Plot and Structure

By Yosie Cardin-Ritter and Becca Goldknopf

Each week, we discussed one play from Greek or Roman comedy and one modern film comedy (or three short films in the case of Chaplin) in terms of their plot and structure. Our goal was to analyze each play or film individually and then find patterns and tendencies in the genre of comedy as a whole in order to better understand and help others better understand the workings of comedic plots.

Week One

Aristophanes' Birds
Photo courtesy of Cornell College.

Photos courtesy of jejutongil.com, MoviePosters.com, and flocom-world.com (respectively).

Week Two

Menander's Dyskolos
Photo courtesy of the University of Texas.

Photo courtesy of AllPosters.com.

Week Three

Plautus' Poenulus
Photo courtesy of Becca Goldknopf.

Photo courtesy of art.com.