Amy's View - Genre

Genre

When distinguishing the genre of Amy's View, one must take a look at the four classic categories: tragedy, comedy, melodrama, and farce. Farce can be ruled out to begin with, and the play really only holds one component of a melodrama (man against man), but the play does not fit neatly into either tragedy or comedy. Take a look at the general factors that must be present in each:

"Tragedy
- deals with man and god
- begins and ends with an assumed moral code
- contains a mood of solemnity
- deals with characters ‘better’ than us
- tragic hero, nemesis, innocent victim
- suffering, insight
- restoration of moral code, sense of redemption

Comedy
- deals with man and society
- begins with a flawed society and ends up with an open one
- contains mood of ridicule, laughter, wit, jokes, etc.
- deals with characters ‘lower’ than us
- blocker, teacher, buffoon
- climax/confrontation
- new open society, marriage"

There are very important components from each genre that are definitely present within the play, and some from each that are completely absent. The play does not deal with god, but does have aspects of man versus society in the debate between theater and new media. It begins and ends with a moral code (the idea that love conquers all and should be given unconditionally), contains a mood of ridicule and wit, but deals with characters that are both above and below us. It has a tragic hero (Esme), an innocent victim (Amy), and perhaps a nemesis (Dominic), as well as a teacher (Esme) and a buffoon (Frank). There is certainly suffering, as well as multiple confrontations and a climax, insight, and a marriage (although the marriage is not technically a happy one, and is not at the end). Based on these observations, one can conclude that Amy's View is a tragicomedy.

Going a little more in depth, we can specifically define tragicomedy as "tragedies with happy endings," which is relatively applicable to Amy's View in that it follows the general train of a tragedy, but there is a sense of gratitude and fulfillment at the end when Dominic apologizes to Esme and the two seem to finally find peace with one anther. This pattern is visible in addition to the face that the play draws from several components of each genre. Importantly, tragicomedy must be distinguished from a drama, in that a drama is sort of a mashing of all four classic genres, while tragicomedy is clearly only a combination of tragedy and comedy.