This conflict between them causes comedy as there are misunderstandings, which are amusing and the audience feel superiority over the characters who do not understand some of each other’s references. At the start of the play when Rita refers to a poem about “fightin’ death an’ disease”, Frank automatically assumes its “Dylan Thomas” as Thomas’s poem about death is a part of the literary canon. However Rita replies it’s “Roger McGough’s” poem that she’s describing. This misunderstanding conveys to the audience that these characters would not conventionally associate with each other. It could be amusing to the audience as it highlights the absurdity of the situation.
That..." The sentence here should read "if we offend, it is our good will that...” Therefore Shakespeare uses the mechanicals to create comedy. Nick Bottom is a weaver and one of the Athenian craftsmen who puts on the play, Pyramus and Thisbe. During play rehearsal, Bottom's head is transformed (by Puck) into that of an "ass" (donkey), making him the butt of the play. Bottom unwittingly makes an idiot of himself, expressing confidence about the wrong things, and ever willing to explain to others as if they were the ones out of the loop. Bottom's idiocy is almost endearingly innocent.
Portia has to deal with prejudice against her gender, the Prince of Morocco has to cope with prejudice against his race but the character that is most discriminated against is Shylock. He is hated for being a Jew and a money-lender, but Shakespeare has not made Shylock a character easy to sympathize with. He appears to be mean and cruel and it seems as though he loves his money above all else. However during the play there are moments when Shakespeare gives Shylock speeches which show his humaneness and compassion. In these moments, although at the time it was written there was little tolerance of Jews, during these moments the modern day audience would certainly feel sorry for him.
It should be seen as a tragedy/comedy. Life is not always 100% happy, so why should a play be ? We have to remember that in Elizabethan times, Jews were universally hated. The audience couldn't feel any sympathy for Shylock's fate but instead find it laughable instead of tragic just because he's a Jew. Furthermore, the play is set in far away Venice, which makes it less real for an English audience and makes them less able to relate to the tragic elements of the play.
If solely relying on Aristotle’s criteria to qualify the play, none of the aspects ever reach their full potential but it could be argued that Leigh included tragic elements and therefore it should be considered a tragedy, but is hard to distinguish through the comic elements he includes throughout as well. Another aspect that leads the audience further to believe this is a tragedy is that Laurence is the only evident tragic hero throughout. Beverly continually belittles, is rude to and dominates Laurence, while openly flirting with Tony: ‘Laurence, would you please go back in the kitchen and finish making your little sandwich, all right?’ Beverly regularly refers to Laurence and his actions as ‘little’, which undermines his manhood and is patronising infront of their guests. She especially likes to do this infront of Tony. ‘[Tony and Laurence pick it up.
In the late 1600s, individuals to be considered 'mad' were thought to have been possessed by the devil or some other evil spirit, and so were mocked and considered dangerous and unapproachable (as suggested by Sir Toby in Act 3 Scene 4 “defy the devil”). In some ways, they weren't even thought of as the same species to conventionally 'normal' people. For this reason, an Elizabethan audience may find the joke to be comfortably within boundaries and possess the acumen necessary to find humour within the text and jokes. Another reason a 17th Century audience could consider the joke to be within the boundaries of comedy is the possibility of Malvolio being an ill-considered puritan to them. A puritan is a religious person who's personally opinionated line between what is wrong and what is right is absolute and solid.
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 article, Muffled Voices in animation. Gender Roles and black stereotypes in Warner Bros. Cartoons: From Honey to Babs Bunny", it says that black stereotypes were used to make the people laugh. "They are natural born humorists and will often assume ridiculous attitudes or say side splitting things with no intention of being funny". This promotes the idea that these characterisitcs can aways be applied to people of the same background, which is incorrect. The questions We asked our respondents a total of six questions.
The main purpose of a low comedy scene is to give the audience a slight break from the build up of tension that took part in the main scenes. This is seen in Dr. Faustus as at the time of the play, black magic and conjuring devils would have been absolutely petrifying. These low comedy scenes would put the audience at rest for a short while, whilst also adding valuable stock characters of a morality play. The comedy scene in Act I scene IV, where a deal takes place between Wagner and a clown Robin is used by Marlowe to undermine Faustus’s intelligence as Robin is depicted as a character of low status who stands up to Wagner by identifying all the pitfall in their deal. Wagner offers Robin a raw shoulder of mutton in exchange for his soul, a deal reflecting the primary deal exchanged between Faustus and Mephistopheles however, unlike Faustus, Robin identifies the possible problem with the shoulder of mutton being “blood raw” and states that if he were to exchange his soul, he would rather have the mutton “roasted” with “good sauce”.
Within the comedic play ‘The Merchant of Venice’ William Shakespeare shows us an episode In Act 3 Scene 1 where we are presented with a discussion between the two Jewish characters: Shylock and Tubal. From this we see the priorities of Shylock, the Schadenfreude that Shylock displays and how Tubal mocks and Manipulates Shylock. These acts are all considered awful and would create shocking impressions of these characters. In this scene we can clearly see how the idea of wealth is very important to Shylock. We know this because of the line ‘I would my daughter were dead at my foot, and the jewels in her ear: would she were hearsed at my foot, and the ducats in her coffin’.