Posing the question here because the Books & Reading forum tends to get bogged down with the camel dung that is Twilight, but why do you suppose it is that Shakespeare's tragedies are seen as far more important than the comedies or histories? Or, for that matter, his sonnets?

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Let yourself be enchanted,
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To ever ever after

That said, 'Much Ado About Nothing' is my favourite Shakespeare play. It's perhaps the only one I have bought without the necessity to.

Also, I think people percieve his tragedies as more straightforward than his comedies? That may sound strange, but bear with me, my brain is frazzled with paper writing.

In high school we read 2 tragedies and a history. We read R&J, Henry the V (I think?) and then Hamlet. In college I read a lot of the others (to this day i have not finished reading all of his works ). But i think that high schools pick those plays because it is easy to talk about hamlet being depressed, ophelia drowning etc. Those emotions seem more straight forward than the taming of the shrew, or much ado about nothing, where shakespeare says one thing, and means another?

did that make any sense?

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Do not abandon yourselves to despair.
We are the Easter people and hallelujah is our song.

Pope John Paul II

Although I do agree, I wish they would do more than tragedies a majority of the time, and focus more on the ancients.  Unfortunately, if they were to get into the really amazing work of Martial, Catullus, or Horace, it probably would be to risque for what is acceptable within a high school.

But yeah, as I said in my first paragraph, we read tragedies in high school to look at mankind's faults (and strengths too).  That's why we read literature like Romeo and Juliet, Things Fall Apart, The Crucible, and Anthony and Cleopatra, and more.

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"Energizer Bunny arrested, charged with battery."

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Possibly because they're more exciting (if you want a boring Shakespeare, try reading 'A Winter's Tale'!), more happens in the tragedy plays and it can be used to get children into studying it. It's far easier to get kids/teens interested in death, witches, burning and evil than weird fairies and such like.

That said, 'Much Ado About Nothing' is my favourite Shakespeare play. It's perhaps the only one I have bought without the necessity to.

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Mm, I don't know. An overwhelming amount of stuff happens in, say, Twelfth Night (the one comedy I remember formally studying in all of my years of high school and college, and it was mostly "studied" as a sort of read-through "Welcome to Shakespeare, kids!" in the seventh grade) compared to, say, Macbeth where Macbeth kills the king, visits some witches, and gets killed himself.

I dunno. It might just be a matter of preference on my part, but I do wish that there would be more focus on the comedies and histories.

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Let yourself be enchanted,
You just might break through
To ever ever after

Also I think it's because tragedies are more natural to READ than the comedies, and most schools don't have the funding to take their students to shakespeare's plays to watch the comedies.

And finally, as far as longevity of literature, stories of the epic hero, and stories of tragedy, are pretty much at the top. I can name far more anciently written tragedies than I can ancient comedies. His tragedies are one of the main reasons he's studied 500 years later.

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Thy drugs are quick.
Thus with a kiss I die.

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Why? I think that Hamlet by itself is better than all of those philosophy works combined,

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It's because Tragedy is more epic than comedy, and teachers probablydont teach the comedies because most students, even AP or IB have trouble following the tragedies, which are easier and far more linear than the comedies so if you graded kids on Shakespeare's comedies and forced them to analyze it and write essays on it, it would brood hatred for Shakespeare.

Also I think it's because tragedies are more natural to READ than the comedies, and most schools don't have the funding to take their students to shakespeare's plays to watch the comedies.

And finally, as far as longevity of literature, stories of the epic hero, and stories of tragedy, are pretty much at the top. I can name far more anciently written tragedies than I can ancient comedies. His tragedies are one of the main reasons he's studied 500 years later.

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Why do they have that longevity, though? I mean, it's fairly clear that more people know Oedipus Rex than Lysistrata (which is a shame, as the former was just annoying and the latter was uproariously awesome), but why? I don't think there are necessarily deeper truths in tragedy than in comedy; quite the opposite, I think you can find deeper truths asking yourself if, even without the aide of fairies, we are truly as ridiculous in love as Titania and Nick Bottom; if we would jump to conclusions about our lovers when things didn't feel right, as Claudio did about Hero; if we would find ourselves falling in love with someone of the gender we don't prefer if he or she was in disguise, as Olivia fell in with Violet?

Of course, regarding the reading point, plays are never meant to be read by the audience. They're meant to be performed; hence the reason so many students have such a hard time working their way through any Shakespeare work when reading it but rather enjoy performing it or seeing it performed. I know that the plays I studied went by much more smoothly when we read and acted out scenes than when we were required to finish reading Act III for homework.

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Let yourself be enchanted,
You just might break through
To ever ever after

But, a tragedy is generally treated with more weight than a comedy because of the different themes the two choose to tackle. Shakespeare's comedies are brilliantly written, entertaining and sometimes manage to stumble their way into being hilarious even to a modern audience - but, they're not as philosophically reflective, and not as incisive into the human condition as his tragedies. Hamlet is the most sublime character ever to be written, Shakespeare couldn't have created such a character in his comedies.

And Macbeth is an infinitely more complex play than Twelfth Night.

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- لورين

Love, all alike, no season knows nor clime,
Nor hours, days, months, which are the rags of time.

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I don't think Shakespeare's tragedies ARE seen as more important than his histories or comedies, 'Taming of the Shrew' the most popular play performed currently by the Royal Shakespeare Company, and in England, his comedies are the genre mainly studied by school students.

But, a tragedy is generally treated with more weight than a comedy because of the different themes the two choose to tackle. Shakespeare's comedies are brilliantly written, entertaining and sometimes manage to stumble their way into being hilarious even to a modern audience - but, they're not as philosophically reflective, and not as incisive into the human condition as his tragedies. Hamlet is the most sublime character ever to be written, Shakespeare couldn't have created such a character in his comedies.  

And Macbeth is an infinitely more complex play than Twelfth Night.

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While that may be the case in the UK, over here in the US, it's a rare high school or college class that gives as much attention to the comedies and histories as to the tragedies. And I'll disagree with you on the complexity issue, as well.

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Let yourself be enchanted,
You just might break through
To ever ever after