Explore how Much Ado draws on and challenges comic conventions. Much Ado About is a play largely based on romantic comedy. Many aspects of the play are funny because of the desire and need shared by characters, to be together, although they each express it in different ways. Although the young lovers Hero and Claudio provide the main storyline through their excelling relationship, the tension between the older, lovers Benedick and Beatrice is what makes Much Ado About Nothing so memorable. Benedick and Beatrice argue with delightful wit, and Shakespeare develops their journey from antagonism to sincere love and affection with a rich sense of humour and compassion.
Humor in A Midsummer Night’s Dream “The true test of comedy is that it shall awaken thoughtful laughter.” -George Meredith Introduction to Comedy: In comedy the appeals are made to the head, not to the heart. As audience members, the writer expects us to see the incongruity of an action. Comedy is based on the principle that no man knows who he is and that he cannot see his real mirror image but only what he wants to see. Irony* and incongruity* are the triggers of laughter. Reversal of roles, exaggerations, and understatement all surprise our mental expectations and make us see things differently.
Stoppard uses his play to mock the conventions of cosy crime fiction as some believe theatrical whodunits are inevitably shallow and dull thus Stoppard only delineates the obvious. Stoppard focuses on the melodramatic style of The Mousetrap that involves the audience in clues and suspense with complications and revelations at the end of each act through his notion of absurdist theatre. He exaggerates the conventions of the crime fiction genre through combining elements of British comedy in his play where the audience is aware of such humour. By utilizing the audiences’ knowledge of detective fiction as an iconic British genre he henceforth creates a parody and pastiche in The Real Inspector
It could in some ways be considered the driving force of the play itself. The sickly jealousy which comes to consume Othello would have meant very little at all if he had not loved Desdemona with the passion and vigour that he did. There are a number of contrasts utilised by Shakespeare to convey two very different forms of love, each nearly completely antithetical to the other. The relationship between Othello and Desdemona, proved in the end to be something pure and good, is set beside the sickly, superficial relationship between Iago and Emilia. Interestingly, this makes the theme of love in Othello yet another aspect of the idea of opposites, two-facedness, the ultimate duality of black and white, good and evil, inherent in the play.
In another instance, it is used as defense against greater harm, as in Othello. And of course, let’s not forget the instances when deception takes the form of well-planned tactics in the hands of evil characters, as in Julius Caesar. In comparing any two plays, such as Hamlet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream for example, one can easily list many dualities– tragedy and comedy, an unhappy and happy ending and seriousness and mockery. But when it comes to similarities, the repeating patterns of deceit should be the first to come to one’s mind. A short essay cannot investigate all instances of this occurrence in all works of the author, but could provide the reader with the major categories.
The play illuminates how difficult it is to search for truth in an ambiguous world Within Hamlet, each character uses language in different ways to create their own sense of truth and to manipulate those around them to believing their truth. It is in this that Hamlet realises that language can be broken down to show that in fact it is meaningless, and is used to put on a façade. The character of Horatio uses language to tell stories, and is often used to provide the objective truth in the play as he appears very sure of his interpretations, however this can be contrasted by Hamlet who speaks in riddles and puns to show the degradation of language. Claudius, as a Machiavellian leader, manipulates language to seem trustworthy to the other characters. Young Hamlet breaks down language to show that it cannot be trusted for the objective truth.
Throughout the play, Beatrice and Benedick’s exchanges provide obvious humour as they trade insults until Don Pedro, Hero and Claudio decide to ‘bring Signior Benedick and the Lady Beatrice into a mountain of affection.’ Her character’s freedom is a source of humour within the play as it is so far from the social orthodoxy of the time it becomes humorous, as, according to Dr Emma Smith, to be funny means being able to ‘push boundaries.’ Beatrice’s comments show her ideas on authority and her individuality as a female character being outspoken. Comedies are ultimately conservative as female characters are expected to be obedient and almost have to act as
With Chaucer’s humour there is also satire which parodies ordinary life and the previous tale. Because of the position of the Miller’s Tale as an answer to the Knight’s Tale, we have to look at what that means. Seeing as the Miller’s Tale is a direct answer to the Knight’s Tale of high romance and courtly love, we get the juxtaposition of two very different tales that really are about the same thing. Chaucer shows us that the fabliau can be a parody of the romance genre. In both stories we have a love triangle with a woman which is unobtainable and two men that fight over her.
The play is a comic play in which doubling and disguise creates confusion to the characters. Disguise and doubling is the main plot of the comedy. Wilde uses dramatic irony in the play as the audience know that the characters are acting and in disguise. Comedy is created through disguise and doubling to create false identities for the characters as they find themselves in situations that are difficult to get out of. I will also assess Wilde’s use of language to convey his own beliefs on doubling, disguise, marriage and inversion through characters in the play.
Hamlet and Claudius contradict one another in a variety of ways making them enemies throughout the play. Prince Hamlet is perceived as the protagonist in the play for many reasons, one of them being because he displays an elegant intensity in everything he does, making him very amiable to the audience. When Hamlet is truly indecisive, brutal, revengeful, and hateful. When Hamlet speaks to others, his words are thought out to be hurtful to whomever he is speaking to. “You should not have believ'd me, for virtue cannot so inoculate our old stock but we shall relish of it.