Shakespeare’s wit and word play used even for simply just the names of the characters can build up laughter. The use of onomatopoeia in Sir Toby’s name creates a humorous
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. Since the time of the ancient Greeks critics have struggled to define it, Plato described it as a series of events you would ‘blush to practice yourself’. Susan Snyder who writes for the Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare Company, states that - ‘Comedy involves men of middling estate, its perils are small scale, its outcomes peaceful’. This is an excellent summary for the majority of Shakespeare’s plays; however it is not necessarily accurate in relation to MAAN. It is true to say that a comedy involves ‘men of a middling estate’, in MAAN the protagonists share the company of the Prince Don Pedro, and are socially superior to the watchmen such as Dogberry and Verges.
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
Two friends, almost complete opposites when it comes to their personalities, both attend Valencia High School. While one is cautious and keeps peace, the other loves a challenge and has many enemies. Their relationship is similar to that of Mercutio and Benvolio in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. These characters add flavor to the play in representing good and evil, influencing lovesick Romeo, and by adding wit to a serious-toned play. Mercutio, the hot-headed best friend of Romeo, adds wit and humor to the play Romeo and Juliet and was included in the play to make the audience laugh and also to keep them on the edge of their seats with suspense.
'The Fool is more important to the play than he may at first seem.' By considering the dramatic presentation of the Fool, evaluate this view. The Fool is more than just a jester who is present to provide some comic relief in the tragedy of King Lear; like many of Shakespeare’s fools, he is shown as a highly intelligent character who the audience likes not just for his entertainment, but his insightfulness. Therefore, he is central both to the plot, as he criticises and advises Lear, potentially setting his later clarity into the motion, and to the audience’s understanding of the characters in the play. The first impression most have of the Fool is that his presence serves as form of comic relief, in order to set a lighter tone to the play; however, because of this, his death is crucial to the bleak ending of the play.
However, Shakespeare presents Benedick’s change in a more positive and light-hearted manner, whilst Macbeth’s change revolves around negativity and wrong-doing as the approach to each individual genre is different, where comedies are humorous and happy, whilst tragedies are gloomy and grief-stricken. INTRO: The opening scene of the play, ‘Much Ado About Nothing’, is significant as Shakespeare introduces the genre of the play as a romantic comedy through the comic names given to Benedick and Beatrice by each other. Beatrice nicknames Benedick as “Signor Mountanto”, which uses sexual innuendo expressing their love hate relationship, created by the definition of the word ‘montanto’ (technical term for an upward thrust in fencing). This insulting, but hilarious comment would have only been understood by the Shakespearean audience. Opposing this, Benedick personifies disdain in the form of Beatrice, by calling her “Lady Disdain”, suggesting that she is in fact, the epitome of disdain or contempt.
The fact that the porter is speaking in prose instead of a poetic manner sets a distinctive contrast of the porter’s speech with the rest of the play, thus developing the humor given to the reader even further. The reason why the reader can perceive the porter’s irony and humor is not only because of the tone he delivers his assumptions but also because of the fact that he innocently and unknowingly delivers his assumptions that
They bring in a lot of content which fits into to comedy criteria as well as enable the plot to develop fully. Firstly, the aspect of comedy ' servants and masters' is one where The Importance of Being Earnest fits perfectly as Lane and Merriman are both butlers of Jack and Algernon-the main characters of the play. They show the contrast between the lower and upper class in the Victorian Era which is a theme often found in comedic plays. Additionally, the relationship between Lane and Algernon could possibly represent the theme of youth and age-the generation gap. This is shown when Algernon asks Lane, " Is marriage so demoralising as that?"
At the same time to increase, and emphasize the tragic plot. Shakespeare was the first to mix comedy and tragedy together, but borrowed the ideas of tragedy from Aristotle. The two words come from Middle English, also back from Middle French, and originally the Old French used ‘relever’, meaning ‘to relieve.’ Hamlet seems to be the only one of Shakespeare's tragic protagonists who possesses and demonstrates a sense of humour in this play. Like the amusing characters of comedies, he likes to play games with language, to disorient other characters' verbal styles, and he has a taste for puns. In this presentation, I am mainly going to talk about Hamlet taking on the role of a fool towards Polonius, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, Osric, and the Gravedigger.
All critics agree in considering Twelfth Night as one of the most delightful of Shakespeare’s comedies. It is full of sweetness and pleasantry. It makes us laugh at the follies of mankind, not despire them, still less bear any ill-will towards them. From start to end the play is full of gay joviality. The sentimental elements and the unsentimental malice a livelier, more dramatic impression from their contrast: and the contrast itself makes the dolling life of the play more interesting to an audience.