Life's Genre

"All the world's a stage,

And all the men and women merely players:

They have their exits and their entrances;

And one man in his time plays many parts."

--As You Like It

We had an interesting discussion in Shakespeare today, and I wanted to explore it in more detail here. In class, we were discussing the differences in genre that differentiate comedies, tragedies, and romances from each other. Dr. Callis said the most fascinating thing, which I scribbled as fast I could in my notebook. I didn't get it all, but I did get the gist. He said, and I quote, "Some people believe that life is fundamentally a tragedy. You are living your own mistakes and seeing the mistakes of those around you crash down on your heads. There is no neat wind-up at the end. Romances, though, are quite different. They have all of the elements and repercussions of sin, but in the end there is a chance for grace. A romance incorporates comedy and tragedy and wraps it all up into a happy ending. Characters may be taxed to their limits, but they are eventually shown a measure of grace."

Of course, I thought, how typical this is of real life! I don't believe that life is a tragedy. There is too much beauty in the world, and too large a potential for grace. Certainly, there are times when everything seems dark and I get just as despairing and melodramatic as everyone else...but then I am reminded of my fundamental rule. What is this rule? "In everything there is a chance for beauty." There is beauty in growth, in change, and even in despair. Without an intimate knowledge of the night, how could we ever appreciate the dawn? 

Don't get me wrong -- I don't think that everything always wraps itself up neatly in the end like a Brady Bunch episode. That would be a comedy, and while I enjoy them, life is rarely ever going to end in a fortuitous reprieve of the lovable antagonist and a multitude of weddings. Sin is in the world, and sin means that sometimes things are going to be messy and ugly. But it is grace that offers a way out of the Celtic knot we knot ourselves into so many times! 

Another thing that sets aside romances is the essential theme of supernatural intervention. Whether it was the appearance of a ghost or the use of a magic spell, somehow something outside of the realm of normalcy intercedes on a character's behalf and turns the tide. In our lives, what greater supernatural intervention can there be than the presence of a knowing and loving God in our lives? God put the ultimate beauty into the world when He showed us the Man on the cross, and it is when we appreciate this gracious beauty and try to emulate it that our lives can become a romance -- a romance in which we are taxed to the limits of our endurance, yes, but are still able to come to the end with hope of finding resolution. I couldn't live without hope of the happy ending; very few people can. It is one reason why fairy tales are so attractive, in my opinion. Actually, I think that fairy tales could definitely fit into the romance genre. Think about your favorite fairy tale (mine is Cinderella -- I know, huge surprise there). The characters in the story have been placed in a terrible situation in which they have little hope of prevailing...but through the supernatural intervention of an outside character or by the sternness of their own characters they eventually make it to the glorious sentence "...and they lived happily ever after." 

See the parallels? I surely do.

Please, friends, I beg you, don't assume that life is a tragedy that must be endured with the grimmest kind of determination. (See how well that worked out for Hamlet and Macbeth!) Instead, face trouble with hope, and reach for the grace that we have all be offered. Find the beauty in everything, and make your life into a romance.