Essay On The Fools

The fool or folly is mostly associated with the theatrical profession due to William Shakespeare’s common use of the fool or jester characters in his plays. But what most people don’t know is that the fool has been present in western society well before Shakespeare was known as a playwright. The fool first appeared in literature during the 15th to the 17th century, representing the vices, grotesqueries and weaknesses of contemporary society at that time. According to encyclopaedia Britannica (2014) fools literature (p. 1), the first great example of fools literature was, Das NarrenSchiff (1494; ‘The ship of fools’), a didactic and allegorical poem by German humanist and poet Sebastian Brant, in which people society deemed as fools were gathered and shipped off to what Brant described in the poem as, ‘the fool’s paradise’ (Brant, 1944).

In Bruce Waltke’s ‘the book of proverbs’ (2005), an aphorism which is quoted from the bible states that, “As a dog returns to his vomit, so a fool repeats his folly” (p.15). This aphorism describes the fools as a stubbornly flexible, repulsive slime of a dog that repeats his folly again and again. This simile is particularly strong because according to Beryl Smallely’s ‘the study of the bible in the middle ages’ (1964), dogs were considered unclean in biblical times because they appeared in the bible as repugnant creatures symbolising evil. Therefore leading back societies perception of the fool during the 15th to the 17th century in western society. In relation to Brant’s Ship of fools, French historian and philosopher Michel Foucault stated in his book ‘Madness and Civilization: A history of insanity in the age of reason’ (1988), that Brant’s ship of fools text appeared when leprosy was vanishin...

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...fame during the silent era with a film called ‘The Tramp’ (1915). Chaplin’s Costume as ‘The Tramp’ is full of contradictions, the jacket was buttoned too tightly, the pants were baggy, and the bowler’s hat too small and the shoes were a few sizes too big as well as being worn on the wrong feet. The iconic costumes became one of the most recognisable silhouetted images of its time, the costume also helped define the on screen personality of Chaplin’s character, diverting from what was and is considered social decorum (Milton, 2011). Chaplin’s comedic style was ‘Slap-stick comedy’, which is based on deliberately clumsy actions or humorously embarrassing events. Will Kemp and Charlie Chaplin’s Clowning is a great example of the Antic fool, showing how the history of the fool has been present throughout history impacting different artistic forms, from theatre to film.