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Shakespeare uses humor in Twelfth Night
Shakespeare uses humor in Twelfth Night
A midsummer night's dream the mechanicals
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‘Midsummer Nights Dream’ is one of Shakespeare’s most famous and successful plays. The play was part of Shakespeare’s early work. It was written and performed around 1595. ‘A Midsummer Nights Dream’ is a romantic comedy play; and that’s what I will be focusing on how Shakespeare creates humour in act 5 scene 1. So how does he create humour? There are many ways as to how Shakespeare creates humour; one of the main reasons is through the characters. There are there sets of characters the fairies, court and the mechanicals in this case it’s the mechanicals. The mechanicals are normal workers that want to become actors. They are uneducated, you can tell this because Bottom (mechanical) says in act 4 scene 2 line 20 “Where are these lads?” This shows that they are uneducated because you notice straight away that he is speaking in prose. We can tell this by comparing “Where are these lads?” to “Say, what abridgement have you for this evening” (line 39 Act 5 scene1). You can differentiate from who is educated and who is not by the choice of languages Shakespeare has given these characters (Prose and verse). The way this creates humour is quite obvious, if you kept in mind that the mechanicals want to be actors, imagine how difficult It would be for them to speak in verse when acting. How humorous would it be? Act 5 scene 1 is the most comical scene out of the whole play. The reason as to why it’s so funny is because in this scene the mechanicals perform there ridiculously humorous play. Shakespeare’s remarkably clever staging creates the hilarious atmosphere. The layout of the stage is quite unusual. You have a stage where the courts sit; on the stage you have the original stage (stage on stage) where the mechanicals perform ther... ... middle of paper ... ...nsulting comments and angrily said All I have to tell you is that the lantern is the moon this thorn bush is my the thorn bush and this dog is my dog. When Bottom enters the stage as Pyramus Shakespeare develops the humour created. Bottom over reacts the dramatic love scene by putting on an over the top tone of voice and his repetitive incorrect use of language. This shows the audience how poor his acting skills are which makes it hilarious. An example of his clumsy and unrehearsed acting could be when he stabbed himself. He was supposed to die in line 285 but he chose to carry on until line 290. Soon after he woke up and asked the duke whether he wanted an epilogue or a dance. This shows how that he wants to demonstrate how confident his acting skills were. Rather than blowing our expectations, it becomes funny because we see how ridiculous his character is.
A Midsummer Night’s dream was created for the main purpose of showing people what the phrase “love is blind” truly means. Through the combination of the two different types of irony, Shakespeare wasn’t only able to deliver his message, but was also successful in creating a comedy out of it at the same time. By using situational irony, he was able to create plot twists for the audience and make things more interesting. While dramatic irony was used mainly to create a comedic effect for the play.
Precise definition of a festive comedy is best outlined in the distinctive depictions if merry in the tone, exhibition of Elizabethan holidays, satire depiction in the composition to mockery which is to a greater extent natural. The same is resonated in depictions of comic faith wherein what matter most is the rather satirical and happy depiction of events in the hope of a greater cause such as religion and love. In structuring up the play ‘A Midsummer’s Night Dream,’ there is clear mapped outline that makes reference to the ideal of it being regarded as a festive comedy but notions of the same are heavily transcended in the different sections of the play coupled with the ideal of comic faith as well. What is followed
William Shakespeare's Use of Dramatic Devices in Act 3 Scene 1 of Romeo and Juliet
nbsp;   ; Humour plays a very significant part in the play as it allows Shakespeare creates a lot of contrasts and moods, as and when he wants to. In Romeo and Juliet, humour occurs in three forms. The first being, humour. by the use of puns, irony and jokes.
Shakespeare’s literature exemplifies creativeness and powerful word use to create bodies of work with strong attributes that grab the reader’s attention. Midsummer’s night dream is an example of some of Shakespeare’s best work. The thesis of this essay is Hermia’s father, Esues wants his daughter to marry someone that he approves of and more importantly he wants someone for her that is respected by the rest of society to admire. This play has love, drama and characters that follow their hearts. Hermia is told she is not allowed to love or marry Lysander by her father. Her father Esues wants her to marry Demetrius. The setting of the play is taken in Athens. Athens is a place of order and royalty and a place where people are supposed to marry
Perhaps the first and most obvious effect of Shakespeare's use of comedy in the two Henry IV plays is the resulting diversity of characters. The plays can be seen to be divided into three general scenes or settings, the court, the tavern, and the rebel's camp, and it is largely the tavern scenes which introduce characters not found in the plays' historical bases. In doing so, Shakespeare of course draws in a more diverse audience, who can perhaps see something of themselves in the full variety of society's characters found in I Henry IV and II Henry IV. Shakespeare's mastery of language and dialect help to acheive this, for his characters' speech resounds with realism. The tavern crowd's lines, for example, are filled with colloquialisms and double-entendres:
In A Midsummer Night's Dream, playwright William Shakespeare creates in Bottom, Oberon, and Puck unique characters that represent different aspects of him. Like Bottom, Shakespeare aspires to rise socially; Bottom has high aims and, however slightly, interacts with a queen. Through Bottom, Shakespeare mocks these pretensions within himself. Shakespeare also resembles King Oberon, controlling the magic we see on the stage. Unseen, he and Oberon pull the strings that control what the characters act and say. Finally, Shakespeare is like Puck, standing back from the other characters, acutely aware of their weaknesses and mocks them, relishing in mischief at their expense. With these three characters and some play-within-a-play enchantment, Shakespeare mocks himself and his plays as much as he does the young lovers and the mechanicals onstage. This genius playwright who is capable of writing serious dramas such as Hamlet and Julius Caesar is still able to laugh at himself just as he does at his characters. With the help of Bottom, Oberon, and Puck, Shakespeare shows us that theatre, and even life itself, are illusions that one should remember to laugh at.
