can explore aspects of the human condition that cannot be explored through comedy or tragedy. The comic tone is too light for much of the material of these plays, and yet a tragic resolution is equally out of place. Characters who suffer alienation in the romances are not doing so for comic effect and not for the purpose of a pure tragic hamartia, either.
Finally, alienation and restoration are best examined in relationship to a particular aspect of the human drama: marriage. The happy union of like-minded equals is the object toward which all Shakespearean drama moves. The comedies, with the exception of Love's Labours Lost, end in marriages. The tragedies are characterized by the destruction of marriage. The romances, while tragic in tone, end in marriage as well. The appropriate balance point for Shakespearean society is a point in which a happy union may take place. Societies that promote marriage provide a context in which comedy may take place. Societies in which the marriages are attacked or unfortunate create a context of tragedy and require tha
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