Discuss the different kinds of humour in the play. Is it effective today? What is its purpose?
Much ado about nothing is a comedy written by William Shakespeare.
There are many kinds of humour in the play. The first kind of humour we come across is the skirmishes of wit between Beatrice and Benedick.
Beatrice and Benedick are both sarcastic people and incidentally are sarcastic about each other. Sarcasm is a very good kind of humour, which is still effective to this day. Many people understand sarcasm and it's a good way of putting a point across. The main purpose of sarcasm is probably mockery. Sarcasm is usually used when you say something that you don't mean literally, the point of this particular sarcasm is to tell the
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In this quote
Dogberry is talking about the watch talking and not paying attention to their duty and so here he means to say intolerable. Again he says
"you, constable, are to present the princes own person" this is funny again as he misses out a key part of the word in which he is meaning to say represent. This humour with Dogberry continues constantly through the play. It is still effective today because we have an understanding of what he means to say and so it comes across as funny where as in Shakespeare's time it may not as been as funny as many people would have been poorly educated and so wouldn't perhaps understand. The main purpose of this is just basically adding a bit of extra humour to the play.
The final kind of humour in the play is probably deceit. This is where towards the end of the play Beatrice and Benedick are fooled by their friends into believing that they both love each other. Margaret and
Hero leave notes for Beatrice pretending them to be from Benedick telling Beatrice how much he loves her. Whereas Don Pedro and Claudio do the same for Benedick. They also leave notes for them both to meet up at the same time. Both Beatrice and Benedick start to believe it and change their views on each other. This is funny to the audience as they get to see how both Beatrice and Benedick ponder about these love letters they have
William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is a tragic story about two lovers who are from two disputing families, and their eventual suicides. Shakespeare uses dramatic irony throughout the play to create tension for the audience and foreshadow the ending. Dramatic irony is when the words or actions of characters in a story have a different meaning to the reader than to the characters. This is because the reader knows something that the characters do not. Romeo and Juliet’s death could have been prevented if the characters in the story weren’t so ignorant of their situations, and often times the reader recognizes this.
There is no doubt that Shakespeare was the author of great pieces of literature during an interesting time period. Given the circumstances, he was indeed mastering his craft during a very tumultuous juncture in British history. When one reads Richard III, they don’t necessarily have to know a great deal about the War of Roses to understand that there is some serious strife going on. However, if the reader takes some time to understand this fascinating string of events, the story of Richard and his fall becomes much more interesting. In all of his brilliance, Shakespeare manages to toy with the idea of humor in this very morose play. As a matter of fact, he does this in many, if not all of his tragedies.
In William Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night’s Dream, it shows the element of wordplay comedy. Wordplay is a literary technique in which the words are used become the main idea of the phrase, primary for the purpose of the intended effect of amusement. For example when Shakespeare writes; Quince refers to the play of Pyramus and Thisbe as, “ the most lamentable comedy”(1.2.11). This is an oxymoron which is a combination of contradictory or incongruous words. Lamentable is defined as deplorably bad or unsatisfactory. What Peter Quince means in the quote is that the play that he is directing is going to be dreadfully tragic. Their response can be best described as an oxymoron because they used contradicting words. Because of the nature of the purpose of wordplay comedy, this situation makes the audience laugh. This use of comedy allows Shakespeare to incorporate characterization into the play. Peter Quince's behavior implies that he is ignorant. When Peter Quince does his intro to the possible actors for the
The center I chose to observe was the dramatic play center which is a kitchen. I chose this center because because it's a great way to observe children. The purpose of the dramatic play center is to help develop social, emotional and oral language skills. It gives children a chance to assign roles, self regulate when having to take turns and during all of this children are developing language skills.
Tan wrote about her frustration over the term Broken English, not once but twice. Tan stated, "As if it were damaged and needed to be fixed, as if it lacked a certain wholeness and soundness" (21). She also stated, “The English she used with me, which for lack of a better term might be described as ‘broken’” (23). Having said something twice puts emphasis on its importance. Tan
In reaction to the one act play “Nine Ten” written by Warren Leight. The research I have done and the evidence found in the play proves that this was written about the day before the events of nine eleven in two thousand and one. This play is about jurors complaining of how bad things were when they were called for jury duty and how a couple characters were going to try to get out of jury duty. At the end, a Court Officer won’t listen to their excuses and makes a statement ending the play. What my reaction to the significance of the statement is that, it was kind of ironic because of what happened the day after, and how the jurors thought that things were bad. The Court Officer said
Express the meaning of (the writer or speaker or something written or spoken) using different words, esp. to achieve greater clarity.
