CHAPTER- 2
COMEDY OF MENACE: FORMS OF REPRESENTATION
The term ‘comedy of menace’ is applied to a group of plays in which comedy is intertwined with elements of tragedy. The term was first used by David Campton as a subtitle of one of his plays, The Lunatic View: A Comedy of Menace. Though both comedy and tragedy are based on incongruities and contradictions, the driving force in comedy is humour and the driving force in tragedy is horror and menace. In comedy the humour is generated through dramatic techniques such as divergences, repetitiveness, surprise, illogical events and statements that often lead to outcomes which are quite contrary to what the audience expect and thereby cause laughter and amusement. In comedy of menace, two contradictory
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Setting: In many of Pinter’s plays, “the room” is used as stage setting and domestic scenarios are milieu for cruelty and violence. The Room, The Birthday Party, The Caretaker, The Dumb Waiter etc have domestic setting as backdrop of cruelty. These plays show one or two characters in possession of a room. The plot of the play focuses on the domestic relationships between the residents of the room and how a drastic change occurs in their mundane lives due to the sudden arrival of an unknown outsider. The victims of the impending menace feel safe and secure within the four walls of a room and consider the outside world as threatening and full of dangers. Stanley in ‘The Birthday Party’, Rose in ‘The Room’, Aston in ‘The Caretaker’ and Gus in ‘The Dumb Waiter’ all feel comfortable and secure in their respective rooms or lodgings. Stanley lives in a boarding house near the sea. Rose lives in a warm and cozy room in a large house surrounded on all sides by a murderous chilly weather. Aston in ‘The Caretaker’ lives in a house in west London. And though in ‘The Dumb Waiter’ Ben and Gus are seen sitting in a basement room, Gus has household concerns. This is reflected when he appreciates the beauty of the crockery, find faults with the decrepit and out of order lavatory, the room's lack of a window, the bed on which he couldn't sleep, his hankering for another blanket and his apprehension at the thought that the sheets in the room might not have been fresh. Pinter had chosen …show more content…
The three dots is the output of a confused or chaotic state of mind which makes one speechless for a transitory period whereas the pause, which is a longer interruption to the action, is the output of a mind that feels threat and fear owing to the overbearing personality of the menacing element/ character in the play. The pause and the three dots may apparently seem harmless but in reality they are a menace as during this juncture the characters plan their future action, verbal or physical, in order to get an even or an upper hand in the ensuing verbal
"No one is born a racist bigot. In other words, racial bigotry or racial prejudice is not genetically or
Steve Almond’s “Funny is the New Deep” talks of the role that comedy has in our current society, and most certainly, it plays a huge role here. Namely, through what Almond [Aristotle?] calls the “comic impulse”, we as a people can speak of topics that would otherwise make many of uncomfortable. Almond deems the comic impulse as the most surefire way to keep heavy situations from becoming too foreboding. The comic impulse itself stems from our ability and unconscious need to defend and thus contend with the feeling of tragedy. As such, instead of rather forcing out humor, he implies that humor is something that is not consciously forced out from an author, but instead is more of a subconscious entity, coming out on its own. Almond emphasizes
Conflict with reality and appearance brings to surface the elements of the traditional commedia dell’arte in the form of mistaken identity, which enriches the farcical plot-lines that occur in the play. The very embodiment of mistaken identity establishes that what may be seem real could be quite the opposite, however the characters in the play are unable to distinguish this as their vision becomes distorted by their fall into the deception of appearance. It is this very comedic device that enables the conflict between Roscoe (Rachel) and Alan, or Charlie and Alan’s father to occur which is a significant part of the comedic nature of the play as the unproportional situation is what sparks laughter from the audience, and so it is the presence of mistaken identity alone that conveys the play into a light-hearted comedy. Furthermore, Peter O'Neill quotes that ‘using humour can provide a degree of safety for expressing difficult ideas or opinions which could be particularly effective…’. In the circumstances of the quotation Richard Bean effectively c...
Everyone says, everywhere you go, that everything is about sex. Wars and films were no different. The “screwball comedy” was a movie making style popular in the 1940’s. This style was created so filmmakers could put more risqué moments in their films while still abiding by the censorship laws. These movies were “sex comedies without the sex” (Andrew Sarria, film critic discussing screwball comedies). Stanley Kubrick used this idea to fuel a satire about the idealistic Cold War in 1964 to supposedly fight communism. Dr. Strangelove debunks the myth of American moral superiority through the constant sexual undertones and over masculinity throughout the film and instead portrays the Cold War as groups of testosterone fueled, sex driven men compensating for inferiority complexes.
