Conclusions

DEVICE	PATTERNS SEEN IN COMPARISION TO OTHER WORKS
ASIDE	Asides can be found in every play analyzed; in addition, visual asides (not verbal) can be seen in Chaplin's films. However, no asides appear in the films Whiskey Galore! or It Happened One Night. In stage productions, asides are easy to stage: a character must simply turn to the audience, away from the other characters. However, asides on film are rare and usually utilized solely to point out the obviously fake nature of film. For example, a character in a film by Jean-Luc Godard may turn directly to the camera to speak, proceeding to then tell his friend that he's speaking to the audience. Asides on film usually have an effect of breaking the audience's connection to the action rather than strengthening the bond--audience members can no longer trick themselves into believing that the film onscreen is just another world.
MONOLOGUE	All of the plays analyzed feature monologues; none of the films include monologues. Filmed monologues are boring for the most part, and most wise filmmakers avoid such soliloquies.
EAVESDROPPING	Menander's Old Cantankerous, Plautus' Pseudolus, It Happened One Night and Whiskey Galore! all utilize the device of eavesdropping to help establish a connection with the audience. When the eavesdropper listens in on what's happening on stage, he mimics the audience who is listening to him. Aristophanes simply does not employ this device in his Birds, nor can Chaplin use eavesdropping in his silent films for the very fact that they are silent.
IMPROVISATION	Improvisation can be found in every single play and film examined on this website. This device is extremely prevelant because it mimics real life: improvisation, more than any other metatheatrical device, sweeps the audience into the action.
PARABASIS	The parabasis is an Aristophanic device; the parabasis is only possible if a chorus is present, but Menander and Plautus do not use their choruses in this manner. In Whiskey Galore! the narrator gives a kind of parabasis, as he speaks directly to the audience--producing the same effect as a parabasis would have.
CHORUS	All three plays exhibit a chorus; the chorus is typical of ancient Greek and Roman comedies. None of the films examined use a chorus--this device fell out of favor after many centuries and was not appropriate for the movie screen.
ALLUSION	Every work examined on this website uses allusion. It produces an empathy with the audience as soon as they recognize what the writer was alluding to--audience members feel smarter and laugh harder at the rest of the work after recognizing an allusion.

Aristophanes' Birds	Charlie Chaplin
Menander's Old Cantankerous	Frank Capra's It Happened One Night
Plautus' Pseudolus	Alexander Mackendrick's Whiskey Galore!

 

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