Use Of Anti-Comedy In The Incredible Woman By Margaret Atwood

To sustain someone’s interest is a difficult task. It is important to do so in just about every aspect of life. On a day to day basis, one must sustain the interest of many different people. It is especially important for writers to be able to sustain a reader or viewer’s interest. In Jonathon Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” and the well-known movie Mean Girls, both writers use a variety of satire to attract and sustain the reader’s interest.

Even though Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb screened in the midst of the sobering Cold War, critics were keen on praising the film for its mastery of humor applied to such a sensitive matter. The film is exceedingly loaded with metaphors, innuendos, and allusions that nothing can be left undissected or taken for face value; the resulting effect is understood to be part of Kubrick’s multifarious theme. Kubrick has stated that what began as a “the basis for a serious film about accidental war ” eventually birthed an absurd and farcical classic comedy. The director fuses together irony, satire, and black humor to create a waggish piece but most of all the situation of the times and its

Roberto Benigni’s Life Is Beautiful, is a film that is set in a concentration camp and combines comedy with the seriousness of the extermination of the Jews in Nazi Germany. Benigni’s task in making this film was significant, by taking a tremendous risk, making a “comedy about the Holocaust.” And the fact that he pulled it off so well, despite the expected controversy it has aroused in some quarters, is downright miraculous. Benigni initially accesses the emotions of his audience through simple comedy. And the film is a comic attack on Fascism.

Presenting literature to the public that is meant to be a commentary on social or political issues, masked under the guise of entertaining and fictional, is a tool implemented by authors and activists for centuries. While not all satire is as overt as Jonathan Swift’s suggestion that we eat the babies, it does not diminish the eyebrow raising suggestions that are conveyed once the meaning has been discovered. In Aphra Behn’s The History of the Nun and Eliza Haywood’s Fantomina, the established expectations of the female role within society are brought into question then directly rejected. These expectations establish that women should be deferential to men, morally unblemished, and virtuous at all times. Men, however, are not held to these expectations in the same way. The masculine roles assumed by Isabella and Fantomina demonstrate a private rebellion against the established patriarchal society as it warns against the under-estimation of women and proves that women exist independently.

Laughter is a crucial thing in our everyday lives and is something you will inevitably do when you are reading Shel Silverstein's poems. Have you ever wondered what would happen if Uncle Ben found a mouse in the house or what a woman in a mink coat fought for? In all of his poems Shel Silverstein uses humor to make a connection with the reader. Shel Silverstein was a jack of all trades, not only was he a fantastic author, but he was also a musician! Although in Shel Silverstein's work he does not have a deeper meaning or connection to his life, often times his poems have a moral. In all of Shel Silverstein’s poems, you can see his creative and humorous sides.

Logan, you have made many valid pints throughout your discussion thread, and I agree with everything that you have stated. The tone of "Story of an Hour" does indeed fluctuate between sadness and joy, and the tone of "Revolt of Mother" does appear to be horrifying and disgraceful. Your reasons for why the stories can be labeled as satire are very intriguing. I do believe that the stories are poking fun at the terrible situations that women face in their lives. These stories were probably made to push for the reformation of this horrible problem. Overall, Mr. Adams has done an excellent job on answering the discussion

A satire is defined as the use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule, or the like, in exposing, denouncing, or deriding vice, folly, etc. In the novel The Princess Bride, the author, William Goldman, uses satirical remarks for humor. Goldman’s style is very sarcastic and helps the storyline from becoming boring. A few of the most prominent satires in this novel are brand names, the importance of beauty, and children making their own decisions. Goldman’s remarks on these topics remain relevant in today’s society.

How Far Do You Agree With The View That Lady Bracknell Does Create Comedy in ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’?

The reactions in Trifles reveal to the reader how heavily defined gender roles were in the early twentieth century. The two genders quickly form separate bonds with one another in this play. The men of this time dominate every aspect of this story. They make sarcastic jokes at the women when they start to show concern about things that appeared out of the norm in Mrs. Wright’s house. The first thing they noticed is the broken can goods when the Sheriff says, “Well, you can beat the women! Held for murder and worryin’ about her preserves” (Glaspell 1245). This tone of voice reveals how the men did not take the women seriously. They laugh at the women’s idea of trifles but as Phyllis writes, it is “their attentiveness to the "trifles" in her life, the kitchen things considered insignificant by the men, the two women piece together, like patches in a quilt, the

A book where everything is backwards, where everything stirs away from reality and does not make a whole lot of sense when it comes to relativity. The main character Arthur Dent is being targeted by these unprepossessing aliens to demolish his house to make a intergalactic bypass, when moments later they are going to destroy the earth. All Arthur can worry about is his house when the earth is going to end. In reality a normal human would be worried about surviving. A smart computer built by Deep thought detects that the answer to the ultimate question is Forty-Two, now all of the humans are insanely muddled as to why the answer is Forty-Two. Mice are now ruling over humans when we have experimented with them for years, the mice are the rulers over the humans and are experimenting on them. Satire is used in many ways throughout this book, but there are only a few that really express how today's society is ruled over.

