Goldsmith

The Argument that is Oliver Goldsmith

No man was more foolish when he had not

a pen in his hand , or more wise when he had

-Oliver Goldsmith

Plays are practically channels that the author employs to send his meaning or intended message through words and gestures , to his audience However , how the audience processes it can vary as such as what Oliver Goldsmith is arguing in one of his essays against sentimental comedy

In the light of the shift from neo-classicism to romanticism in England during the 16th Century , Oliver

Goldsmith stood out to become one of the most celebrated playwrights alongside famed author Samuel Johnson . He even was included in the prestigious literary circle in London known as The Club ' wherein he was one of the founding members and Johnson was the initial head

It was also in this time that he was able to write most of his plays such as the comedy , She Stoops to Conquer among others which was aimed to oversee if not criticize the elements that compose the genre of sentimental comedy though at a gross manner ADDIN EN .CITE RousseauGeorge Sebastian RousseauOliver Goldsmith - The Cultural Heritage (Rousseau

Goldsmith pretty much is a comedic writer whose works are far from the dominating theme of the time which was tragedies . Though the separate fields have been converged at that time in the advent of the sentimental comedy , our playwright is known to remain faithful to the principles of laughing comedy and lashes out on the objectives of its sentimental counterpart . He argues that comedy should remain a comedy , along with the laughing elements that basically define it

By definition , a comedy ought to root out from the tresses of the masses and not merely from the epical ordeals of great people mainly depicted in tragedies . He further said that when this becomes the case , the definitions of the two could be washed out and it is just apt for sentimental comedy to be given another name so as not to override its counterpart

For Oliver Goldsmith , it is unbearable to think that while comedies could make the audience emotional , tragedies could not do the same and make the audience laugh . The Irish writer even commented in one of his essays about the overwhelming sympathy that the audience gives to characters in comedies even when they are not supposed to . For him , the primary objective of comedies is to make people laugh and help them forget , even for a while , the harshness of reality and not make them even more in touch with their sentiments . He argues that it is not quite fair for pure comedy but accepts the fact that sentimental comedy exists , and it is not quite easy to rid it off the stage

Reference

ADDIN EN .REFLIST Rousseau , George Sebastian "Oliver Goldsmith - the Cultural Heritage (1995 : 118-19...