Q.2 Wherein lies the comedy in part one of Don Quixote?
The story Don Quixote is a burlesque, mock epic of the romances of chivalry, in which Cervantes teaches the reader the truth by creating laughter that ridicules. Through the protagonist, he succeeds in satirizing Spain’s obsession with the noble knights as being absurdly old fashioned. The dynamics of the comedy in this story are simple, Don Quixote believes the romances he has read and strives to live them out, and it is his actions and the situations that he finds himself in during his adventures that make the reader laugh. We can define comedy as something that entertains the reader and that makes us want to laugh out loud and Cervantes succeeds in doing this through his use of
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Consequently, most of the situations that Don Quixote is placed in during his ridiculous quest are excellent examples of slapstick comedy. The reader is highly entertained by Don Quixote on his adventures during which he implicitly believes that he is like the knights in the novels he has read and so; he logically believes his own fiction. The reader is embarrassed when Don Quixote decides that by choosing a new name for himself, his horse, his lady and his friends that this will suffice in making him a knight. Just like he shaped his own appearance, he chooses his name as “Don Quixote de La Mancha” and this becomes one of the most prominent jokes of the book. It is a name that is undignified and pretentious but simultaneously amusing because La Mancha is a dry, sparsely populated region of Spain, which is exactly what a knight should avoid. The suffix –ote was considered derogatory at that time and it is even funny sounding. We are skeptical from the very beginning as to whether or not Don Quixote is worthy of the title “Don” and our suspicions are confirmed when he fails to assist people in distress like any good knight should. It is highly entertaining when Andrés specifically asks Don Quixote not to complicate his life with any more of his help
“No me socorra ni ayude, sino
This figure of speech is seen in the fourth paragraph when Rodriguez says “I use the word ‘comedy’ here as the Greeks used it, with upmost seriousness, to suggest a world where youth is not a fruitless metaphor; where it is possible to start anew; where it is possible to escape the rivalries of the Capulets and the McCoys; where young women can disprove the adages of grandmothers.” The uses of these schemes are important in the passage because they stress emphasis on certain things that help him in explaining and conveying his feelings.
The author uses satire to support the theme of appearance versus reality. The definition of satire is an attempt to ridicule, mock, or criticize something or someone with humorous content. Satire is a rhetorical device that is used throughout the novel. The author uses humor in the wake of misfortune. This is evident in the chapter where Lazarillo serves his first master, a blind man. He treated Lazarillo horribly and also starved him. Lazarillo learns many deceitful things from his master which will serve him well throughout his life. Lazarillo’s goal was to get away from the blind man. An example of satire is the quote, “What! You smelled the sausage and you couldn’t smell the post? Ole’? Ole’? I jeered” (Albert 17). Lazarillo was making fun of the blind man for being able to smell the difference in the sausage and rotten turnips, but he did not smell the post that Lazarillo purposefully guided him into. Lazarillo was set on getting away from his first master and this is the clever way that Lazarillo gets away. He leaves without knowing the condition of his first master. In the end, Lazarillo did manage to outwit the blind man. The author’s portrayal of the clergy can be considered satire as
Yet, even in evaluating how anger is emotionally imposed on the audience due to the absurdity of the proposal, it’s impossible to disregard the role of humor. There are obvious elements of humor throughout the proposal and amusement in the very nature of the proposal is expected. However, any sense of humor abruptly disappears at the heart of the critism. When the proposer begins stating “I can think of no one objection that will possibly be raised against this proposal” the humor stops and the voice of Swift, as well as sharp criticism, begins. Although humor may be an integral part of the proposal and certainly a partial indication of the use of Horatian satire, the fact that humor isn’t present throughout the whole proposal suggests that the use of hilarity is secondary. Rather, this contrast of humor and emotionally imposed irritation only helps to emphasize the role of anger. This is especially evident when one considers the irony that litters the humorous proposal.