He doesn't realize that as a practical joke, a trickster Puck, has put an ass head on his shoulders. This makes all of his companions afraid of him so that they run away. This is an example of the comedy involved in this play. This essay will show you that A Midsummer Night's Dream is a play that is mainly composed of comedy. The funniest part of this play seems to be when Puck, the trickster, keeps mixing up the people who he is assigned to put the love juice on.
William Shakespeare, poet and playwright, utilized humor and irony as he developed specific language for his plays, thereby influencing literature forever. “Shakespeare became popular in the eighteenth century” (Epstein 8). He was the best all around. “Shakespeare was a classic” (8). William Shakespeare is a very known and popular man that has many works, techniques and ways. Shakespeare is the writer of many famous works of literature. His comedies include humor while his plays and poems include irony. Shakespeare sets himself apart by using his own language and word choice. Shakespeare uses certain types of allusions that people always remember, as in the phrase from Romeo and Juliet, “star-crossed lovers”.
One way that Shakespeare uses humor in this play is by using plain humor that
When the audience first meets Bottom, he is in the midst of being casted for the play “Pyramus and Thisbe” (1.2) which will be performed for Theseus and Hippolyta on their wedding day. Prior to this introduction of Bottom, it follows a long woeful rant by Helena about her misfortune. However, after this emotionally draining scene, it becomes evident that Bottom serves as a comedic device intended to lighten the mood of the play. Bottom attributes comic relief to the audience, as his character wants to play every part in the play there is: “And I may hide my face, let me play Thisbe too. I’ll speak in the monstrous little voice: Thisne, Thisne!” (1.2.43). He goes on to say he would like to play the lion as well, as he feels like he can sweep from one emotion to th...
Humor in William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night In Twelfth Night we see different types of humour. There is the witty
Shakespeare’s plays are a product of the Elizabethan theatrical context in which they were first performed. A lot of pressure was put on Shakespeare as he wrote his plays because he was not allowed to upset the royal family. His style would have been different than others in those times and a lot more thought has gone into his writing than people listening would think. Usually, the audience take for granted the cleverness and thought of Shakespeare’s writing, however, now we have studied and gone into great detail about Shakespeare’s writing, we can appreciate it more than they did:
William Shakespeare, born in 1594, is one of the greatest writers in literature. He dies in 1616 after completing many sonnets and plays. One of which is "A Midsummer Night’s Dream." They say that this play is the most purely romantic of Shakespeare’s comedies. The themes of the play are dreams and reality, love and magic. This extraordinary play is a play-with-in-a-play, which master writers only write successfully. Shakespeare proves here to be a master writer. Critics find it a task to explain the intricateness of the play, audiences find it very pleasing to read and watch. "A Midsummer Night’s Dream" is a comedy combining elements of love, fairies, magic, and dreams. This play is a comedy about five couples who suffer through love’s strange games and the evil behind the devious tricks. This play begins as Theseus, the Duke, is preparing to marry Hippolyta. He woos her with his sword. Hermia is in love with Lysander. Egeus, Hermia’s father, forbids the relationship with Lysander and orders her to marry Demetrius. Demetrius loves Hermia, but she does not love him. On the other hand, Helena is in love with Demetrius. To settle the confusion, Theseus decides that Hermia must marry Demetrius or become a nun. In retaliation to her father’s command, Hermia and Lysander run away together. Amidst all the problems in the human world, Titania and Oberon, the fairy queen and king, continually argue about their various relationships that they have taken part in. (Scott 336) Titania leaves Oberon as a result of the arguments. Oberon is hurt and wants revenge on Titania. So he tells Puck, Oberon’s servant, to put a magic flower juice on her eyelids while she is sleeping. This potion causes the victim to desperately in love with the first creature that they see. Oberon’s plan is carried out, but the potion is also placed on Lysander’s eyes. Lysander awakes to see Helena, who is aimlessly walking through the woods, and instantly falls in love with her. She thinks that he is making fun of her being in love with Demetrius, so she leaves and Lysander follows. This leaves Hermia to wake up alone. Puck now has journeyed to the area where several actors are rehearsing. He uses his magic to turn one of them into a donkey, in hopes that Titania will awake to see it.
Shakespeare's comedies can be recognized in terms of plot, structure and characters. We can see that Shakespearean comedies follow the same structural pattern, a basic plot on which the play is based. For example, a key feature of all comedies is that they depend upon the resolution of their plots. However, Shakespeare's comedies are distinguishable, as some are classed as comic dramas and others as romantic comedies. In comic drama, there is usually a motif of a place where reality and the unreal merge, the roles of characters are reversed and identities are mistaken or lost. This place may take on the form of a feast or celebration, or it may be presented as a place segregated from the normal society, such as the wood in A Midsummer Night's Dream. When scenes are set in this place, the ordinary rules of life and society do not apply. There is always an experience of chaos, which must be resolved in order for the play to become a true comedy.