‘Comedy involves men of middling estate; its perils are small scale, its outcomes peaceful’. To what extent do you agree with this definition of comedy in relation to Much Ado about Nothing*? Shakespeare’s Much Ado about Nothing is one of the most popular comedies in history, selling out Shakespearean theatres until their closure in 1642. The comedy is thought to be written in 1598 and is often described as a ‘problem play’ meaning it shares tendencies with that of a tragedy. Of course MAAN follows Shakespeare’s traditional comedy structure but modern critics have their own agenda that a comedy, being such a complex genre, should conform to.
A drag queen is a person, usually a man, who dresses, and usually acts, like a woman often for the purpose of entertaining or performing. Drag queens are gay men who dress as women but not all want to be women or have women's bodies. There are many kinds of drag artists and they vary greatly from professionals who have starred in movies to people who just try it
Love and Marriage Theme in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of a few comedies written by Shakespeare. It is believed that the play was written in order to celebrate someone’s wedding ceremony at the time, even though when exactly remains unclear. Thus love and marriage becomes the main theme of the play. Since Shakespeare was a great tragedy playwright, we can also find a number of tragic love elements as Shakespeare portrays the dark side of love as it is full of difficulties, unreasonable and uncertain throughout the play. Also he portrays problems in marriage life which is caused by mistrust and jealousy.
BMadness is a state of mind that is often explored in William Shakespeare’s dramas in order to evoke a reaction—often of sympathy or pity—from the audience. While this madness often ends in an undesirable manner, none is more tragic and appealing than Hamlet’s Ophelia. While her lines are set in Shakespeare’s original script, her actions must be directed to achieve the appropriate response from the audience; in the 1996 version of Hamlet, directed by Kenneth Branagh, Ophelia’s deranged state of mind is portrayed in such a way that entices the audience and brings them to tears. The slightly modern nineteenth century setting acts as a common ground between Shakespeare’s Elizabethan era and today’s modern world. Branagh’s decision to leave the script exactly as Shakespeare wrote it highlights to complexity of the story and adds to the appeal.
William Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing" and "Taming of the Shrew" are two of his best-known comedic plays. As with most of his comedies, they both feature a wedding, but there are many other similarities in themes and motifs of these plays, as well. The Taming of the Shrew is an early comedy, loosely termed “romantic” along with Much Ado About Nothing and A Midsummer Night's Dream. Such plays are lighthearted and often slapstick in style, filled with disguises and deception, and end happily. This is in sharp contrast to the later comedies that are much darker and filled with cynicism and a sometimes bitter irony.
Foils to Hamlet Foil is a mirror character of the protagonist, which has the similarities and differences with the protagonist at the same time. The attempt of foil characters is to highlight the traits of the protagonist, through the contrast of similarities and differences between the protagonists and foil characters, the readers and viewers would be able to get clear concept of the protagonist. Foils have also been used in one of the most successful plays of William Shakespeare, Hamlet. In this play, there are many different foil characters. Among them, Fortinbras, Laertes and Claudius are the most obvious foil characters to Hamlet.
Every individual has his or her personal likes and dislikes in literature. For some, William Shakespeare is a godsend to the literary world and the Adam of the modern-day English language. For others, he is no more than the devil in Elizabethan dress. One thing that cannot be disputed about him, however, was his was his ability to develop round, multidimensional characters within his plays. It doesn’t matter if we have in mind the villainous Iago, the love struck Romeo, or the treacherous wife of Macbeth.
The pragmatic and realistic views of central characters like Benedick suit the prose style that Shakespeare uses in Much Ado About Nothing, much of the humor that is generated by Benedick and Beatrice’s ‘merry war’ is delivered in prose. Although it’s best suited for those characters that speak in verse too as it is a social expectation, if that character isn’t applying this language it is seen as they are playing deviating from the social order of the play. “Fare well, boy, you know my mind, I will leave you now to your gossip-like humor”, Benedick doesn’t use verse in Act 5, Scene1 because he is challenging Claudio, verse wouldn’t be used as it is used in tragic dialogue. Consequently
Some of them were hard to point out but some were easy. Here are some of the dramatic ironies that happened in Romeo and Juliet. In the prologue of the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet on pg 787 it begins ‘’two households, both alike in dignity…’’ that was an example of dramatic irony because at first you say that both the families are close and they get along well with each other. But as you read you find out that actually the two families are rivals. Another example of dramatic irony in the play is in scene 2 of act iv Juliet agrees to marry Paris but she had a plan.
Dramatic Devices In “Othello” Shakespeare’s “Othello” is a classic example of dramatic devices at work, and while so many devices were identifiable in the play, I am going to focus on two. First, Othello is a paradigm of a tragic character, with several traits presented in evidence of his catharsis, although I shall spotlight upon his hubris. The love shared between Othello and Desdemona is a rare and brilliant one, but ends wretchedly because of Othello’s unwillingness to act out of love instead of conceit. “Othello” is one of the most famous tragedies in all of literature, and with good reason; a few of which will be given here. As evidenced by other great tragedies, the main character, that the audience has come to feel a connection with, must experience a downfall, and lose all he has worked for in life.