There is a duality to the character of Hamlet, as his madness changes from a performance to true insanity throughout the play. Initially, in Act 1 Scene 5, Hamlet is coerced by the ghost and decides that he will “put an antic disposition on”. This is the main use of dramatic irony in the play, as the audience knows Hamlet’s madness is performed. However as the play develops and changes, so too does Hamlet’s madness. Act 3 Scene 4 is the main turning point for Hamlet’s madness.
Peter quince is one of the illustrious Mechanicals who puts on the play, Pyramus and Thisbe. In the mockery of a "play within the play,” Shakespeare punctuated Quince's Prologue, incorrectly in order to make it comical. Therefore the meaning of what Quince says is different from what he intends. "If we offend, it is with our good will. That..." The sentence here should read "if we offend, it is our good will that...” Therefore Shakespeare uses the mechanicals to create comedy.
Iago Although Iago is clearly the antagonist throughout the play, Shakespeare cleverly also utilizes the character as a confidante. His soliloquies to the audience lay out his intent and planning of the plot to the audience; to seek revenge on Othello. In addition to helping the audience understand Iago’s twisted thoughts, I believe that Shakespeare’s intent in writing in these brilliant soliloquies was to make the audience feel that they were part of the play and involved in the plot. We learn early on the relationship between Iago and Roderigo. Roderigo discloses his trust for Iago in the opening lines of the play.
“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.
October 31, 2011 Taming Shrew To Whom It May Concern: After reading the Taming of the Shrew and watching your film of 10 Things I Hate About You, I have some observations that you may find valuable regarding your updates on character. The first character that it portrayed is Katherine (Kat), who is obviously as shrew as excepted to be. The play describes her as shrew, but there is no reason explaining why she is mean through the entire play. Contrarily, your film describes Kat to have a reason for her nastiness. In the play, Hortensio describes Kat to Petruchio in order to explain how rude she is after telling him how much money her family has, “Her name is Katherina Minola, Renowned in Padua for her scolding tongue”(55).
In this essay I will consider the significance of Act III scene I. Before the scene, Hamlet has been contemplating suicide. He also gathered a number of players to act in his “Dumb show”. Polonius has just begun to hatch a plan of spying on Hamlet from behind a curtain. His scene is crucial to the play as it hints at Claudius’s indiscretion and Hamlet’s first outward rejection of Ophelia.
Titania does not truly feel this way; she only does under the spell of Puck’s trick. This infatuation blinds her and causes her to fall in love with Bottom, then, a human with a donkey’s head. Despite how ridiculous the situation is, it still causes her to be obsessive such that she makes certain Bottom is with her all the time. The infatuation was carefully planned by Puck, who made sure that Bottom would be the first creature Titania sees after he dabs the love-juice on her eyes. Bottom, for the sake of the trick, was unfortunately transformed into a human with an ass’ head.
Like Cordelia, the Fool is honest, but his comical language masks his honesty. The Fool enters the play while Cordelia exits, which most Shakespearean scholars suggest that the Fool is a spiritual twin that connects with Cordelia-“Prithee, nuncle, keep a schoolmaster that can teach thy fool/to lie: I would fain to learn to lie”-because he leads Lear onto the road of sanity and truth and when Cordelia reenters she represents his heart and sanity that have been reborn-“Ay, madam; in the heaviness of his sleep/we put fresh garments on him.” However, when the Fool enters the play, he wastes no time and reminds Lear of “nothing.” Indeed, there is a subversion of values, by dividing his kingdom he has become the “all licens’d Fool.” The Fool also tells Lear that he has become “an O without a figure,” because he has given away his scepter, his rod-which represents his manhood-and his whip which suggest that he has become the child to his daughters. The Fool like Edmund is a luminal character because he is sui generis. He cannot be labeled because he is a wise man and a Fool. Throughout the play he is marginalized because he is a Fool, but since he is the Fool no one pays attention to him and he uses this title as an advantage to speak of the truth.
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.
By saying these words to her he is crassly calling her a harlot, and making to appear that he never really loved her. Ophelia made one decision and that was to love Hamlet, and now he is using her actions to make her feel inferior and sinful. Up to this point in the play, Shakespeare depicted Hamlet as a mad man hell-bent on avenging his fathers suspect death, however: his cruel outburst at Ophelia is not a turning point in the story in which he goes from being a hero to being a cold-hearted oppressor. Hamlet tells Ophelia that she will have to ‘marry a fool’ because ‘wise men’ would know better than to marry her; he yells at her ‘get thee to a nunnery’, and yet the way it fits into the plot makes it seem almost expected. As the plot progresses Ophelia begins to lose her mind, resulting in her eventually suicide, but at no point his Hamlet called out for his harsh words against her in a significant way.