Tragicomedy is a type of story that mixes elements of sad and funny stories. It is most commonly found in plays and other dramatic works. The term can describe a sad story that includes some funny parts to make the overall mood less serious, or a serious story that ends happily. As its name suggests, tragicomedy aims to make the audience feel both the sadness of a tragedy and the humor of a comedy. Tragedy is a genre that focuses on human suffering and often leads to a feeling of emotional relief, while comedy is a genre meant to be funny and make people laugh.
In theatre
There is no simple, official definition of tragicomedy from the time of the ancient Greeks and Romans. The Greek philosopher Aristotle, in his book Poetics, discussed a type of tragedy with two possible endings. Some Greek and Roman plays, like Alcestis, may be considered tragicomedies because they mix serious and happy elements, but they do not have clear rules that define them as such. The word "tragicomedy" was first used by the Roman playwright Plautus. In his play Amphitryon, the character Mercury jokingly calls the play a "tragicomoedia" because it includes both kings and gods alongside servants, which is unusual for a comedy. He says, "I will make it a mixture: let it be a tragicomedy… since a slave also has a part in the play, I'll make it a tragicomedy."
Two people helped make tragicomedy a recognized genre with specific rules. First was Giovanni Battista Giraldi Cinthio, a dramatist from the 1500s. He wrote about drama based on Roman plays, not the earlier Greek-based ones. He believed tragicomedies should tell serious stories with happy or funny endings, which he thought were better for performances than tragedies with sad endings. More important was Giovanni Battista Guarini. His play Il Pastor Fido, published in 1590, caused a lot of debate. Guarini defended his idea of tragicomedy, which balanced serious and funny elements, used characters with unusual behavior, and took place in a pastoral (rural) setting. These features became common in tragicomedies across Europe for many years.
In England, the use of tragicomedy came before clear rules were written. In the 1500s, "tragicomedy" referred to a type of romantic play that broke rules about time, place, and action, mixed characters from different social classes, and included strange or unrealistic events. This style was criticized by writers like Philip Sidney, who called it a "mungrell Tragy-comedie." Shakespeare’s character Polonius also joked about the mix of styles in plays. Later, in the early 1600s, English playwrights like John Fletcher adapted Guarini’s ideas. Fletcher’s play The Faithful Shepherdess (1608) included a definition of tragicomedy: a play that is not a tragedy because people do not die, but it is not a comedy because it has serious moments. Fletcher’s tragicomedies also had sudden surprises, strange plots, unusual settings, and a focus on elaborate speech.
Other playwrights, like Philip Massinger and James Shirley, wrote popular tragicomedies. Richard Brome tried the form but had less success. Many other writers also experimented with tragicomedy. It remained popular in England until theaters closed in 1642. After that, tragicomedy was less common, and the idea of a "tragedy with a happy ending" evolved into a new style called melodrama, which is still used today.
In 1640, the Irish playwright Henry Burnell wrote Landgartha, the first Irish play performed in Ireland. Burnell called it a tragicomedy. Critics disliked it because its ending was neither happy nor sad. Burnell defended his work, saying many plays are not strictly tragedy or comedy but something in between.
After the Renaissance, critics focused more on the themes and structure of tragicomedy rather than just the plot. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, a German writer, described tragicomedy as a mix of emotions where serious moments can lead to laughter and sadness can bring pleasure. Modern playwrights like Luigi Pirandello, who influenced Samuel Beckett and Tom Stoppard, showed a tragicomic style in their work. This style also appears in absurdist plays, like those by Friedrich Dürrenmatt. His play The Visit (1956) is called a tragicomedy. Tragicomedy became common in British theatre after World War II, with writers like Samuel Beckett, Tom Stoppard, John Arden, Alan Ayckbourn, and Harold Pinter. Vladimir Nabokov’s novel Pale Fire (1962) is also a tragicomedy inspired by Elizabethan drama.
In the United States, writers from the metamodernist and postmodernist movements used tragicomedy and gallows humor (humor about serious or dark topics). A famous example is David Foster Wallace’s novel Infinite Jest (1996), which mixes humor about life in a halfway house with serious themes of suffering and tragedy.
Tragicomedy in media
Films such as Life is Beautiful, Mary and Max, Parasite, Jojo Rabbit, The Banshees of Inisherin, Beau Is Afraid, Robot Dreams, and Memoir of a Snail are considered tragicomedies. Television series such as Succession, Killing Eve, Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, Fleabag, I May Destroy You, BoJack Horseman, South Park, Moral Orel, Barry, Made for Love, and The White Lotus are also considered tragicomedies.