Comedy in Twelfth Night. Summary: Explores how William Shakespeare creates comedy in the first two acts of his play Twelfth Night. Analyzes the use of pun, comic characters, sub-plot, misunderstood conversations and dramatic irony. Comedy means something farcical that can make people laugh. It is usually done for the purpose of entertainment.
Brecht consistently uses comedy throughout his play to make a darker point. However, Gold strays from this approach and instead heightens and adds comical elements in an attempt to amuse his audience further. One must remember that Brecht’s original play – even though an entertaining play – was essentially used as a didactic tool and that people chose wether or not they wished to come and view the performance. Gold’s adaptation of the play was made in 1972 and therefore targeted a very different audience – television viewers. It is for this reason that Gold has twisted (and even added to) Bretch’s wry, black humour into high comedy – in a bid to appease and
The mechanicals are important in a midsummer night’s dream as they introduce the comedy of the piece. Scene one is extremely dramatic “Full of vexation" and this is juxtaposed by the humour of the mechanicals in scene two "let me not play a woman; I have a beard coming". Until there entrance it seems a romantic tragedy on a par with Romeo and Juliet, in a way the introduction of the mechanicals reassures the audience that it is in fact a comedy and allows them to laugh. The mechinals are Peter Quince, Nick Bottom, Francis Flute, Tom Snout, Robin Starvelling and Snug. Peter quince is one of the illustrious Mechanicals who puts on the play, Pyramus and Thisbe.
In effect this makes a true friend, however some believe it was the Fool's constant remarks that drove Lear to madness. Some critics argue that The Fool actually is Cordelia or a representative of her. Others consider him to be an aspect of Lear's alter ego. Technically Shakespeare seems to use the Fool as a vehicle for pity or as a dramatic chorus. The Fools songs, riddles and jokes are a source of comic relief, used to break up the intensity of scenes.
“The gulling of Malvolio is a joke that goes too far”. To what extent does Shakespeare blur the boundaries of comedy in his depiction of the gulling of Malvolio? The boundaries of comedy can sometimes be blurred as they range between light and dark comedy. Dark comedy is often used to dismember the potential discomfort an audience may feel should heavy moral subjects arise in pieces of art such as psychological impairment in Twelfth Night. Malvolio is used in Twelfth Night to personify the notion of Lent and order in the text and is the butt of the comedy in the sub-plot.
Beginning with David's wig, his vain attempt to pass as a member of a higher society that has already dropped the wig from fashionable dress, and ending with Faulkland's last attempt to trick Julia into admitting base motives for loving him, no one willingly presents things as they really are. In fact, many of the characters lie outright. Fag lies to Sir Anthony for Jack about the son's reasons for being in Bath, and Lucy lies to Sir Lucius about who is writing love letters to him. Other characters simply misrepresent themselves. Jack masquerades as Ensign Beverley in order to win Lydia's love, while Mrs. Malaprop tries to appear more sophisticated by peppering her speech with fancy vocabulary that she neither means nor understands.
It was a play that made controversy in the lush mansions of Victorian society. Subtitled "A Trivial Comedy for Serious People," The Importance of Being Earnest jokingly criticized Victorian manners and morals and attacking the society of the rich and luxurious. Oscar Wilde incorporated his own beliefs and ideology into the play by alluding to Victorian society "lets duplicity led to happiness." It is this "happiness" Wilde's play focuses on by concentrating the theme of the play on marriage. Alluding to marriage, The Importance of Being Earnest begins with the witty and selfish Algernon.
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.
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
It differs from the comic in that comedy evokes laughter mainly as an end in itself, while satire derides; that is, it uses laughter as a weapon, and against a butt that exists outside the work itself. That butt may be an individual (in “personal satire”), or a type of person, a class, an institution, a nation, or even the entire human race.” Satire is not limited to one literary form; rather it can lend itself to many literary forms – drama, the novel, the essay and the lyric. The satirist claims a moral justification, using satire as a corrective of human vice and folly. While criticizing others, the satirist has to make sure that the attributes which he is criticizing, are not a part of his own personality. He has to adopt a stand of moral superiority.