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The importance of humour in Romeo and Juliet
The importance of humour in Romeo and Juliet
The relation between Shakespeare tragedies
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Recommended: The importance of humour in Romeo and Juliet
Hawaiz Kaka
Mrs. Kent
ENG2DB-10
April 27, 2016
As seen in Hamlet and Macbeth, Shakespeare focuses a lot of his plays on tragedies. Romeo and Juliet is no different, a story of two lovers from feuding families that eventually die. But of course too much tragedy or romance will lead to a bored audience as the only thing that they see are characters dying and others falling in love. To provide a contrast to this boredom that would be found in such a tragic story an author uses humour to keep the audience entertained. Likewise, Shakespeare add humour in the play Romeo and Juliet by using various different literary elements, such as witty puns and sarcasm to help entertain the audience. Puns effectively enlighten the mood to help make this play less tragic. Shakespeare uses puns throughout the play to help entertain the audience. For example after Juliet is seemingly dead, Peter and the musicians quarrel. This jibe “I’ll re you and I’ll fa you. Do you note me?”(Shakespeare 4.5. 120-121) that Peter says to the Musicians shows the lightness of this scene. Although this is a tragic event in the play, Shakespeare adds this banter between Peter and the Musicians to show that this event isn’t as tragic as it first seems. As the audience already knows, Juliet is not really dead, she drank a vial to make it seem as if
Witty puns and sarcasm add a lot to make less significant parts of this play less tragic as they focus more on making the audience laugh rather than having them feel sad in certain parts of the play. Humour also helps the audience understand that this play isn’t as tragic as first thought, since at the end the Capulets and Montagues strengthen their ties. This shows how important humour is in a piece of literature as it never fails to keep the audience entertained and it serves as a reminder that a great thing will always come out of
William Shakespeare’s diverse use of rhetorical and figurative language enhances and develops the moods he conveys, thus creating vast and various atmospheres throughout his works. An example of one his works that uses many of these devices is Shakespeare’s renowned Romeo and Juliet. In the famous play, the two lovebirds (Romeo and Juliet), fall in a forbidden love as the long-lasting rivalry between their two families continues its onslaught. The couple later on tragically commit suicide, which ultimately ends the feud. During the journey of the two lovers, Shakespeare expresses clearly the mood of each scene using figurative language.
The paradoxes and puns that are used by Shakespeare allow the reader to infer character traits of Romeo. Romeo says, “O, she is rich in beauty; only poor That, when she dies, with beauty dies her store” (1.1.208-209). Romeo uses this paradox to explain how he is upset that Rosaline has plenty of beauty, but her beauty will die when she dies. Romeo only cares about her physical appearance, revealing that he is a shallow man. Romeo jokes with Mercutio: “Nay, good goose, bite not” (2.4.69). This is a pun because Romeo is calling Mercutio a goose while Mercutio is talking about how Romeo has been leading them on a wild-goose chase. This exchange allows the reader to infer that Romeo is witty and likes to joke. The reader can infer character traits about Romeo by
William Shakespeare is really famous for his writings, especially Romeo and Juliet. A pair of two star crossed lovers take place, on their mission to unite two houses, Capulets and Montagues, once and for all. In the play Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare presents a lot of paradoxes. This provides a lot of contrast to the text and allows readers to think harder and better understand the intricacies of this writing. In this play, there are many paradoxical themes expressed through the text for example good versus evil, love versus hate, and many more. All these paradoxes are communicated through figurative language, characterization, sound devices, and literary foils. These are literary devices that authors use to help readers to visualize
On the surface, Romeo & Juliet is a simple tragic love story: boy meets girl, they fall in love, time elapses, things go wrong, and an end is met. But if you ask why was the end met, well there's where you get into the details of the story and the individual aspects of the mostly nondescript characters, in particular Romeo himself. Look into his ridiculously romantic lines, and you'll notice either the flaw in his character, the mistake he made, or the way fate plays with its toys.
