The Magic Formula

In his book The Irresponsible Self, the critic James Wood proposes a distinction between two kinds of novelistic comedy. The first, essentially satirical type he calls the ‘comedy of correction’, and argues that it seeks to mock human weakness through caricature and buffoonery. The other, more sophisticated kind is a ‘comedy of forgiveness’, which forgoes the former’s moral certainty and instead enters into a sympathetic relationship with its subject - seeking not to judge but rather to comprehend the individual’s vulnerability. This latter form of humour, he maintains, is fundamentally secular in origin, and is indicative of a world-view where older structures of faith and social order are being brought radically into question.L’elisir d’amore offers an appealing intersection between these two kinds of comedy. Like Don Pasquale, it…