Black comedy discusses and integrates controversial and often taboo topics such as pain, loss, and grief providing a confronting and cathartic experience for the audience. Martin McDonagh’s ‘The Lieutenant of Inishmore’ is a play that humorously deals with the serious nature of the Irish struggle for independence. It juxtaposes the mundane with the extreme political violence, which is a common aspect of black comedy, presenting an issue in a new perspective. The act of pointless violence presented through characterisation, sharp dialogue and the symbol of the cat, is a strong mechanism for laughter. Similarly Neil Labute’s ‘The Shape of Things’ presents manipulation, superficiality and the nature of art in a humorous way. ‘The Shape of Things’ …show more content…
‘The Lieutenant of Inishmore’ contrasts the physically violent, with the mundane activity of daily life. This was demonstrated to me when we viewed a short clip of a production of scene two online in class. It showed James suspended upside down “from the ceiling with his feet bare and bloody”, illuminated by a dim spotlight. This had a great visual effect as it placed the violence centre stage, which contrasted to the interruption of Padraic’s father on the telephone, “Will you hold on a minute there James?…it’s me Dad” to which Padraic addresses him “Don’t be calling me a work daddy… was it important now?”. The sudden ringing of Padraic’s phone call was met with laughter from the class in our workshopping as it was unexpected and interrupted the violent absurdism and reintroduced …show more content…
Evelyn remains a disconnected personality and expresses little emotion throughout her presentation of Adam to which she calls a “sculpture”, a “base material” , and “my creation” which were confronting terms which shocked the audience as they too were manipulated by Evelyn and were not expecting this conclusion, for their love to be an experiment for artistic purposes because “art must be created. Whatever the cost”. This scene is especially confronting to the audience and Adam because Labute structured the play to lull the audience to a sense of belief and security in the relationships only to cause them pain and discomfort when the truth is revealed. This truth makes moments which were previously humorous into sinister lines such as “What’d she do, give you a haircut and a blow job and now you’re her puppy?!” the audience develops a hatred towards Evelyn for her lack of remorse as she justifies her action as “following in a long tradition of artists who believe that there is no such concept as religion or government… only
In literature of significant standing, no act of violence is perpetrated without reason. For a story to be legitimate in the area of fine literature violence cannot be used in a wanton manner. In John Irving’s modern classic, A Prayer for Owen Meany the audience is faced with multiple scenes of strong violence but violence is never used without reason. All of the violent acts depicted in the novel are totally necessary for the characters and the plot to develop. This plot-required violence can be seen in the novel’s first chapter when Owen accidentally kills John’s mother and in the novel’s last chapter when John relates Owen’s grotesque, while heroic, death to the audience. The violence that is shown in this novel is used in such a calculated manner that it leaves a great impression on the audience.
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...
Mary E. Wilkins Freeman was from Randolph, Massachusetts, born on October 31, 1852. As an American writer, she was best known for her stories and writings depicting characters who endured frustrated lives in New England. In 1867, Mary Wilkins relocated with her family to Brattleboro,Vermont. After studying for a year at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, which now is Mount Holyoke College, Freeman lived at home where she spent most of her time reading, and writing stories for children. In 1883, soon after the death of her parents, she decided to live with friends, returning back to her hometown of Randolph, Massachusetts. Also, during that same year, she published her first adult story in a Boston newspaper. The best of her work was done while
Many critics have attempted definitions of Black Humor, none of them entirely successfully. The most significant recurring features of these definitions are that Black Humor works with: absurdity, ironic detachment4; opposing moral views held in equipoise, humanity's lack of a sense of purpose in the unpredictable nuclear age, the realization of the complexity of moral and aesthetic experience which affects the individual's ability to choose a course of action5; and a playing with the reader's ideas of reality6.
Thoughtful laughter is a technique used frequently in satirical pieces in literature. It allows for the audience to enjoy the wittiness of a work, later ponder on the meaning, and then apply the message to reality. Thoughtful laughter is often an inner experience that can only be achieved by authors who write meticulously. Two examples of satirical works in literature that display this concept explicitly are Voltaire’s Candide and C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters. Both authors explore the depths of satire and simultaneously deliver an important message to readers through skillful technique.
The play Blackrock, written by Nick Enright that was inspired by the murder of Leigh Leigh, which took place in Stockton in 1989. During this essay the following questions will be analysed, what stereotypes of women are depicted in the text, how do the male characters treat the female characters and how do the male characters talk about the female characters. These questions are all taken from the feminist perspective.