Another example is when Juliet?s nurse comes to talk to Romeo about Juliet, and the friends of Romeo mock her thinking she is another stranger. Both of these and other ironies in the opening acts are meant to be entertaining and to keep the groundlings happy, along with other factors, while at the same time setting the stage for the play to become a tragedy, and slowly starting to shift to a more depth as the play progresses. In the center, specifically act three, you see the use of irony to be more serious, often trying to lightly foreshadow and keep the audience interested. From Tybalt aggravating Mercutio and then Romeo with his death, after Romeo seemingly feels and professes?love? for him due to his very recent secret marriage to Tybalt?s cousin, Juliet.
Use of Humor in Romeo and Juliet & nbsp; Romeo and Juliet is one of Shakespeare's most famous plays. One. could give many reasons as to why this play became such a huge success, but one of the most important reasons could be the use of humour in the play. The main reason for doing this could be to relieve the tensions in the play. and to entertain and keep the Elizabethan audience interested. &
William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is a tragic story about two lovers who are from two disputing families, and their eventual suicides. Shakespeare uses dramatic irony throughout the play to create tension for the audience and foreshadow the ending. Dramatic irony is when the words or actions of characters in a story have a different meaning to the reader than to the characters. This is because the reader knows something that the characters do not. Romeo and Juliet’s death could have been prevented if the characters in the story weren’t so ignorant of their situations, and often times the reader recognizes this.
Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt et al. The Norton Shakespeare. New York: W.W. Norton & Company Inc., 1997. Print.
At the start the atmosphere remains calm. Capulet is worried about his daughter’s grieving for the death of her cousin Tybalt; however this isn’t the real reason for the upset. Shakespeare uses metaphors to compare the difference between the grief and good emotions. Capulet links Juliet to a s...
In the play Othello, Shakespeare uses many literary devices to help the reader understand the theme of the story. One of those many literary devices used in the play, is the wide range of irony. Throughout the pages of the book, the reader will see the use of dramatic, situational, and verbal irony. Shakespeare does not use irony in an understated way, it is very direct, and can be found on almost every page of the book. The use of irony creates suspense, and adds interest to what will happen.
Romeo and Juliet Added Scene - Paris and Romeo Act II scene VI Characters: Romeo, Count Paris, Lord Capulet Early morning , outside Capulet's home Newlywed Romeo leaves Juliet's home and makes his way home Count Paris speaks with Lord Capulet about marriage with Juliet Romeo overhears the conversation and talks aloud to himself. Romeo Oh!
The play Romeo and Juliet is a widely known tragedy written by Shakespeare. Romeo and Juliet features two rival families and their children. When a daughter of Capulet and son of Montague meet at a party, sparks immediately fly. However, because of their families rivalry, they marry in secret, and were happy. That is until things took a turn for the worst. After an unexpected accident, Romeo is forced to leave the city, and he may never return. Juliet’s not sure she’ll ever see him again and tries to plan a way to be with Romeo, but ends up making things worse. It is an extremely tragic story. Or that’s what everyone is led to believe. However, the play Romeo and Juliet is in actuality a comedy. Between the overabundance of hyperbole, Paris’
One way that Shakespeare uses humor in this play is by using plain humor that
The use of humor in a tragic story helps to give the reader a break from the monotony of a depressing story line. “If a story were completely filled with depressing and tragic events, the readers' interest would most definitely be lost”( Bloom 91). William Shakespeare's, Hamlet is based on the tragedy of a murder of the king of Denmark, whose son must revenge his murderer. Therefore it is classified as a tragedy and if humor weren't present in the play it would be very depressing. Shakespeare ironically uses Hamlet; the main character to add the comedy bit of the play when he is the one the tragedy affects most. This humor is evident throughout the play by Hamlet. When Hamlet is upset at someone like Claudius or Polonius he will mock them in their presence without either one of them really catching on too quickly.
In conclusion, a comic relief is used to relieve tension and to contrast serious scenes to increase the ultimate tragic nature of the play. Polonius uses his self absorbed dull personality to create humor in his scenes. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern act as the fool by their tactless actions and dialogue, their lightheartedness makes the tragic parts of the play seem all the more tragic. And finally Hamlet uses his morbid humor to intensify scenes of sorrow while he also bitterly teases others to relieve tensions at times. The comic relief in Shakespeare’s Hamlet contrasts intense scenes as to make them more intense.