (Rosivach 61). When Clinias father hears about the affair, he rebukes his son so strongly for his irresponsible actions, that the young man leaves Athens to become a mercenary serving a foreign king. His determination to make something of himself, echoes his fathers pursuit of success in his own youth (Rosivach 61).But, after have his son Clinia in love with Antiphila to go to the war area, the stern father Menedemus repents for his harshness, and torments himself mentally. Terences humour arises from the