However, Susan Glaspell uses the kitchen in the plot as another theatrical metaphor for a domain of gender identification because it is a women’s domestic territory where women’s life is revealed through common kitchen items. Throughout the play, we can distinguish the roles given to women in that era. In this era, women’s roles were generally reproductive, so they have been relegated to the home with less interaction with the outside world. Because kitchens have often served as work spaces, women have found a sense of empowerment through domestic tasks such as cooking, food knowledge, and efficiency of the kitchen. These conditions reveal the state of mind of women in the play. Minnie Wright’s “gloomy kitchen” (Glaspell 443) is “left without having been put in order—unwashed pans under the sink, a loaf of bread outside the breadbox, a dish towel on the table—other signs of incompleted work” (Glaspell 443). She lost her motivation to do housework chores, which represents that her mind is battered and leads to Mr. Wright’s murder—he has distorted her life.

Humour and satire are two concepts that are both wide ranging and diverse, from dark, to light hearted, with each producing a different effect. Humour in the main, is something that is used to please the audience, its function is to invoke laughter amongst its audience. Satire is used to create a comical critical view of the subject at hand, this can range from a light hearted comical way, to a judgemental way, with each style giving the text a different meaning, however this does not mean that satire cannot be humorous, which can evident in the use of parody and irony within texts. Within literature both concepts play an important role to how the text is viewed, humour can include word play, grammatical jokes, to even inside jokes with the author and reader, and with satire, including that of irony and parody, with each style and type delivering humour in its own unique way. These differing styles of humour can be found in a variety of forms including Jasper Forde’s The Eyre Affair (2001), with its silly atmosphere, word play and grammar jokes, and the use of light hearted satire and parody to brighten up the text, and Julian Barnes A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters (1989), where there is a more serious atmosphere, with a more critical, satirical eye on history and characters, as well as using irony to achieve its comical effect, and the position of the world. Each text is humorous and satirical in its own right, and with each author using different techniques to

Today, comedy news shows are becoming progressively more popular, and in so, becoming a new source of information – which may, or may not, be a positive consequence. Most comedians twist the truth in order to connect to people and make them laugh. The article “A Serious Business: What Can Comedy Do?” suggests some comedians “use logic to make painful things make sense” (O’Hara 108). Satirical comedy acts as a relief mechanism in that it comforts people that may be wary about a certain subject, especially in the realm of politics. Similarly, Peter McGraw and Joel Warner discuss how comedy can act as a coping mechanism. The authors conclude that “activists all over the world have been using comedy as a form of political protest” (McGraw & Warner 147). Iain Ellis writes about how political satirists do more than just deliver jokes, they use satire “to expose, ridicule, and–implicitly–call for action and change” (Ellis 152). Ellis contends that comedy can make a difference by its constant presence in our daily lives. Socrates, Plato, and even shows like South Park believe that humor is a way to persuade others. One of the most effective expressions of humor to affect social change has been the inclusion of satire. Although humor often provides people a welcome escape from the burdens of their daily lives, the satirical comedy deconstructs social issues in various ways as a means to persuade the

When the truth hurts we tell a joke, and Ms. Adichie does just that. She develops a rather comedic sense throughout her discussion through her stories and references that becomes a powerful tool in her arsenal. Comedy allows its user to provide social critique with little

Margaret Atwood effectively uses satire in her book, The Handmaid’s Tale, published in 1990, that critique women’s rights and laws that dictates over these rights. In the novel, Atwood addresses the political issues of her time regarding abortion, marriage, and religion as being punishable by death to show how people are rendered powerless within a totalitarian theocracy. Atwood’s ancestor, Mary Webster, was accused of witchcraft in the Puritan New England in 1683, and she was sentenced to hang on a tree overnight. Atwood effectively employs satire by using the literal interpretation of the Bible, gender segregation, and the subjugation of women to reveals that the New Republic of Gilead “is both future and history” (xi). Although she uses satire to reflect upon the Puritan period of her ancestry and the “traditional” values of women, satire is an exaggeration derives from fear.