Along with the use of comedy as a means of critique, Fey also incorporates humor as a tool to downplay the serious aspect of her topic and as a way of keeping the attention of her audience. Fey incorporates humor throughout her entire narrative in order to critique the patriarchal society that she finds herself surrounded by. Fey’s use of humor is made up of sarcasm and does a good job at making her harder to refute. “The only person I can think of who has escaped the ‘crazy’ moniker is Betty White, which, obviously, is because people still want to have sex with her” (Fey p.3). Fey makes choses to talk about the way women are treated in the entertainment industry with a joke on Betty White, which targets both sexism and ageism, which Fey repeatedly addresses, but with a softer approach through the use of humor.
Women and had little to no rights. Racism was accepted and interracial marriage was frond upon. How Othello treats Desdemona through out the play was generally the norm even killing her if she was cheating on him would have been perfectly acceptable …. But since she wasn’t cheating on him that’s why everybody gets a little judgemental at the end. The miss trust that surrounds Othello and assumptions that he makes that everyone’s out to miss treat him would have been perfectly acceptable in his time, its just how things where back then But here is where things become different The way cleg sees and Miranda and the way he objectifies her is not socially acceptable in his time, john Fowles wrote and set the collector in the 1960s when the sexual revolution was taking place and equal rights where being introduced.
Periplectomenus’ depiction of women as being ultimately manipulative and deceitful and can be seen in many ways to be a very typical characterisation in the play as a whole, most explicitly shown in practice with the female characters themselves, but also in the male characters comments on them. However, Periplectomenus’ repeated comments about women being materialistic, superstitious and a financial burden do not actually seem to be a typical characterisation of women at all in the ‘Swaggering Soldier’. On the one hand it can be persuasively argued that Periplectomenus’ misogynistic comments on women are a typical reflection of both the presentation and perception of women in Plautus’ ‘Swaggering Soldier’. This can first be validated with the way that women are stereotypically presented as manipulative and deceptive in the ‘Swaggering Soldier’, which can be reflected in Periplectomenus’ comment, in false direct speech, of a woman sycophantically addressing him as “darling” in order to convince him to give her “some
Claudio and Hero share a conventionality, and compliant behaviour which contrasts sharply with Benedick's/Beatrice’s independent spirit, jaded opinions about the opposite sex, and their shared eccentric wit. Standard comedic pieces are utilised to address rigid social conventions and present often taboo concepts, that otherwise wouldn’t have been tolerated but within this instance are accepted as a form of social release as they make light of aspects of the society they inhabit. Within this comedic instance Benedick/Beatrice reprise the role of ‘Jesters’(with their self-proclaimed abstinence to marriage “I would not marry”) characters allowed to override social convention and converse with liberty despite their lack of nobility or title as their words are masked by comic delivery. ‘Jester’ is reference to the source of amusement within the king’s court and often the unlikely source of guidance and counsel as he unlike any other can speak freely without trepidation of persecution as because of his station he is not taken seriously. Such as the case with Benedick/Beatrice as their obscene outbursts and not only tolerate but applauded as the audience can because of the context of the piece easily
Shakespeare fostered his own tradition of women who control events in their plays – sometimes aided by disguise sometimes relying on sheer force of wit and wisdom. How far do you agree with this statement in relation to ‘much ado about nothing’? In much ado about nothing we are shown the culture and tradition of Elizabethan society at the time. We are shown the roles of men and women in society and the roles of different people in different classes. We are shown these aspects through Shakespeare’s use of comedy.
Willy Russell uses superiority theory to engage the audience by creating comedy through the misfortune of others. The character of Frank is very cynical as he fails to see the good in anybody for a majority of the play and he believes that other people are motivated purely by self-interest. However, some people may argue that cruelty and cynicism are not at the heart of the comedy in the play and that the play could still be successful without these themes. One theme that could be seen as superior to cruelty and cynicism is culture and class because this theme causes confusion and misunderstanding between the two characters which as a result produces comedy. In the play ‘Educating Rita’ cruelty and cynicism feature a great deal.
In the time of Shakespeare, men and women were not looked at as equal members of society. This can be seen in any history book of our time and it can also be seen in Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream. But he does not always support the theme of females being subservient to males. There are some examples in this play that demonstrate females standing up or against their male counterparts. A Midsummer Night’s Dream has many relationships between men and women that show women as both submissive and self-assertive, indicating that even in that time, it was not considered impossible to Shakespeare that a woman can and will go against the approval of her male dominant figure.
This is significant because Rita’s lively and irreverent speech is a source of humour in the play. For instance, when Rita animatedly refers to a painting, using words such as “erotic” and “tits” she is clearly comfortable talking in this manner to her lecturer, this makes conservative Frank feel uncomfortable and as a consequence he replies to her with brief answers. Just this conversation alone has comedic value as it shows how very different these two characters are, they have opposing lifestyles, behaviour and seem to be moving in opposing directions. In the first encounter between Rita and Frank, their dialect and everyday speech confuses them both as Rita speaks in a colloquial language and Frank in Standard English. Her understanding of a simple question ‘And you are?’ asked by a well-educated person confuses her and she fails to understand what is really being asked.
Although, it has been disputed that Duffy's poetry is misandrist due to her dismissive persona towards men. This dismissive persona that Duffy adopts may be used as a vehicle to place significance on the autonomy of women as Deryn Rees-Jones argues that she moves beyond 'a straightforwardly feminist poetry' and show the difficulties that patriarchy presents to both men and women.' Therefore, Duffy can be said to explore the gender restrictions for men as well as women through her depiction of male power. Duffy's reversal of gender roles in Little Red Cap challenges the view of the woman as 'cute but essentially helpless' through repositioning the reader’s understanding of feminine qualities, separating females from their male counterparts. Initially, Little Red Cap takes a domineering role throughout the poem, adopting the cultural stereotype of an 'immoral and dangerous seductress' which successfully reverses the socially constructed gender roles of woman as being 'naturally timid' and subverts the reader's expectations of the typical damsel in distress, 'a pursued maiden'.
As far as the comedy plot is concerned, there is the common trait that it connotes the comic poet’s view of the society but not like the tragedies, which were ultimately based on legend and myth. Thematic Content of the Comedy Aristophanes comedy was significantly characterized by comic fantasy. Ideally the plays presented problems in the society and ultimately offered plausible solutions in the most comical way