Alan Bennett presents his characters in Talking Heads by writing the plays in the form of monologue. By employing this technique he has managed to create a rich and detailed World in which his stories unfold but, he only allows us to see it through the eyes of a single narrator. When reading a play that is presented in this manner it is possible to lose sight of the fact that you are only getting one person’s version of events and you may start to believe that you are having conversations reported to you verbatim. This is a clever mechanism because the narrators can often be unreliable and lead the reader to form opinions and draw conclusions that quite often turn out to be unfounded and false. The term “Talking heads is a synonym in television for boredom” (Bennett, 2007, p, 10) yet, these talking heads are certainly not boring, the settings may be drab and ordinary, the characters are not exciting or inspiring yet, the gossipy way in which the stories are told hooks the reader in. Fitting neatly into the genre of tragicomedy it is perhaps fitting that the ‘tragic’ comes before the ‘comedy’, certainly the dramatist infuses the plays with a rich dose of humour but the melancholy subject matter and the often quite sad and lonely characters always counter balances the laughs with a tinge of sadness.
Tragedy, irony and modernism are only a few interpretations of the valued play The Taming of the Shrew by the respected writer William Shakespeare. However, one of the most intriguing and popular of these analyses is comedy. Shakespeare is recognized for writing several plays with comedic genres, a few of which include Much Ado About Nothing and The Comedy of Errors. Comedy, being a complex genre, is composed of many different concepts. This particular play can be interpreted as a Shakespearian comedy, a screwball comedy, a farce, or slapstick.
Styan, J. L. "The Drama: Reason in Madness." Theatre Journal 32 3 (1980): 371-85. Print.
There is a similar treatment of space in the two works, with the larger, upstairs rooms at the summer lodging and at Thornfield Hall being associated with insanity and the smaller rooms below being safer and saner. Gilman's narrator expresses an early desire to move downstairs to a smaller, saner room, but her wish is ignored. Large rooms become haunted rooms in both stories as typified by the room with the yellow wallpaper, the Red Room, and the third floor room beyond which Bertha is confined.
This play shows the importance of the staging, gestures, and props making the atmosphere of a play. Without the development of these things through directions from the author, the whole point of the play will be missed. The dialog in this play only complements the unspoken. Words definitely do not tell the whole story.
The clown contributes towards the humourous entertainment of this play through his numerous puns and jokes. He is a source of laughter, not because we are humoured by his "foolery"; for he proves to be no fool at all; but rather because he amuses us with his brilliant wit. Having mastered the art of jesting, Feste is sensitive of his profession, always aware of the circumstances he is in and the appropriateness of this folly.
To fully appreciate Hamlet as a tragedy it must be understood as a comedy. Throughout this paper I will demonstrate the comedic moments of Hamlet, provide a brief analysis of the humor, and finally comment on the purpose of the comedic elements.
The first element of the parties that should be examined is the décor of Myrtle Wilson's apartment compared to that of Gatsby's house. In the first line describing the apartment, the narrator, Nick Carraway, informs the reader of the lack of comfort in the apartment and the ensuing awkwardness of the setting: "The apartment was on the top floor - a small living room, a small dining room, a small bedroom and a bath" (33). Nick's description makes it amazingly clear to the reader how unhappy and unpleasant the situation was, not only for himself, but for Tom and Myrtle, as well as the other guests in attendance, Catherine, Myrtle's sister, and the McKees, neighbors who live in the same building. One can imagine the walls virtually closing in because of the overcrowding furniture, the overpowering size and strength of Tom and his ego, and the oversized picture of Myrtle's ...
Hey, you! Can you give me your favorite Monty Python and the Search for the Holy Grail quote? This movie is filled with all kinds of hilarious puns and jokes that can make anyone laugh til they cry. The group Monty Python is a comedy group out of England that is made up of six actors. Most of their skits have some historical background to them. Which is the same in the movie Monty Python and the Search for the Holy Grail. Anyone with an eye for the medieval times can pull of many true historical factors. The most noticeable is the way many of the people lived, however if you dive deeper into the some of the meanings of the scene you can find even more historical factors that are expanded to add to the humor.
A tragedy is defined as beginning with a problem that affects everyone, i.e. the whole town or all the characters involved, the tragic hero must solve this problem and this results in his banishment or death [run-on sentence]. A comedy is defined as also beginning with a problem, but one of less significant importance. The characters try to solve the problem and the story ends with all the characters uniting in either a marriage of a party. Although these two genres are seen as being complete opposites of each other, through further analysis one can gather that though they are different certain similarities can also be seen.
If there is one way to bring a smile to someone’s face, it is laughter. Funny jokes, comical stunts, sarcasm- Every person is different when it comes to what makes them laugh. Some find dry humor comical. Others think sarcasm or joke-filled ranting are the best. ‘Comedy’ is such a broad term, broad enough to allow everyone to find something they find comical. In fact, ‘comedy’ includes a specific type of drama, one where the protagonist is joyful and happy endings are expected. Comedy is like a drug; it allows you to escape reality. When we say the word ‘comedy’ in the present, we are generally referring to a type of performance which provides humor. However, in its broadest sense, comedy has only one purpose: comedy makes people smile and