Alexandre Dumas was a master of literature; the sheer artistry in The Count of Monte Cristo makes this abundantly clear. His command of parallelism, his employ of subtle yet vivid characterization, and, most markedly, his frequent use of irony are the evidence. The latter in particular is common and used for a purpose. At times, irony is applied to insert a sliver of humor into otherwise heavy scenes; this is especially true with Dumas’s application of verbal irony. At other times, irony is exercised in order to act as a plot point. Overall, the author’s use of irony is crucial to the story’s progression.
In I Henry IV and II Henry IV, William Shakespeare brings together drama and comedy to create two of the most compelling history plays ever written. Many of Shakespeare's other works are nearly absolute in their adherence to either the comic or tragic traditions, but in the two Henry IV plays Shakespeare combines comedy and drama in ways that seem to bring a certain realism to his characters, and thus the plays. The present essay is an examination of the various and significant effects that Shakespeare's comedic scenes have on I Henry IV and II Henry IV. The Diversity of Society
A comedic story can be summed up as one thing; a hero who triumphs over evil and wins the day. In these tales, our main character encounters around one hardship and overcomes it with much ease. The ancient Greek playwrights had a similar view on comedic tales: in order for something to be a comedy, the main character must reach a positive outcome. So no matter what comes their way, our hero will be in a better spot than he was at the beginning. Well-known comedies include A Midsummer Night 's Dream, The Taming of the Shrew, and Cyrano de Bergerac. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Taming of the Shrew, the main character achieves their goal with few hardships. Yet, in Cyrano de Bergerac, our main character’s ambitions are never
The author uses satire to support the theme of appearance versus reality. The definition of satire is an attempt to ridicule, mock, or criticize something or someone with humorous content. Satire is a rhetorical device that is used throughout the novel. The author uses humor in the wake of misfortune. This is evident in the chapter where Lazarillo serves his first master, a blind man. He treated Lazarillo horribly and also starved him. Lazarillo learns many deceitful things from his master which will serve him well throughout his life. Lazarillo’s goal was to get away from the blind man. An example of satire is the quote, “What! You smelled the sausage and you couldn’t smell the post? Ole’? Ole’? I jeered” (Albert, Michael 17). Lazarillo was making fun of the blind man for being able to smell the difference in the sausage and rotten turnips, but he did not smell the post that Lazarillo purposefully guided him into. Lazarillo was set on getting away from his first master and this is the clever way that Lazarillo gets away. He leaves without knowing the condition of his first master. In the end, Lazarillo did manage to outwit the blind man. The author’s portrayal of the clergy can be considered satire as well. The clergy is portrayed very negatively in the novel. The clergy is not noble, honest or Christ-like which is what people normally equate with a man that holds such a position. According to T. Anthony Perry, there is a high
A comedic work of literature is often just one that was meant as pure enjoyment for the reader. Other times, comedy is meant to shed light on a serious situation or instance the public refuses or is uncomfortable talking about in a non-comedic setting. However, the greatest type of comedy is one that makes the reader think, one that provokes “thoughtful laughter” from them. “The Importance of Being Earnest”, a satirical play written during Victorian Era Britain by Oscar Wilde, is such a piece literature. By poking fun at the time period in which his characters live in during one particular scene, as well as illustrating the unsubdued hilarity of a character during that scene, Wilde is able to elicit thoughtful laughter from his audience, ultimately showing them that life is far too serious and needs to be taken more lightly.
Without doubt, Edgar Allan Poe’s story is one of the author’s masterpiece. The story is an exhibit of artistic genius with various literary features well incorporated. Among them, irony, defined as, “A figure of speech which is a contradiction or incongruity between what is expected and what actually occurs”, is the most evident. Allan Poe demonstrates the use of various types of irony throughout the play, which he uses to pass the intended message to the audience.