In the comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the plethora of comedic styles used by Shakespeare illustrate his intention to poke fun at love throughout the play. The play is notorious for its intricate and irrational plotline, mainly due to the constantly shifting love triangles. Once the powerful fairies become involved with the fate of the naive lovers – Demetrius, Helena, Lysander and Hermia – matters are further complicated. The complication inflicted by the fairies is credited to the powerful love potion that Oberon, King of the Fairies, hands over to Puck, a mischievous fairy, to use on his wife Titania, with intentions to embarrass and distract her. This spiteful attitude is due to Oberon and Titania’s argument over the custody of an
Shakespeare uses irony to great effect in his many plays, specifically dramatic irony, and some cosmic irony, in the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. But why does he use it? What is he trying to achieve or portray? It varies throughout the play, but there are general trends as the story develops. In the beginning we see that it is almost comical uses. The irony then develops into more interesting and intriguing uses meant to keep the audience, especially the groundlings, interested and wanting more. And then finally, he uses dramatic irony to point out some of the reasons why this is a tragedy during and before the climax.
Comedy, professional entertainment consisting of jokes and satirical sketches, intended to make an audience laugh. Comedy is incorporated in the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare several times. In several scenes there are characters called The Mechanicals who are young men shown as comical by the way they talk and how they go about doing things. These men are putting on a play to perform for the King and Queen of their home. One major type of comedy the characters use is character comedy. This is when the characters exaggerate features or have comical personality traits. Throughout the play, character comedy is used several times by The Mechanicals.
Defining play can be very difficult. The term play can be used to illustrate a wide range of behaviors and activities, and can be perceived as both essential and insignificant to the child at the same time. Santrock (2012, p.437) suggests a definition of play as "a pleasurable activity that is engaged in for its own sake." However, this is argued by Kernan (2007, p.5) who states that none of the potential definitions are broad enough to encompass all of the meanings associated with play. Despite the lack of such universal definition, Rennie (2003, p.22) claims, that "we can recognize play across barriers of language, of culture, even of species", which conveys its importance in the life and development of children, as it is
In the play Twelfth Night, Shakespeare uses dramatic irony to develop the comedic effect in the characters relationships. The use of dramatic irony produces most of the comedic effect by revealing situations and relationships to the audience, but not the cast. Developing the plot with this literary device provides comedic and ironic situations while engaging the audience.
The rise of tension between characters is another characteristic of comedic plays. After Oberon sees the way that Helena has been treated by Demetrius, he orders Puck to apply the juice to the eyes of Demetrius. Puck accidentally applies the juice to Lysander’s eye, which causes him to fall in love with Helena. After the mistake had been caught, Oberon sends Puck to watch Helena and Oberon applies the juice to Demetrius’ eyes. This causes both men to fall for Helena and now the battle is for Helena and not Hermia. Helena is convinced that this is a joke or prank because neither of the two men loved her before. Now because of Puck’s mistakes the four decide to find a
Critics of William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, such as L. G. Salingar in his essay “The Design of Twelfth Night,” constantly dwell upon its inconsistency of happiness. Indeed, Twelfth Night is a romantic comedy of joy that brings audience laughter and applause. Yet, under the atmosphere of mirth and liberty suggested by Twelfth Night, a Saturnalian Carnival where pleasure rules, we are constantly reminded of misery, hatred, and depression. Over the course of different character’s pursuit in “what [they] will”, we witness their conflict, laugh at their madness, sense the darkness in their society, and ultimately cast doubt on whether this immoderate pleasure will sustain. Through his use of multiple foils, Shakespeare guides his audience to unfold the limits of festivity.
“In roughly built playhouses and cobblestone inn yards, an extraordinary development took place in England in the 1500s.” (Yancey, 8). At that time, an opportunity combined to produce literature achievement never before witnessed in the history of drama and theater. The renaissance, helped spark this movement by inspiring scientific and artistic creativity throughout the land. Models began writing dramas that portrayed life in both realistic and imaginative ways. This created work later captured the attention of the world that changed the English drama. The many aspects of Elizabethan theater helped to shape the acting and theater world forever.