Comedy and Tragedy (Chart)

Comedy	Tragedy
Happy-Ending: U shaped story	Sad-Ending: upside down U shaped story
Hero: Adapts, Improvises, Overcomes	Tragic-Hero: Rigid individualism; will only accept life on “own” terms
Salvation	Damnation
Freedom	Fate
Independence	Slavery
Redemption	Guilt
Adaption and Softening	Conflict, and Hardening (Pharaoh, Macbeth)
Forgiveness	Justice
Heaven	Hell
Repentance and Change: “Grace Eventually”	Unrepentance and Stagnation: “Grace Uneventfully”
Humility	Pride
Chaos to Order	Order to Chaos
Resurrection: Death to Life	Decomposition: Life to Death
Light	Heavy
Found	Lost
Affects (act on) leading to Effects (result): Production	Defects leading to : Futility
Realism	Idealism, Schaeffer, “Idealism is cruel… if you expect perfection or nothing – you get nothing.”
Ends with Wedding	Ends with Funeral
Resolution: Loose Ends Tied Up	Dissolution
Ends with Community	Ends with Isolation
Ultimately Rational: Riddle Resolved	Ultimately Irrational, “senseless crime” : Riddle Unresolved
We	Me
Acceptance of Reality (Credit to Stanley Cavell)	Avoidance of Reality: Crushed by Reality
Love	Hate
Moral	Moralistic
Freedom	Legalism
Reunion/Union	Separation/Alienation
Falling to Rising	Rising to Falling
Humility	Humiliation
Sanctification and Maturation -change is possible for SELF and circumstances; ex. kid gets out of ghetto; poor kid “makes it”	Degeneration/Character Stagnation (persevere in bad faults to ruddy end)/ and finally become a caricature of themselves.
Big Picture: Transcendence	Small Picture: Immanence
Permanence/Durability	Impermanence
Average People: “Ordinary People”	Nobles
Perlocution: Joy, Happiness, Satisfaction, Hope, Laughter	Perlocution: Dejection, Sorrow, Bewilderment, Despair, Tears
Empathy	Sympathy: Pity for Tragic Hero (Oedipus)
Moment of Clarity before Resolution	Anagnorisis ("tragic recognition or insight") before final fall
Forgiveness	Revenge
Utility (Eccl. not about futility, but frustration)	Futility
Productive/Production	Destructive/Destruction
Eternal	Temporal (fleeting, brief): light and momentary trials; one thing that gives us HOPE is to know that all tragedy is in the CONTEXT of comedy; we have to interpret tragedy as BRIEF, non-enduring to be able to endure it well. It is not THE BIG picture, but a small part of the BIG picture.

 created by CWK