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Romantic comedy is a subgenre of comedy and slice-of-life fictionh focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles.

A romantic comedy is a type of play which consists of love affair between the characters mainly protagonist, difficulties that arise due to the affairs, the struggle of the protagonist or other major characters to overcome these difficulties and the ending that is generally happy to everyone. Several of these comedies end either at a festival or a feast or a gathering where everyone is joyous or becomes joyous. The Anatomy of Criticism by Northrop Frye discusses about several movements in romantic comedies and how the world of conflicts dissolve as the play moves on. However, he mainly focuses on the

romantic comedies written by William Shakespeare. Romantic Comedy has a main plot and a subplot. In the main plot an eligible aristocratic man and woman fall in love with each other but cannot marry for somereason. They may be socially incompatible or their families may have a long standing quarrel or it could be that the man or the woman do not even realise they are in love, as is the case with Benedick and Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing. Then some external agency like the disclosure of a secret or a trick by others brings. the lovers together. Their marriage or intention to marry is celebrated with a dance and/or a feast in which all disharmonious elements are eliminated or made to fit in with the general joy. The presiding deity is Hymen, the God of mamiage. In short, although the action focuses on courtship, the play ends in marriage.

The characters of the subplot are from the lower strata of society (servants, constable, Mechanicals) or behave as if they were (Sir Toby Belch in Tweljih Night). The two major functions of the subplot are to parody the main plot and wittingly or unwittingly sort out the problems of the characters in the main plot. In short, there are points where the main plot and the subplot interact, and at the end, everyone, whether they are aristocrats or not, joins in the celebrations.

The setting for Shakespeare's Romantic Comedy is some place remote and distant from England, such as Messina, Padua, or Athens. This remoteness adds to the fairy tale quality of the comedy. The action begins in the court but since it is in the court that the lovers' marriage is obstructed, they leave for some place that is close to nature, such as a forest or village or some ideal pastoral setting that encourages love and fertility. Having found fulfilment, they return to the court or city, which is transformed by their joy into a healthier place that no longer stands in the way of love.

The purpose of Romantic Comedy is to emphasise accepted social values.

Thus love, which ends in mamage, is allowed, but adulterous or obsessive love is not. Anything that threatens the harmonious functioning of society is gently but i>rmly eliminated or corrected. But the chief function of Romantic Comedy is to entertain, not correct.

In Shakespeare's use of the Romantic Comedy formula in A Midsummer Night's Dream, we will consider three of his adaptations of the formula.

As Charlton has pointed out that Shakespearean comedies inspire us to be happy with them. "Shakespearean comedy is not finally satiric, it is poetic. It is not conservative, it is creative. The way of it is that of the imagination rather than of pure reason. It is an artist's vision, not a critic's exposition.

Shakespeare in his comedies creates a climate of romance. Love-romantic love is the principal theme of Shakespeare's comedies. It is almost the rule that all the lovers should love at once absolutely. But true love alone can never make a comedy. True love is serious, and comedy must alone can never make a comedy. True lov is serious, and hold its sides: love is Gordon comments: "Comedy is a plump figure and hold its sides; love is lean and hold a hand upon its heart." Shakespeare makes a compromise between romance and comedy. In romantic comedy, the laughter and the sigher live side by side, on one condition that neither shall commit excess or complete for attention at the expense of the other. The solemnity of love is relieved by the generosity oflaughter, and the irresponsibility of laughter by the seriousness of love. Thus comedy is raised to a higher realm.

Love is the central theme of Twelfth Night, As You Like It and Much Ado About Nothing. The Duke who is enraptured by music loves Olivia. The proud Olivia is entangled by the modest and insinuating messenger of the Duke. The Duke's love for Orsino is deep and true. Her love which is quiet and deep offers a striking contrast to the inconstant but eloquent fancy of Orsino and to the impetuous passion of Olivia. Shakespeare makes love-making highly entertaining by the use of disguise. Shakespeare employs a mechanical trick for the purpose of romance and comedy. In As You Like It, the wooing of Orlando by Rosalind in disguise is highly entertaining as comedy. It, at the sametime, reveals the seriousness of love of Rosalind for Orlando. In A Midsummer Night's Dream which is an early comedy of Shakespeare, irrationalities of love are shown in a humorous manner. But the dramatist exalts true love which is consummated in marriage. Romance and realism blend in harmony. There is an atmosphere of enchantment on all characters and situations, but the troubles of the lovers are real. But looked at from the vantage point of detachment, troubles become comical. The artisans led by Bottom represent the realistic and comical aspect of the play.

Dramatisation of love-making has a tendency to be ludicrous. But in As You Like It, Twelfth Night and Much Ado About Nothing, Shakespeare provides entertainment to the audience with a dramatised story of courtship. In asking Orlando to woo her in masquerade, Rosalind hits upon the novel method of love-marking. This camouflaged wooing is a great experience for both the lovers. This appeals to the comic instinct of every spectator for the comicality of the situation and at the same time to the romantic scene. The realistic and satiric elements in the comedy are supplied by the gulling of Malvolio, the salt humour of Touchstone, sentimental exaggeration of Silvius and Phebe and the humour of Dogberry.