The Fools songs, riddles and jokes are a source of comic relief, used to break up the intensity of scenes. The Fool appears to have a deceptively simple part in the play when in actual fact his role is of key significance. The Fool and Lear have a fascinating relationship throughout the play. Lear seems to depend on his Fool increasingly to be his voice of reason or his conscience, because he reminds Lear of all his mistakes and manipulates his feelings into realising them. This is a great irony as the King who is supposed to be wise is in-fact a fool, yet the Fool himself is full of
In this sense, it is solely their personality that makes them so amusing. They are oblivious as to how one should behave around others and are guilty of committing social faux pas on several occasions. Abiding to social conventions is not of concern to the fools. This, therefore, makes for a highly humorous situation. Another way in which the Shakespearean fool entertains the audience is through dramatic irony.
Feste frequently causes amusement and makes the audience laugh; he also draws a realistic sense of Elizabethan society into the play. However, Feste is presented as a self-proclaimed ‘fool’, working under the status of a clown doing service for both Count Orisno and Lady Olivia, but when we allow ourselves to take a wider perspective of the text, we begin to discover that he is actually one of the most intellectually aware and it could be argued that he is the wisest character in the play, developing this idea of intelligence through his various displays of wit and duping of the surrounding characters. One rudimentary example of Feste’s intelligence is his implied knowledge of Viola’s true sex when he says “now Jove in his next commodity of hair, send thee a beard”. To an on looking character, this would seem as if Feste is simply making a joke about ‘Cesario’s’ lack of facial hair but between Feste and Viola, there would be a mutual understanding that he knows she is a woman, elaborating on the fact that Feste actually observes the affairs that occur between both houses and of each and every person associated with these residences. With regard to this observational quality, it is as if he does not want to reveal what he knows, in fear of losing his position as the ‘clown’ and only relates to this detail in a friendly banter between himself and Viola in Act 3 Scene 1.
It could be amusing to the audience as it highlights the absurdity of the situation. Also, in the same scene, Frank does not get Rita’s joke about him being named after the quality who is Frank Ness, Eliot’s brother who was the famous ‘Chicago copper’ who caught Al Capone. Frank thought Rita meant T.S Eliot. The audience may feel superior to Frank, as they may understand the joke so this would be amusing to them. Professor Dan Rebellato states that: “we laugh at something because we feel superior to it”.
Antigone; Polynices sister tries to bury him and Creon has her captured for a punishment. In ‘Antigone’ Creon is the tragic hero because he displays the elements of a Greek tragedy peripeteia, anagnorisis and hubris. Hubris is the excessive pride of arrogance; it is the quality in a character that most often brings about their downfall in tragedy. Creon portrays hubris toward several characters in the play like; Antigone and Teiresias. 'I do believe the creatures both are mad, one lately crazed, the other from her birth' (Sophocles 141) In this quote Creon is calling both Antigone and Iseme crazy for feeling sorrow for their brothers death.This displays hubris because he is being ignorant as he is filled with excessive pride.
To what Extent is King Lear a Tragic Hero? Aristotle said that tragedy is characterised by seriousness and dignity and involving a great person who experiences a reversal of fortune. Aristotle’s definition can include a change of fortune from bad to good, but he says that the change from good to bad is preferable because this affects pity and fear within the audience. Tragedy results in catharsis (emotional cleansing) or healing for the audience through their experience of these emotions in response to the suffering of the characters in the drama/play. According to Aristotle a tragic hero must be a noble person and also hold a “high” status in society.
Him being drunk in this scene allows Shakespeare to develop his character both positively and negatively through an example of malapropism. He mishears a question asked of him by Olivia and ultimately confuses the word ''lethargy'' with ''lechery.'' Although the result of this is comic, it is also quite a crude joke and is an example of 'bad comedy'. This shows that Toby has a rude, inappropriate side to him. The reader second guesses their first opinion of him and sees a selfish side to him, as he is drunk at his cousins funeral with no regards to other peoples feelings.
Reasonable Eccentric Behavior of Dorian Gray . In the book, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Dorian Gray is a handsome and proper man, but on the inside he is full of madness, guilt and misery. Initially he’s a melodramatic and petulant young man , but after realizing his true morals –his life skews toward the futile side. Instead of fixing his life, he lives for the pursuit of pleasure which makes him indifferent. Although his actions are very insane, they can be seen as rational to reader considering hedonism.
(64) Iago does not tell Othello directly that Desdemona is indeed cheating on him, but Othello’s trust in Iago leads him to be worried about it, thinking that Iago is telling him a fact. This follows Iago spreading false information and intricately convincing Othello that
The Fool is one of the most alluring characters in Shakespeare’s King Lear. He is a choric commentator whose lines reveal thematic motifs within the play, as well as a character that strategically uses humorous language as comic relief to Lear, but does not diminish the intensity of Lear’s misery. As he alleviates the intensity through humor, he equivocates because he says metaphors that speak the truth like the three witches in Macbeth, but the opposite. The Fool’s role is essential because he is aligned with Cordelia. Like Cordelia, the Fool is honest, but his comical language masks his honesty.