I have this notion that comedies in the Middle Ages are those that usually end in tragedy. I googled this and found out I'm actually wrong. A Shakespearean comedy is one that has a happy ending, usually involving marriages between the unmarried characters, and a tone and style that is more light-hearted than Shakespeare's other plays. However, Shakespear did have an unusual tone of mixing humour and tragedy (tragicomic) hence it stuck in my mind that his comedies end in tragedy.
Two weeks ago, I encountered a case which brought Shakespearean comedy to my mind. One of my great-Uncle's neighbors in the ICU had a constant stream of visitors, teachers, who were past colleagues of my mother (now retired). As it happened, an elementary school teacher had been reprimanded by the principal for losing a sum of money from the PTA (about 9K). This incident actually happened two years back. The principal, being new to that school had dug up this inconsistency with the treasury and confronted the teacher. She demanded that the teacher own up the fault of using the money illegally, one that the teacher vehemently denied. She was "fooled" by a parent in a bank, who offered to deposit the money for her (budol-budol daw). This incident, happening two years previously, had gone unnoticed by the previous administration. Fast forward to the present, this teacher was accused and humiliated by the principal of something that she believes, is not her outright fault. She was greatly distressed. This woman is a timid, serious, and relatively protected from the cruelties of the world by six overbearing older siblings. She's never really experienced being reprimanded or humiliated so. And, having experienced what had happened, she can not handle it. As the story goes, that evening, she accompanied her husband to the grocery, something she doesn't usually do and picked up a bottle of muriatic acid to clean up the toilet. (Her husband actually encouraged her...yes dear, the toilet needs cleaning up). Unbeknownst to the husband, the teacher already had a plan. She wrote several suicidal notes to her family and colleagues, and even to the main culprit, the principal. She had every intention of ending her life.
Relating this story as sanely as I can muster, you can hardly grasp the dramatic intensity of what happened. Yes, it is a tragedy that this woman would feel this way after being wrongfully accused over a mere 9 thousand pesos to the point of ending her own life. If you have been carefully following my story, you would then ask, "so she was in the ICU...was she saved, afterall?" ...hmmm, tricky question. Long story short, NO, she wasn't saved. She died after 1 week in the ICU.
But that's not the reason why I wrote about this, and exclaimed it to be life's comedy. The thing that I found really funny with this story is that after concreting the idea of suicide, the teacher then proceeded to the CR to do the deed. She poured muriatic acid on a glass and drank more than half of it. What was really funny was, after drinking this corrosive liquid, the teacher realized that it was painful to the stomach (really? *rolls eyes* and I thought she wanted to kill herself). She could not bear the pain so she went to her sister in the next house and asked to be brought to the hospital because of stomach pains. How ironic!
(You know, it's hard to sympathize with people like this. They actually seal their own fate. As my cousin would put it, we would not fall under the same incident coz we were so used to being scolded--iron skins! LOL)
Two weeks ago, I encountered a case which brought Shakespearean comedy to my mind. One of my great-Uncle's neighbors in the ICU had a constant stream of visitors, teachers, who were past colleagues of my mother (now retired). As it happened, an elementary school teacher had been reprimanded by the principal for losing a sum of money from the PTA (about 9K). This incident actually happened two years back. The principal, being new to that school had dug up this inconsistency with the treasury and confronted the teacher. She demanded that the teacher own up the fault of using the money illegally, one that the teacher vehemently denied. She was "fooled" by a parent in a bank, who offered to deposit the money for her (budol-budol daw). This incident, happening two years previously, had gone unnoticed by the previous administration. Fast forward to the present, this teacher was accused and humiliated by the principal of something that she believes, is not her outright fault. She was greatly distressed. This woman is a timid, serious, and relatively protected from the cruelties of the world by six overbearing older siblings. She's never really experienced being reprimanded or humiliated so. And, having experienced what had happened, she can not handle it. As the story goes, that evening, she accompanied her husband to the grocery, something she doesn't usually do and picked up a bottle of muriatic acid to clean up the toilet. (Her husband actually encouraged her...yes dear, the toilet needs cleaning up). Unbeknownst to the husband, the teacher already had a plan. She wrote several suicidal notes to her family and colleagues, and even to the main culprit, the principal. She had every intention of ending her life.
Relating this story as sanely as I can muster, you can hardly grasp the dramatic intensity of what happened. Yes, it is a tragedy that this woman would feel this way after being wrongfully accused over a mere 9 thousand pesos to the point of ending her own life. If you have been carefully following my story, you would then ask, "so she was in the ICU...was she saved, afterall?" ...hmmm, tricky question. Long story short, NO, she wasn't saved. She died after 1 week in the ICU.
But that's not the reason why I wrote about this, and exclaimed it to be life's comedy. The thing that I found really funny with this story is that after concreting the idea of suicide, the teacher then proceeded to the CR to do the deed. She poured muriatic acid on a glass and drank more than half of it. What was really funny was, after drinking this corrosive liquid, the teacher realized that it was painful to the stomach (really? *rolls eyes* and I thought she wanted to kill herself). She could not bear the pain so she went to her sister in the next house and asked to be brought to the hospital because of stomach pains. How ironic!
(You know, it's hard to sympathize with people like this. They actually seal their own fate. As my cousin would put it, we would not fall under the same incident coz we were so used to being scolded--iron skins! LOL)
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