Shakespeare uses metaphors and figures throughout his plays to give the reader and audience a further understanding of the story he is telling. In Metaphors We Live By, it is stated that “…Metaphorical expressions in everyday language can give us insight into the metaphorical nature of concepts that structure our everyday activities…” (Lakoff & Johnson 7). Through these conceits Shakespeare expands a normal idea and transforms it into
In many Shakespearean comedies puns are used through fools, for example in Twelfth Night most puns are said by Feste the local fool. However, Feste is far from a fool or clown, Feste is the epitome of irony although he portrayed as a fool and is meant to provide comedic relief; he is actually a wise man. He undermines the high class with the use of puns and jokes. In Act III of Twelfth Night, Viola asks Feste about his “tabor,” and Feste makes and explains his pun to the audience. When Viola asked if he 'lives by' his drum, she wanted to know if he played it professionally. Of course the wise fool, Feste responds as if she meant: “'Do you live next to the drum? While his answer means that he lives next to the church, Viola misinterprets him to mean he makes his living at the church, as a preacher which causes the audience to question Viola’s intelligence however they still find comedy in Feste’s pun. Puns are a delightful way to play with any language. Shakespeare used them frequently, often in rapid-fire, back-and-forth scenes between his wittiest and most foolish characters. They are primarily for laughs, but they can also reveal compelling subtext and make subtle judgments about current societal
In the story of Richard III, the play opens with a monologue by Richard himself. The first two lines start off with a pun: “Now is the winter of our discontent/ Made glorious summer by the son of York.” Here Richard actually uses only one of the two references that make up the pun, the word son, with reference to the first son of the duke of York, King Edward IV. But because the word son appears in the context of “glorious summer,” the audience supplies the second part of the pun in the word sun. The second kind of pun is evident a few lines later in the same speech when Richard suggests that he is so ugly there is nothing for him to do but “see my shadow in the sun/ And descant on mine own deformity.” The
Of course, no Shakespeare play would be complete without the use of puns. Shakespeare uses this type of humor as a witty way to keep the dialogue fresh and flowing. The reader gets a taste of these funny little bits as early as the first act and first scene, when Brakenbury starts, “With this, my lord, myself have naught to
Pun: When words are used to have a different effect, that produces humor to the audience.
Sophocles and Shakespeare were both literary artists that published works that have been respected and relevant centuries later. The unique language in historical literature assists in their interpretation and their relevance to modern understanding. The masterful wielding of language, diction, and metaphor contribute to various aspects of their work, adding both elements of drama and realism. By incorporating significant words and lines into their writings, Shakespeare and Sophocles create consistent and fluid plays and stories throughout their lives that offer timeless entertainment. The manipulation of speech seen through various characters such as Teiresias, Oedipus, Margaret, Richmond and Anne play a substantial and crucial role in
1. Pun- a play on words; used when two words sound the same but have different meanings for humor.
Shakespeare was and is the master of wordplay. He fluidly manipulated his words into withholding more substance than it did by itself. Being a “popular dramatist,”(Shakespeare biography encyclopedia,1) the puns were his signature, and his play “Romeo and Juliet” contains a plethora of them. In Scene 1 Act 1 of Romeo and Juliet, he incorporates a pun on carry coals and plays with the words collier, choler,
William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” is a tragedy that tells the unfortunate fate of a royal family. One would expect nothing but sadness in such a story. However, this is not the case. Besides the story being a tragedy, Shakespeare uses humor as a hint to the characters of the tragedy that Hamlet has gone “insane” due to the death of his father. Furthermore, humor serves as comic relief throughout the tragedy.
Creativity plays a large part of what I want to be doing with my journalism degree and I love puns and clever portmanteaus, one of my favorite categories in Jeopardy. However, there is a difference between an inventive blend and an awkward fusion.
Shapiro uses analogies between Shakespeare original work and the translated version. For example, Shapiro reference how the translation lost the original meaning, “The wry sexual meaning of “erection” [...] was secondary. But the new translation ignores the social resonance, turning the line into a sordid joke [...]” (paragraph 10). This quote shows how the translators ignored the primary meaning of erection changing the character and plot. It also shows that readers who
In homographic puns, the two words share the same spelling, but difference in sound and meaning. In homophonic puns, the two words share the same sound, but difference in spelling and meaning. In homonymic puns, the two words share the same spelling and sound, but difference in meaning. To make things easier to understand, let’s take a look at the below tables.
and metaphors bring about semantic innovation that never existed? In narratives, which we have just explored, something new is created out of the poetic piecing together of episodic and disjointed paradigmatic pieces. But what novelty does a metaphor, an act of semantic innovation in ascribing poetic pertinence to a linguistic impertinence, bring to narratives that in themselves are creating new worlds out of disjointed realities? The first task that confronts us in the study of the poetic import of tropes and metaphors in narratives is that of asking what are the parameters for a work to be considered a text. Is it a single word, a sentence, a proverb, a paragraph, a book or a collection of books? The extent to which we can consider the metaphor
Numerous essayists on diversion have declined to acknowledge the perspective that funny disjointedness comprises in debasing something magnified by carrying it into contact with something minor or offensive. They not just hold that confusion is truly unmistakable from debasement, additionally demand that ambiguity, and not corruption, is the focal highlight of all cleverness.
Shakespeare’s work is littered with metaphors; some which require careful reading to pick up on, while others are easily detectable. Simon Palfrey states that “Shakespeare’s