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Headings: 

Content: The scene is offered to us as a symbol of 
social unity which is about to be broken and will not be restored until the 
closing scenes (e.g., King Lear, Macbeth, Richard II). Then, 
something unusual and often unexpected happens to upset that normality. The 
event may be something natural, like a ship wreck (as in Twelfth Nightor
The Tempest), supernatural (as in Macbethand Hamlet), a 
decision made by a particular character (as in King Learor As You 
Like It) or a sudden quarrel (e.g., As You Like It, Henry IV, Part 1). Often this event which kick starts the action is given very quickly with no 
attempt to provide a detailed explanation for it or even, in some cases, 
instantly plausible motivation (e.g., Cordelia's refusal to answer Lear, 
Oliver's decision to seek Orlando's death). At all events, this upset (which 
typically occurs very early in the action) disturbs the normal situation, 
creates confusion and conflict. Such conflict may be the source of much humour 
(for example, in the various mistaken identities which occur when a set of twins 
or, as in Comedy of Errors, two sets of twins, unexpectedly get loose in 
the community), or it may be the source of much political, personal, and 
psychological torment. Attempts to understand what is going on or to deal with 
it simply compound the conflict, accelerating it and intensifying it. Finally, 
the conflict is resolved. The terms 
comedy and tragedy commonly refer to the ways in which dramatic conflicts are 
resolved. In comedy, the confusion ends when everyone recognizes what has been 
going on, learns from it, forgives, forgets, and re-establishes his or her 
identity in the smoothly functioning social group (which may return to the 
original normality or may be setting up a better situation than the one the 
group started with).