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‘Tragedy in the disguise of mirth’
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This chapter examines Wilde’s interest in the relationship between tragedy and comedy in the context of Victorian responses to Euripides and Menander. Debates about tragedy and comedy in relation to psychology, realism, and the representation of women in texts by Robert Browning and George Eliot are part of a wider fascination with ancient drama in Victorian literature. Wilde was one of the readers who restored Euripides to prominence and critical favour in the 1880s and 1890s. The reception of Euripides’ tragedies with a happy ending and Menander’s New Comedy, mediated by Shakespeare, influenced Wilde’s tragicomic treatment of themes from contemporary melodrama in his Society comedies.
Title: ‘Tragedy in the disguise of mirth’
Description:
This chapter examines Wilde’s interest in the relationship between tragedy and comedy in the context of Victorian responses to Euripides and Menander.
Debates about tragedy and comedy in relation to psychology, realism, and the representation of women in texts by Robert Browning and George Eliot are part of a wider fascination with ancient drama in Victorian literature.
Wilde was one of the readers who restored Euripides to prominence and critical favour in the 1880s and 1890s.
The reception of Euripides’ tragedies with a happy ending and Menander’s New Comedy, mediated by Shakespeare, influenced Wilde’s tragicomic treatment of themes from contemporary melodrama in his Society comedies.
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