Humour in The Tempest

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Act II Scene I has been written as a humorous scene. It is meant to be funny and light-hearted. Although a modern day audience may not laugh out loud, the humour, itself, is very obvious.

Alonzo thinks that his son, Ferdinand, is dead and one of his servants/Lords, Gonzalo, is trying to comfort him, but not succeeding. Sebastian and Antonio, basically mock Gonzalo and everything he says.

Gon: When every grief is entertain’d that’s offer’d

Comes to the entertainer –

Seb: A dollar

Gon: Dolour comes to him indeed…

Gonzalo is trying to tell the king not to grieve too much or something will come to the entertainer of grief, but before he can say what, Sebastian interrupts with “A dollar”. This is relevant because Sebastian pretended to take the term ‘entertainer’ literally. However, Gonzalo interprets what Sebastian said as dolour, which means sorrow. To make this even more humorous, Shakespeare has made Sebastian tell Gonzalo, outright, that he has taken what he said in the wrong way.

The second attempt at humour in this scene is Antonio and Sebastian talking to each other about Gonzalo not shutting up. After a short silence, they bet on who will be the next person to speak.

Ant: Which, of he or Adrian, for a good wager, first

Begins to crow?

Seb: The old cock

Ant: The cockerel

* * * * (Seb & Ant settle on the bet)

Adr: Though this island seem to be desert, -

Ant: Ha, ha, ha!

Seb: So: you’re paid.

I personally found this humorous because there is no ASIDE used, which means they are not even trying to be discreet about their mockery.

The third attempt at humour is when Gonzalo is trying to be optimistic by talking about how fresh his clothes are. Of course, Sebastian and Antonio see this as another opportunity to mock Gonzalo. We, as the audience, know that Ariel made all of their clothes fresh after the ship was caught in the tempest. We therefore know that Gonzalo is actually telling the truth.

Gon: That our garments being, as they were, drenched

In the sea, hold, notwithstanding their freshness

And glosses being rather new-dyed than stained

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