‘FARCE’ OR ‘COMEDY OF SITUATION’: JOE ORTON’S WHAT THE BUTLER SAW (1969)

Abstract

Farce, regarded by some critics as a distinct literary genre, is generally accepted to be a subtype of comedy. We will accept it to be a sub-genre of comedy as it also has a happy ending as all the other types of comedy based on Aristotle's distinction between Comedy and Tragedy, we will consider it as a comedy sub-genre, though it depends on situation rather than characters. In this study we will try to create a substantial definition for it depending on the present definitions first, which focus mainly on different features of farce, and explanations in the outstanding dictionaries. Then we will try to clarify the features that distinguish it from the other types of comedy and explain them in detail. Doing this we will give a brief summary of its history and development in Europe and Britain. In the following part we will closely examine Joe Orton’s masterpiece What the Butler Saw (1969) to determine whether the characters, plot, and other characteristics of it are suitable for labelling it as an example of farce. In the conclusion part we will evaluate the data that we have gathered from the play, and we will show to what extend it can be regarded as a farce.