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What characterizes Elizabethan comedy?

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Elizabethan comedy is characterized by its use of political or social satire to provide an escape from the harsh realities of the time, such as disease, poverty, and crime. It often includes supernatural elements, themes like good versus evil, fate, love, and typically ends happily. Notable examples include Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and Johnson's "Volpone."

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With the arrival of the Renaissance in England came a new literary genre known as the Elizabethan comedy, which was usually a political or social satire that was used as a means to escape the seriousness of reality.

The Elizabethan era was quite turbulent: diseases and illnesses were spreading all over Europe, poverty was basically the norm, people didn't hesitate to turn to crime to survive, resources were low and food was insufficient, and the noble class was living in luxury, uncaring of the struggles of the poor.

Thus, playwrights like Shakespeare and Johnson used their wits and talents for writing to create plays that directly or indirectly reflected the sociopolitical climate and culture of their time, which provided an opportunity for the people to forget about their struggles and simply enjoy the moment, no matter how short-lived it was. Elizabethan comedy was actually the most popular literary genre in the sixteenth century.

Elizabethan comedy has several distinct features. For example, many of the comedies of this era include supernatural elements, themes such as the battle of reason and emotion as well as good versus evil, the concept of fate and destiny, the concept of forgiveness and revenge, morality, deceit and truth, the power of love, and finally, the classic happy ending.

The most popular Elizabethan comedies include A Midsummer Night's Dream, Twelfth Night, As You Like It, The Merchant of Venice, The Tempest, and Johnson's satires, Every Man in His Humour, Volpone, The Alchemist and Bartholomew Fair.

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