Some questions to consider for our reading...
* Why might the quote, "Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh" (105) be a way for understanding Shakespeare's problem comedies, esp. All's Well? While it doesn't have a lot of "death," in it, why does it use serious and even disturbing material for the purposes of comedy?
* In explaining dark comedy, Bevis uses the example from Mel Brooks: "Tragedy is when I cut my little finger. Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die." Why is the latter funny? What makes it tragi-comic? Where do we see similar moments in All's Well?
* Writing about dark comedy, Bevis says that "any single life should be taken seriously, but not too seriously" (100). While this could be said of comedy itself, what makes dark comedy even more apt to underline this sentiment?
* Fools like Parolles, the Fool, and even Lafew seem to point to Bevis' point that "those lacking in imagination can be TOO healthy." Why might Shakespeare insert more fools than usual in a dark comedy like All's Well? Why might they be essential for the plot? Or the meaning behind the plot?
* Bevis writes that "comedy does not preclude tragedy; it presupposes it." Why might the plot and characters of All's Well "presuppose" tragedy? And why might that very fact have challenged Shakespeare to make a comedy of it?
* How is Act V a masterpiece of dark comedy? Who is the butt of the jokes in this act?
* Does the play end satisfactorily in the manner of a true comedy? Or does Shakespeare subvert even this expected ending? When the King says that "the bitter past, more welcome is the sweet," is he acknowledging what happened on stage, or trying to MAKE us see it?
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