Edward Blake, aptly named The Comedian viewed twentieth century life through a darkly tinted humorous lens. He viewed life as an absurd and meaningless notion, where all actions were ultimately driven by an innately selfish nature. Through his experiences in war, he becomes a “ruthless, cynical and nihilistic” man who is “capable of deeper insights than the others” in the room (Reynolds, 106). The Comedian's derives his power from a complete an utter disregard for humanity. Though he fights crime and has been conjured by the press into a patriotic symbol of war and victory, he thrives on chaos and destruction. He claims t...
Green, Daniel. "A World Worth Laughing At: Catch-22 and the Humor of Black Humor." Studies
The differences of these two plays, gives one a sense that any general idea can be broken into a distinct one and not sway away from its intended idea. This means, a comedy can be made into a tragedy, romance, and other themes, and yet still maintain the purpose of providing laughter to the audience. This shows the development of literature over the years, as many more subcategories result because of the contrasts.
Some common themes found in the work are self-discovery and invisibility. In “Battle Royal” readers are recipients of the central message self-discovery when one comes in familiarity with the part in text reading “I am nobody but myself. But first I had to discover that I am an invisible man” (Ellison 2395). Readers can see how the narrator was faced with conflict several times throughout the work in his path to discovering his true self. Readers find themselves being recipients of the central message of invisibility when the narrator reveals the M.C.’s statement before allowing him to conduct his speech saying “ ‘I’m told that he is the smartest boy we’ve go out there in Greenwood. I’m told that he knows more big words than a pocket-sized dictionary’ ” (Ellison 2402). In this text the scholar believes that narrator constructed the text in such a way to reveal that to the in the novel, the narrator was invisible and he only became visible when someone else’s perception of him was revealed. Invisibility is again revealed in the section of the text where the narrator descr...
Blackrock was first performed in 1995. The play explores the causes of violence by individuals as well as ideas surrounding mateship and gender. The representations of mateship, masculinity and violence portray Australian culture in Blackrock as dangerous, homophobic and one that is accustomed to gender inequality. Dramatic conventions are employed by Nicholas Enright to challenge the reader or viewer’s view towards mateship, reinforce the idea of masculinity and challenge the idea that Australian culture is safe.
Vonnegut’s distinct style conveys that the horrors of war are not only tragic, but inexplicable and absurd. His use of black humor, such as Billy's attempts to publicize his encounters with the Tralfamadorians, conveys the incongruity/senselessness of war (“Slaughterhouse-Five” 267). While this is an example of black humor in a larger plot element, the device can also be used in small details. This is evident in the description of the half-crazed Billy Pilgrim after the Battle of the Bulge. “Wind and cold and violent exercise had turned his face crimson” causing Billy to be designated by Vonnegut as a “filthy flamingo” (Vonnegut 42). By utilizing black humor, Vonnegut is able to convey not merely the tragedy, but also the absurdity, of an event.
The popular American Poet, Billy Collins, is playing a significant role in the evolution of poetry. His writing style evokes an array of emotions for the reader. Every stanza in his poetry passes the satirical standard that he generated for himself over his career. Collins swiftly captivates his readers through his diverse use of figurative language. More specifically, his use of vivid imagery paired with humorous personification and extended metaphors create his unique style of satirical poetry. This developed form of writing appeals to a large crowd of people because the generally accessible topics that he discusses are fairly easy to resonate for the common man. However, his poetry offers an interesting perspective on what otherwise would be simplistic ideas. The main themes and concepts that are being presented in each of his writings are revered and coveted by the general population. An appealing aspect of his writing is his ability to directly convey the main idea within the poem. As a result, the reader can understand the meaning of his work with ease. The typical beginning of his work gives the reader a slight taste of what is to come. Billy Collins’ unique writing style and various trademarks directly influenced by his ability to propagate an array of emotions for the reader, his humorous tone, and the accessibility of the topics he describes within his poetry.
The motive of IMR is to distinguish CBI/CBR individuality from CB conceptuality. CM analogising generalities may serve to subvert the subject image of thought within CB narratives causing CBIs to revaluate CBR disposition. CMI affect establishes an affinity through humour to circumscribe, diffuse, and transcend subjectifying motifs. IMR deconstructs objective premises and transvaluates subjective modes of representation. The efforts to displace CBI aggression with CMI affinitized humour simulates a ’decolonial’ reductionism. IMR disrupts the crystallising process of CB narrative constructs whereby allowing CBR subjective senses to form anew; the CBI’s refractive image apertures the chrysalis (4.1). The method disenfranchises the power of power
In addition, Charlie Chaplin’s comedy was more than a lifestyle, it was an art. The source of most of Charlie’s comedy was trickery. “Charlie and the tricksters confront society’s anxieties about th...