In literature during the medieval and renaissance time a comedy meant that characters in a play, peom, or movie had to endure a hardship or disaster and the come to a happy ending. Comedy sometimes isn’t even a comedy, sometimes it has a deeper meaning. The significance of comedy in Dante`s Divine Comedy is that it stands up to the structural meaning of comedy. For example, it has a happing ending, which in most literature works, is the meaning of comedy.
enemies would be left to rot, but in his own reality, he is doing the only
Miguel Cervantes’ Don Quixote is a masterpiece in many senses of the word: at the time of its conception, it was hailed as a revolutionary work of literature that defined a genre, in later centuries regarded as an acerbic social commentary, a slightly misshapen romantic tragedy, and even as a synthesis of existentialist and post-modernist features. At the centre of this Spanish satirical chronicle is the perplexing character Don Quixote. Don Quixote’s personality and perspective is rapidly established fromsince the beginning of the novel, revealing unabashedly to readers that he is mad. The source of his madness lies in the extent to which Don Quixote acts on his delusions and projections unto reality as he saunters through Cervantes’ Andalusia. Don Quixote’s delusions have two primary functions in the novel: demonstrating the reality and tragedy of Cervantes’ manifestation of idyllic themes of love and chivalry, and revealing certain characteristics about narration.
[is] Dorotea” in disguise, it does not fit into Quixote’s frame of thinking and is therefore rejected, “Can you be in your right mind?” This irony is used by Cervantes to introduce the reader to the issue of perspective. In this world there are two paradigms which are followed: one is to see the world through the fantastical and idealistic madness of Quixote, and the other is to view it through the realism adopted by the other characters of the text. Quixote’s madness creates a world where everything is taken at face value, not allowing the idea of deception to exist. When the issue of deception arises, he formulates alternate explanations which are in keeping with his perspective, stating that “...everything that happens in this place is brought about by enchantment.” The alternate view which is held by most of the other players is that, “anyone could see when he said that those windmills were giants, and those friars’ mules were dromedaries and those flock of sheep were enemy armies”. The hyperbolic images in Sancho’s sarcasm give the reader an insight into the sheer vastness of Quixote’s generalisation of his belief. It is Quixote’s differing school of thought which Cervantes uses to establish his alienation from the sanity of the constructed world. Contrastingly, In Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Alice is the voice of sanity in the phantasmagorical setting of Wonderland. However, this also
Humour and satire are two concepts that are both wide ranging and diverse, from dark, to light hearted, with each producing a different effect. Humour in the main, is something that is used to please the audience, its function is to invoke laughter amongst its audience. Satire is used to create a comical critical view of the subject at hand, this can range from a light hearted comical way, to a judgemental way, with each style giving the text a different meaning, however this does not mean that satire cannot be humorous, which can evident in the use of parody and irony within texts. Within literature both concepts play an important role to how the text is viewed, humour can include word play, grammatical jokes, to even inside jokes with the author and reader, and with satire, including that of irony and parody, with each style and type delivering humour in its own unique way. These differing styles of humour can be found in a variety of forms including Jasper Forde’s The Eyre Affair (2001), with its silly atmosphere, word play and grammar jokes, and the use of light hearted satire and parody to brighten up the text, and Julian Barnes A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters (1989), where there is a more serious atmosphere, with a more critical, satirical eye on history and characters, as well as using irony to achieve its comical effect, and the position of the world. Each text is humorous and satirical in its own right, and with each author using different techniques to
The Middle Ages are rarely considered a time of blossoming comedy, but the comic mystery cycle, known as Mistero Buffo, brought a bit of frivolous light to the Dark Ages. As explained in Dario Fo’s analysis of these plays, jongleurs played a precarious position in society: improving morale of the masses by mocking the rich and ordained, yet keeping out from under the footsteps of those lampooned. This was no more popular than during the feast of fools, where the working-class gathered to enjoy the jongleurs’ performances and release frustrations about the class system, while masking it with a religious moral. Often performed at this event was the Mistero Buffo (Fo, 1-14), which similarly juxtaposed relevant satire and biblical passages through stock characters, Aristotelian values of comedy, and an underlying breakdown of degree and religion.