The Use of Humor in Richard Iii by Shakespeare

Shakespeare’s and Pacino’s texts both depict Richard’s downfall due to his lack of conscience and virtues in his ambitious quest for power to reflect the beliefs of a Providential and secular society respectively. As such, Shakespeare's use of stichomythia and rhetorical question “Was ever woman in this humour wooed? Was ever woman in this humour won?” accentuates the lack of compassion and morality in Richard’s persuasive abilities to emotionally manipulate Anne to accept him as a suitor in his path to attain greatness. With Richard’s gratification of his achievement, Shakespeare illustrates the tyrant within Richard as his moral conscience diminishes due to over-ambition, hence reflecting the harsh Machiavellian politics in the Elizabethan era. Shakespeare’s underlying message on over-ambition is further exemplified through the dissolution of Richard’s unjust reign and mental stability through the death imagery in “It is now dead midnight. Cold fearful drops stand on my trembling flesh. What do I fear? Myself?”. Richard’s unstable mind in the ghosts’ precession, encapsulates Shakespeare’s message of the ramifications of sacrilegious acts whilst asserting God’s divine retribution on any form of theomachy ambition. In accordance to Shakespeare’s illustration of the fall of man due to ambition,

In Act 3 scene I, we see dramatic irony right from the start when the

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.

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

The language of Shakespeare connects both King Richard III & Looking for Richard, enriching the significance of each & enabling both to provide continuous meaning for a range of contexts. The apparently outdated language of Shakespeare is given new life for the modern context, enabling audiences to better understand the original text & thus elevating the play. The film Looking for Richard, through rehearsals of actors, cuts between scholars and ‘random’ people on the street,

To establish the sinister intentions of Richard the actor, Shakespeare makes reference to his moral and physical impediments that leave him cursing “I that am not shaped for sportive tricks…I that am curtailed…”. Through the subtle use of anaphora and repetition of ‘I that am’, which is fleshed out by a definitive tone, the audience is made aware of how Richard is led ostensibly “to prove a villain” and thus, adopt a disguise. Moreover, Richard’s theatricality is stressed as he embarks as a ‘master’ of his own fate, for he perceives himself as “subtle, false, and treacherous”. His sinister intentions are exemplified by the use of tricolon, evocative word choice and short sentence patterning that create a sharp staccato effect. These intentions allow Shakespeare to subtly resonate Richard with the Vice from the medieval morality plays as well as the Renaissance Machiavelli who actively sought power, caused mischief, practised deceit and cynically gloats over his success. Moreover, Richard’s acting allows him to confide in his audience as he is paradoxically honest about his dishonesty, whilst also encouraging his audience not to detest him, but rather, take delight in his cleverness as the ‘director’ of the play. Thus, the opening soliloquy of Richard III offers an insight into how Richard manipulates the

The scene is filled with bawdy references and second meanings, meanings which the audience would undoubtedly find uproarously funny. Hal, too, often speaks this language of the lower classes, especially when chiding Falstaff: "These lies are like the father that begets them--gross as a mountain, open, palpable. Why, thou clay-brained guts, thou knotty-pated fool, thou whoreson obscene greasy tallow-catch--" (I Henry IV, II. iv. 224-227). The language Shakespeare uses in the tavern scenes is certainly different from the more solemn and courtly language found in the plays' more dramatic moments, as in Hal's gallantry towards Hotspur upon the latter's death:

“Good comedy is tragedy narrowly averted”: these words were spoken by Jonathon Bate and Eric Rasmussen in their publishing of ‘William Shakespeare: Complete Works’. They show how many elements of comedy could be interpreted as almost tragic. The comedy in Much Ado About Nothing is often created when the audience can see that something could go horribly wrong, however it is saved in the nick of time. A sense of relief and light-heartedness is created, as customarily comedy is known to end in a meeting of characters at a gleeful point in time or occasion; most frequently with a wedding.

-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.

How does Shakespeare create humour in act 5 scene1 in the play a ‘Midsummer Nights Dream’?

Shakespeare’s tragedy Richard III, features an especially morbid scene in which Richard the Duke of Gloucester woos Lady Anne. By seducing Lady Anne, Gloucester gains the confidence he needs to put the other events of the plot into motion and it further develops his character and villainous persona. By having Gloucester get away with a seemingly impossible task, given that Anne despises him, the audience becomes encaptivated with the main character and another person becomes under the curse that is Richard’s ego.

  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

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.

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

‘Hopeless and helpless doth Egeon wend. But to procrastinate his lifeless end.’ The Comedy of Errors is one of Shakespeare’s earliest and comedic creations, with inspiration drawn from the Roman comedy Menaechmi. The Royal Shakespeare Company was founded in 1961 with the goal to entertain and educate audiences on Shakespeare’s works, by putting a modern twist on the performances. Their version of The Comedy of Errors, co-produced with Told by an Idiot, manipulates the actor’s movements, language and dramatic tension as well as the elements of theatre in order to convey the comedy and irony of the play to a young audience.