How Is Humor Used In Hamlet

-Shakespeare employs dramatic irony in many of his tragedies, so that the audience is engaged, and so they are able to witness characters errors in their action, predict the fate of the characters, and experience feelings of tragedy and grief.

In the book Hamlet by Shakespeare, irony is used numerous times in order to give the reader insight on what is going on. As stated in the Merriam-Webster dictionary, irony is an action that is understood by the audience but not by the characters in the play. If this strategy were not included in this drama, it would take away the whole purpose. This play would consist of no suspense and would be extremely boring to the reader because the characters would know as much as the readers know. This allows for incite to what can happen in the future or what has happened in the past. The irony in this play ultimately revolves around Hamlet and his plan to achieve revenge with Claudius. From the play that Hamlet organizes

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.

  Well aware that several hours of unrelenting angst would be a bit much for his audience to take, William Shakespeare strategically placed several humorous scenes throughout his masterpiece, Hamlet.  In particular, the character of Polonius fills the role of the comic fool; he is in two essential comedic scenes, one with his own children and then one with Hamlet.  Shakespeare's acute ability to weave humor into this very heavy play is noteworthy, as his use of comedy goes beyond merely providing much-needed comic relief.   In fact, the rather numerous comedic scenes serve as a foils to, as well as reflections of, the intense action of the play.   In every case where humor is used in Hamlet, it is

How does humor factor into a tragedy? Shakespeare knew the answer to this question and acted upon it quite frequently. Shakespeare has been known to write comedies and tragedies both but this does not qualify him at to not incorporate a little of each into each other. In the work of Hamlet there are many occasions where Shakespeare uses it for different effects. The main reason for the presence of humor within a tragedy is to keep the reader interested. Shakespeare uses many forms of humor including but not limiting wit, pun’s, and casual jokes. In the work of Hamlet, Hamlet is usually the character that Shakespeare chooses to bring out the humor in anything. He becomes a very

In the play Hamlet, by playwright William Shakespeare, witty lines were included to reveal different elements throughout the play. Hamlet uses puns to reveal different elements throughout the play. For example, Hamlet uses puns to insult and confuse Polonius and Ophelia, so they continue to believe he is not mentally stable. Hamlet also used puns to reveal his anger towards multiple characters throughout the play, while trying to fulfill the Ghost’s instructions, which were to kill Claudius without causing unnecessary pain on Gertrude.

If you were an uneducated person watching a play that you didn’t understand for hours, you would very easily become uninterested and bored very quickly. To make sure that didn’t happen Shakespeare put those humorous scenes in his play to catch the attention of those audience members. Humor is also used to heighten the sense of the major theme in the play. Death is the major theme in hamlet, with main characters dying at every turn. One of the funniest scenes in the drama is the gravedigger scene where they’re making fun of death. He had different types of comedy in this drama to fit the different type of people in his audience. It was already mentioned that his audiences contained anywhere from royalty to the highly educated to the uneducated peasants. So his jokes needed to vary, he had these super sophisticated jokes that you only understood if you were educated enough. He also would throw in sex jokes and double entendres for his lower class audience members. Example of these comedic scenes takes place all over the play. Act 2 scene 2 is where we see our first example of outright comedy, Polonius approaches hamlet and asks him if he recognizes him, and hamlet replies “Excellent well sir. You are a

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 most noticeable demonstration of Hamlet's intelligence shows in his fondness for puns. Breaking out of commonly accepted speech patterns and delving into deeper meanings takes a lot of mental effort. Hamlet does this every time he talks with someone who would hinder him in realizing his objectives. Let us look at a particularly poignant example. Observe:

Throughout Hamlet, written by Shakespeare, Hamlet’s emotions, actions, and thoughts cause much trouble during the play. Hamlet encounters stages of sarcasm, inanity, suicidal tendencies/self-deprecation, and procreation/indecision which develop not only his personality but the play itself. Hamlet uses sarcasm to express his emotions, pretends to be insane (ultimately leading him to become truly insane), self-deprecates throughout the play due to family events, and procrastinates because he is indecisive. Hamlet encounters many life-altering events throughout the play such as his uncle poisoning his father and quickly remarrying Hamlet’s mother, to accidentally killing Polonius thinking it was Claudius, all the way to debating upon: his own

Shakespearean plays are often known for their outstanding entertainment and classic comic conflict. In his masterwork, Hamlet, Shakespeare uses these aspects to serve his thematic purpose. He has used comedy throughout many of his historic plays, but in this play, comedy is the drawing point that makes it fun and entertaining, yet clear and intuitive. Generally, his tragedies are not seen as comical, but in reality, they are full of humor. However, these comic elements don’t simply serve to relieve tension; they have much significance to the play itself. The characters of Hamlet, Polonius, Osric, and the Gravediggers, prove to be very influential characters, and throughout the play, they are the individuals that

Wordplay plays a major role in Hamlet by William Shakespeare. Hamlet himself is very witty the whole time he’s in the play. His wordplay is rarely ever caught by the person he is speaking to and many of the readers. Hamlet’s puns also cause his foes to become confused and wonder if he could possible be insane. The reason Hamlet uses wordplay is to protect himself from his foes and to as a subtle weapon against a foe.

In Act 1, when we first meet Hamlet, even though he is still grieving his father’s death, he appears to be himself and of

How does the use of comic relief best contrast the tragedy of Hamlet? In great works of literature a comic relief is used as contrast to a serious scene to intensify the overall tragic nature of the play or to relieve tension. As illustrated in Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet, intense scenes are joined with character’s banter and vacuous actions as to add a comic relief. In Hamlet, Polonius acts as a comic relief by his dull and windy personality, Hamlet uses his intelligence and his negativity toward the king and queen to create humor, while on the other hand Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are a comic relief by their senseless actions and naïve natures. Polonius, Hamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are all used as a comic relief to

William Shakespeare once said that “brevity is the soul of wit.” This is heavily evident in regards to Hamlet and all of his short, witty comments throughout the play. In Act I Scene II Hamlet 's wit comes out in full force during a discussion with his mother, Gertrude, and his uncle/stepfather, Claudius, with Hamlet’s very first words in the play: