Shakespearean comedies were the pinnacle of laughter in the Elizabethan era. But why were these comedies even considered comedies, why was it funny? Most of “Shakespeare’s comedies was driven by language and complex plots involving mistaken identity”. The comedies were funny because they had used many ideas that related to the Elizabethan era. They used to the theme like mistaken identity and other ironic scenario to get a rise out other audience. The Shakespearean comedies Much Ado About Nothing and The Twelfth Night used political humor, wit, romantic comedy and complex plots to make the audience laugh.
The plays used conversations that had witty and original insults in them. John Kurlak(2003) states that “He wrote insults that everyone
The movie She’s the Man is similar to Shakespeare’s play The Twelfth Night because they both share themes focusing on gender equality, identity, and relationships.
Humor is a literary tool that helps make the viewer laugh or have amusement. There will be two poems that was written by a man named named Shakespeare. I will be able to show humor in both of these poems which are; “Sonnet 130” and Midsummer’s Night Dream. My goal in this essay is to show the comparisons in humor between these two poems, while explaining identification and explanation of the author’s… choices on the audience imperative.
The various characters in Shakespeare’s plays fuel his content and creativity. Richard II and Much Ado About Nothing have characters with differing personalities that blend together to form plot twists and changes in events. Shakespeare had to balance out comedy with tragedy, because too much of one would overwhelm the audience. Consequently, he had to create characters that would form balance between the two. These characters were capable of predicting the outcomes of plays, and drastically affecting plot.
?Much Ado About Nothing'' is a postwar love story. Its principal subject is that of romance that may settle over the land after soldiers come home. I noticed that Much Ado is actually two love stories. One concerns sweetly innocent lovers who are driven apart by the plotting of enemies. The other involves very sarcastic lovers who are swept into each other's arms by the benign machinations of friends. I had a lot of trouble understanding the dialect, I grew up a country boy and we didn?t do much of this in my 14 persons graduating class. None the less I didn?t think it was a waste of time either. It was of very good quality as far as a plot is
What is a comedy? According to a famous filmmaker, Woody Allen, thinks “Comedy is rather like a dessert, a bit like meringue.” A Midsummer Night’s Dream - a play written by William Shakespeare, is a comedy which talks about a love story between four lovers that live in Athens. Demetrius, Lysander, Hermia and Helena are all fighting for each other. The play “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” written by Shakespeare, consisted of a lot of humorous situations, for example: When Titania fell in love with Bottom who had an ass; when Lysander suddenly fell in love with Helena, when Demetrius suddenly fell in love with Hermia. This essay is considered as a comedy, as it consists of exaggeration, irony, funny characters,
‘Shakespeare wrote his play in accordance with the conventions of an easily identifiable genre – history, comedy or tragedy.’
In I Henry IV and II Henry IV, William Shakespeare brings together drama and comedy to create two of the most compelling history plays ever written. Many of Shakespeare's other works are nearly absolute in their adherence to either the comic or tragic traditions, but in the two Henry IV plays Shakespeare combines comedy and drama in ways that seem to bring a certain realism to his characters, and thus the plays. The present essay is an examination of the various and significant effects that Shakespeare's comedic scenes have on I Henry IV and II Henry IV. The Diversity of Society
Comedy has two playwrights, Aristophanes and Menander. Aristophanes wrote approximately one play a year. Menander was a Greek dramatist and wrote 108 comedies for Athenian comedy. These two were the most well-known writers in this time for comedy. The roles would be played by ordinary people in their society. People thought that the comedy productions were more like sit-coms. The masks that the people used in the comedy were almost always smiling.
Shakespeare's plays are full of references to what is now obscure- classical myth, falconry, astrology, or the theory of 'humors' that were thought to determine personality within so many of his characters (?S??Far?). Shakespeare wrote about themes and events we can relate to even now nearly 500 years later. 'He wrote about us-you and me, our friends, our families, the people we work with and play with and argue with and go to bed with, the characters we see on the evening news and elect to public office' often times comparisons are often scary (Seder iii). Shakespeare also liked to make fun of many of his characters. His plays show that he can be funny and has a humorous personality, often times even in his tragedies in which
As illustrated by the two plays Romeo and Juliet and Much Ado About Nothing, William Shakespeare was a true romantic. In each play, his characters suffer great hardship, but in the end, he delivers them to a life of eternal love. Characters plot against each other in each play. The relationships of the people in his plays are not always what they seem. Whether it be a tragedy or a comedy, Shakespeare encompasses three elements into his plays: love, intrigue, and identity.
In a comparison of comedy and tragedy, I will begin by looking at narrative. The narration in a comedy often involves union and togetherness as we see in the marriage scene at the end of Midsummer's Night Dream. William Hazlitt tells us that one can also expect incongruities, misunderstandings, and contradictions. I am reminded of the play The Importance of Being Ernest and the humor by way of mistaken identity. Sigmund Freud tells us to expect excess and exaggeration in comedy. Chekhov's Marriage Proposal displays this excess both in language and in movements. Charles Darwin insists that in a comedy "circumstances must not be of a momentous nature;" whereas, Northop Frye identifies
‘Shakespeare uses comedy to express ideas that challenge the norms of society.’ Discuss in relevance to Much Ado about Nothing
Two of Shakespeare’s works, The Merchant of Venice and Twelfth Night, both have a parallel plot structure which involves a woman disguising herself as a man in order to accomplish some goal. In the former, Portia disguises herself as a lawyer so as to enter the Duke’s court and help her husband’s friend, Antonio, avoid having a pound of his flesh cut off. In the latter, Viola disguises herself as Cesario so she can enter Duke Orsino’s court and work as a page. This parallel structure is further strengthened by the fact that in both plays, the woman in disguise has to perform some task that (during Shakespeare’s time) was usually performed by a man. Portia has to defend her husband’s friend, Antonio, in court, while Viola has to engage in a sword fight with Sir Andrew. Despite the many similarities, there is a subtle difference: Portia seems much more confident in her role as a man when compared to Viola. We see when Portia is effective and confident as a lawyer but Viola is reluctant to spar with Sir Andrew in a sword fight, and also when she is weary that the Fool has caught on to her disguise. This difference reflects the theme of challenging prejudice in The Merchant of Venice, and also reflect the theme of highlighting gender difference in Twelfth Night, which reveals a lot about both plays as a whole.
There are many characteristics that make up a comedy. Characteristics such as mistaken identity, battle of the sexes, and jumping to conclusions are what set the comedic story apart from the tragedy. Within a comedy, no matter how much fault, and dismay may appear within the story, there always seems to be the classic ending of “…and they all lived happily ever after…” Comedies capture the viewer with a sense of compassion and love for the characters in the story. Each character has their own essence, to which they pertain a flaw of some sorts, which the audience can relate to. With the relation to characters there is defiantly a certain interest that is grabbed by the actors, which sucks the audience into the
William Shakespeare lived and wrote over 400 years ago, but his wonderful plays continue to entertain and influence the audiences of the Twenty-First Century. Despite the outdated content and language of his works, Shakespeare’s plays remain popular with modern readers and play watchers for another reason. In all of his works, including William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, he uses countless literary devices and techniques to affect the mood of the audience and enhance their enjoyment. He utilizes puns and juxtaposition to create a comical or light hearted mood. He also uses dramatic irony and oxymorons for a dramatic or serious mood. Although Shakespeare’s work does not include modern language or modern situations, the literary devices that he uses work to keep an audience of any time feeling involved