Referring to at least TWO plays (Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay, Mother Bombie, If You Know Not Me You Know Nobody, Part 2, The Shoemakers Holiday, A Chaste Maid in Cheapside, Knight of the Burning Pestle, The Merchant of Venice) respond to ONE of following statements about comedy. In your response, be sure to clarify the terms that youre using and to explain how youve interpreted the statement to which youre responding. As in all essays, your paper requires a strong, argumentative thesis statement supported by evidence from the texts to which youre responding.a. Comedy labors, perennially, in the service of life over death.
b. There is nothing more depressing than early modern comedy: it reminds me of spending a day with my old, racist uncle.
c. Tragedy, for Aristotle, offers katharsis, or a satisfying purgation of unpleasant feelings; comedy works in the opposite direction, bottling-up feelings which feel best satisfy us when they run free.