Casina Vs. The Braggart Soldier

I preferred Casina because it is a very amusing story about trickery backfiring on a crooked man.  I preferred it because The Braggart Soldier was hard to follow since seemingly all of the names start with the letter "P".  Also, Casina was interesting to me because it ended in a way that for its time, would have been very unexpected.  The wife was not tricked, in fact, she completely turned the situation around to embarrass and expose her husband.  It wouldn't have been common at that time for the woman to come out ahead and to be shown as more clever than the man. However, that is what happened and that makes for a very interesting play.

The Braggart Soldier

The two plays by Plautus both entangle plots of love and lust with dramatically comedic outcomes. The Braggart Soldier is a superior comedy compared to Casina. The plot-line of The Braggart Soldier echoes with a very familiar tone and while reading I was reminded of the story The Princess Bride. The play is presented in a order that is the root of the formula for many romantic comedies today. The formula is: a bad guy steals the girl, the lover sets out to rescue the girl, the lover humiliates the bad guy, the lover and girl are reunited. Pleusicles and Philocomasium are a duo to root for throughout the story. Conversely, in Casina the lover meant to be with the girl is away for the majority of the action. Although Casina promotes the independence and hilarity of women outwitting men, The Braggart Soldier embodies the classic hero and hilarious companions for the audience to cheer on for success in the rescue of the damsel. The overall plot formulation is stronger than Casina with a clear path and purpose to the action.

"Casina" v. "The Braggart Soldier"

Out of the two plays, I definitely prefer "The Braggart Soldier." The plot line is more entertaining to follow, and much more witty and sophisticated, while the other is fairly annoying and not much happens in comparison. To start with, "Casina" is only one long marital fight that, while easy to follow, is quite irritating. The second half of that play is definitely better because the fight ends and the wife humiliates her husband beyond belief. Marriage comedy at it's finest. With "The Braggart Soldier" the plot line is so much more entertaining to read, mostly because the lovers are still in love, and reading about two people trying to be together is more intriguing than reading about a married couple fighting and hating each other. The series of events that keep the lovers apart in The Soldier is charmingly ironic and you root for them the whole play, unlike "Casina" where all you want for the two of them is to get on with their lives and leave each other, just for the sake of the audience if nothing else. The only part of "The Soldier" I had an issue with was that all of their names started with a P and sounded exactly the same. I had to reread a lot of it just to understand who was talking.

Casina vs the Braggart Soldier

I’m somewhat of a Shakespeare fan, so I really enjoyed Casina.  The reason I enjoyed Casina so much were its similarities to Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing.  Both plays deal with manipulation and public humiliation in order to resolve issues of love and betrayal.  I also enjoyed how all of the characters of Casina are rude and unethical like in Seinfeld and Friends.  These negative traits lead to some really great insults, mostly at the expense of Lysidamus who I found myself comparing to Shakespeare's Don John.  I also enjoyed the variation of the Emperor with no clothes story that The Braggart Soldier portrayed.  In the original Hans Christian Andersen story, the Emperor thinks he’s wearing beautiful robes that can only be seen by intelligent or powerful people due to the lies of two clothing salesmen.  In reality, the Emperor is walking around naked and his subjects being mocking him for his stupidity.  In The Braggart Soldier, everyone but Pyrgopolynices knows that Pyrgopolynices is not as accomplished as he thinks he is.  The braggadocious nature of Pyrgopolynices makes for a very humorous character, especially in the age of Donald Trump.  While I like both plays, I prefer the Shakspeare/Seinfeld esque story of Casina due its great humor .              

Casina vs The Braggart Soldier

Out of the two plays I much preferred Casina. I found the entire story to be extremely amusing and it made me not want to stop reading. While in the Braggart Soldier I found myself looking away from the text often as it did not hook me in. I thought that Casina was far easier to read because the plot thickened very quickly rather than the long buildup to any events that we saw in the Braggart Soldier. I also enjoyed that there was a very strong female lead in Casina that refused to be manipulated and was a strong enough character to outwit and put her husband in his place. In the Braggart Soldier the female characters very rarely have control or even take on the role of a lead character but tend to remain in the back seat of situations. I also found it amusing that despite Casina being the entire reason the play was occurring she never appeared in the play itself. This was interesting to me because I think it showed how the men in the story were far more interested in themselves than they were in the girl in the long run. Overall I found the Braggart Solider to drag on and waste a lot of time on needless dialogue while Casina immediately hooked the reader and continued to keep them entertained using witty dialogue and humorous events.

Casina v. The Braggart Soldier

While both the plays are entertaining and amusing, I preferred the play "Casina." "The Braggart Soldier" is filled with descriptive language. In the beginning of the play it provides a good hook for the reader and entrance for "destiny's dashing, dauntless, debonair, darling," that is Pyrgopolynices. Several pages later though, I found the writing slightly exhausting. The overly rich details made me wish the scenes would find their end quickly. The rhyming throughout the play was helpful. It gave the play a flow and rhythm that aided in the reading. The "architect" Palaestrio also came across asa scheming, deceitful man. He played a puppet master throughout the play to help Philocomasium and through that accomplish his wish of being away from his current master and to be free. Whereas in "Casina" the wife, Cleostrata, spends the play formulating a plan on how to prevent her husband, Lysidamus, from being unfaithful. "Casina" is full of quick witty lines, often at Lysidamus' expense. Chalinus makes several while he's eavesdropping on Lysidamus and Olympio. The tone of the play is joking and the characters keep the reader amused. The play also features a strong-willed female protagonist (trying to prevent Lysidamus' schemes) whereas in "The Braggart Soldier" the female characters are secondary characters.

"Casina" vs. "The Braggart Soldier"

Which of the two plays do you prefer, and why? Discuss both what you like in the one and what you like less in the other play!