Class Consciousness and Status
Aspects of Comedy
CLA 220, Comedy: Greece and Rome to Hollywood
This is an overview of class consciousness and status as seen in a variety of plays and films.
Characters from the pieces will be organized into the different
social groups
and analyzed as to how their status affects their lives in their society.
The plays are ancient Greek and Roman comedies, by Aristophanes, Plautus, and Menander.
The films range from comedies of Charlie Chaplin, to Frank Capra's
It Happened One Night,
and finally to Sam Wood's A Night at the Opera.
Old Comedies:
Aristophanes'
Clouds
The
Comedies of Menander
Plautus's
Pseudolus
Films:
The
Comedies of Charlie Chaplin
Frank
Capra's It Happened One Night
The
Marx Brothers' A Night at the Opera
Return
to CLA 220
Return to Cornell College
Anna Doherty Stephanie Pisarik Joel Gentes Amanda Neuman
Last Updated: September 18, 2001