The Fool In Shakespeare Research Paper

Given the religious turmoil of the time and the horrendous executions to criminals, why did William Shakespeare choose to mostly write comedies? Did Shakespeare not understand the mood of society, or perhaps did he write exactly the type of plays that everyone needed to see? To fully understand why William Shakespeare chose to write of amusing scenarios, its important to know what society in his time was like: sorrowful, argumentative, but also enlightening. Amidst the troubles of religion and despairing sights of death, theater rose to the top of many people’s hearts.

Human nature has a tendency to be rather foolish. The topic of foolishness is shown and developed throughout Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare. Foolishness is developed using the actions of the characters and through Feste’s observations. This topic is important in this play because it exposes how foolishness is part of human life. The characters in this play act foolish throughout the play.

In the play “Twelfth Night” by William Shakespeare the Fool is explaining to Orsino about his foolishness and why he is necessarily a fool. His mind analyzes his surroundings and determines who is better for him, his friends or his foes. His situation is “topsy-turvey” because no one is nice to him in a sense that they all treat him like a fool but in different ways. (Act 5 Scene 1 lines 15-22) “Marry, sir, they praise me and make an ass of me, now my foes tell me plainly I am an ass.

William Shakespeare was born in 1564 and died on april 23, 1616. His parents was John shakespeare and Mary Arden. John shakespeare had many different jobs like selling leather goods, wool, malt and corn. In 1556 He was appointed the borough’s official “ale taster”. John later became a moneylender and held a series of municipal positions, serving for some time as the mayor of stratford (history.com). Mary keep up the house like cleaned, helped take care of the kids. John and mary oldest children, both girls did not live past infancy. William had 3 younger brothers, Gilbert, Richered, and Edmund. And two younger sisters. Anne, who died at seven, and joan. Thought to die from the black death (folger.edu). William shakespeare was Baptized on

After a series of dramatic events, Shakespeare introduces the fool to brighten the situation and in doing so causes the king to have an epiphany. I have noticed that Shakespeare frequently includes a character with the same purpose to that of the Fool, such as, Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream. This fool is intelligent and uses symbolic questions to help King Lear reflect on his heinous actions. For instance, he asks the King "Canst tell how an oyster makes his shell?" The fool answers with an analogy of the King, where the snail is the king and the home is his kingdom. The fool's questions are harshly candid that it appalled me that the King did not berate him for it. Instead, the King does something aberrational for his character; he admits

Referred to worldwide as the poet who transformed the literary world, William Shakespeare lived at the peak of the English culture. (“poets.org” n. pag.) While he was loved around the world, Shakespeare started out as a commoner and worked his way up to fame and prosperity. After he died in 1616,Shakespeare managed to stay in the spotlight, because of his plays. “The prophecy of his great contemporary, the poet Ben Jonson, that Shakespeare ‘was not of an age, but for all time’” (Kuiper 1). William Shakespeare, the English national poet of the 15th century, transformed the literary world into what it is today with his memorable comedies (Kuiper 1).

William Shakespeare's genius came from how closely he intertwined the two seemingly mutually exclusive realms to appeal to all socio-economic groups in his audience. The character of the Fool provides the closest intercourse of the two realms between King Lear's royalty and Poor Tom's poverty, while still maintaining their separation. The Fool's role in King Lear was to counteract the King's follies in order to bring him to his senses. With his honesty, wit, and clever wordplay that interweave foreshadowing and practical advice, the Fool entertains not only the King, but the audience as well, and brings some light and humour into this tragedy. All the characters in King Lear, apart from the

William Shakespeare was born April 23, 1564 in Stratford-upon-avon, England. William was baptized the 26 of april 1564. His nationality is english he was the third of eight children. William attended stratford grammar school at the age of 7. The students in this school spent 9 hours a day, these students also studied latin. William loved to read books of ancient roman authors like cicero, ovid, platus, seneca, terence, and vigil. Williams mom is named Mary arden and dad is John Shakespeare. William married at the age of 18 with Anne Hathaway in November 27 1582. Anne was 26 when she married Shakespeare. They had their first child in 1583. Then 2 years later she gave birth to twins. Now they had 2 daughters and 1 son.

In act one scene four of Shakespeare’s King Lear, the Fool discusses the recent foolish actions King Lear has made. King Lear has just divided his kingdom among Goneril and Regan and banished his favorite daughter Cordelia. King Lear then tries to stay with his daughter Goneril, but she lies to him, says she is not feeling well, and refuses to speak with him or let him enter. King Lear questions why he is not being treated like a king and demands respect from his daughters. The Fool then explains to King Lear why he is a fool.

This latter was seen by some as a negative philosophy. George Bernard Shaw termed it “Shakespeare’s despair.” (cited in Eastman, 172–173, 165). But Shakespeare does not present despair as a forgone conclusion. Foolish “wits” like Macbeth, Jacques and Prospero take themselves too seriously, while the Fool is an astute observer and commentator on the proceedings he is witness to. Are any of these characters real? From the point of view of the audience, Hamlet, the visiting troupe he engages to perform the play within a play and Fools are all actors playing their particular roles. Are they really any different from one

Throughout the English Renaissance in Elizabethan England, William Shakespeare developed a 23 year old legacy in which he wrote 37 distinct plays¹. Despite being the young age of 26 when he wrote his first play, Henry VI Part One, Shakespeare quickly became recognized as one of the greatest writers of all time. As a testament to his achievements, countless modern words and phrases are tranced to numerous Shakespearean plays and works. For instance, in the play Macbeth, the first use of the word, “assassination”, was found in Act 1 Scene 7, whilst Macbeth was contemplating the risks and consequences of his upcoming deed². Additionally, the phrase “A sorry sight” originated from Macbeth, being used while Macbeth describes the state of his hands

to foolery by their silly acts as well. There are two types of fool in

“Infirmity that decays the wise doth ever make a better fool” – though uttered by one of his own characters Shakespeare does not seem to conform to this ideal. The fools carved by Shakespeare in his plays showed no resemblance to the mentally and physically challenged people who were treated as pets and used for amusement during the medieval period. Rather Shakespeare’s fools appear to be in the best of their wits when they are in possession of the wisest minds. Fools whether in their rustic vigour displaying grotesque humour or in the forms of the sophisticated court jesters with their polished puns occupied a substantial position in his plays. Not only they added the element of humour but often alluded a

The art of storytelling has always been a component that follows society through every generation. Some storytelling is powerful and meaningful, while other writing is mediocre and bland. When William Shakespeare entered the world of writing, he was able to discover a whole new dimension of stories, and all sorts of ways to share and express each author’s words. With Shakespeare's findings and astonishing creativity, Shakespeare has had the most important and massive impact on writing and telling stories than any historical figure, and continues to inspire the works of stories to this date. Therefore, with the contribution of Shakespeare’s work, today’s society is able to explore and express in different subjects and enter a new level of creativity.

William Shakespeare is known best because of his plays that he wrote. He was one of the best playwright in all history. Most of the plays he did he wrote them by himself. He written about 37 plays and over 100 poems. Even though he lived over 400 years ago his plays are still being read and acted out all over the world. William Shakespeare is one of the most well known playwright in all history, because of all his famous plays and poems he has written.