Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
by Don L. F. Nilsen
and Alleen Pace Nilsen
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Humor in Shakespeares Comedies
As an example of a Shakespearean comedy
consider A Midsummer Nights Dream.
This is true in Much Ado about Nothing, and it is also true in The Taming of the
Shrew, where in the last act the shrew gets tamed.
Romeo and Juliet is a romance that begins as a comedy and ends as a tragedy.
Tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church-door, but tis enough, twill
serve. Ask for me tomorrow, and you will find me a grave man.
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Humor in Shakespeares Histories
Mark Antonys speech in Julius Caesar is dripping with irony:
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Humor in Shakespeares Tragedies
The humor in Shakespeares tragedies is more important than is that in his comedies.
When the tragedy becomes unbearable, Shakespears inserts humor not only for
comic relief, but also to contrast with the stark tragedy that came before and will
surely follow afterward. Here are some examples:
Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horation; a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent
fancy. Where be your gibes now? Your gambols? Your songs? Your flashes of
merriment, that were wont to set the table on a roar? Not one now, to mock your
own grinning.
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Comedy of Errors (1592)
Alleen and I will discuss the humor, irony, and language
play of Shakespearean plays going from 1592 to 1606.
In the process, we will contrast the humor of
Shakespearean comedies with that in his tragedies, and
well also contrast the humor of Shakespeares male
characters vs. that of his female characters.
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The Taming of the Shrew (1593)
The bawdiness of Petruchios and Katherines punning is
illustrated in the following dialogue:
PETRUCHIO: Who knows not where a wasp does wear his sting? In his tail.
PETRUCHIO: What, with my tongue in your tail? Nay come again, Good Kate; I am a
gentleman--. (Colby 156)
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In Act II, Scene I of The Taming of the Shrew, Petruchios ironic speech overshadows
Kates ironic speech which appears at the end of the play. Petruchio says,
PETRUCHIO: Say that she rail, why then Ill tell her plain
She sing as sweetly as a nightingale;
Say that she frown, Ill say she looks as clear
As morning roses newly washd with dew;
Say she be mute, and will not speak a word,
Then Ill commend her volubility.
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Contrast Petruchios speech above with Katherines speech at the end of The Taming
of the Shrew. Kate shows a last bit of defiance by saying that the sun is not the moon
although Petruchio claims it to be. But she relents and through ironic exaggeration
knows it is the moon (Evans 121, Bamber 35).
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Thus Kate is tamed and Petruchio wins his wager; but Kate nevertheless
retains her independence.
By the end of the play, Katherine is more dominant than ever because she
has learned how to phrase her attacks so irresistibly by humbly
recognizing her own limitations and disarming resistance (Richmond 91).
Kate uses her wit and intelligence and her undefiled spirit to show her
equality to men, and teach the other women the rules by which to govern
their marriages if they are to be independent as well (Madden 7-8).
By the way, Petruchios name comes from the Greek word petros meaning
stone or rock, thus demonstrating Petruchios strong, consistent, and
willful nature.
At the end of the play, Petruchio proves that he has tamed Katherine by
saying Why theres a wench! Come on, and kiss me, Kate. (Levith 70)
Thus providing the name for the musical comedy which is to follow.
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Romeo and Juliet (1595)
Romeo and Juliet has an ironically humorous death scene
that not only advances the plot. It changes the genre of the
play from a Romantic Comedy to a Tragedy.
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A Midsummer Nights Dream (1594)
In A Midsummer Nights Dream, a group of men are planning a
performance to celebrate the wedding of Duke Theseus to Queen
Hippolyta.
In Act I, Scene ii, Nick Bottom, the vainest member of the group, tells
the other characters that he would like to run the entire show.
Bottom has already been given the role of Pyramus, but he also
wants to play Thisby and the Lion as well. In fact, Bottom wants to
enact all of the parts in this play within a play.
Let me play the lion too. I will roar, that I will do any mans heart
good to hear me. I will roar, and I will make the Duke say, let him
roar again; let him roar again. (Evans 73)
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Bottom continues by saying, let me play Thisby too. Ill speak in a
monstrous little voice. Let me play the lion too. I will roar that I
will do any mans heart good to hear me. (Evans 226).
Tom Snout is probably the most amusing character in this play within
a play, for he must assume the role of a wall. He dons stones and
mortar as a costume, and during the play, he spreads his fingers to
symbolize a hole in the wall through which Pyramus and Thisby must
kiss (Woodford 3-4).
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In Act III, Scene I, Puck decides to have a bit of
fun with Bottom. Puck replaces Bottoms head
with the head of an ass, and because the Love
in Idleness potion has already been placed in
the eyes of Titania, the queen of the fairies, she
immediately falls in love with Bottom, bearing
an asss head, as soon as she sees him.
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Another example is Snug the Joiner, since a joiner
is a person who fits things together as people do in
sex. Flute and Snout are English slang words for
penis.
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The pound of flesh which I demand of him / is
dearly bought, is mine, and I will have it: / If you
deny me fie upon your law! (Act IV, Scene i)
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Much Ado about Nothing has three plots, and it is basically humor
that holds these three plots together in a single play.
The main plot is about Claudio and Hero, and the two subplots
feature the witty arguments of Beatrice and Benedick on the one
hand, and the comic fumbling of Dogberry and his friends on the
other hand.
The wit that is shown by Beatrice and Benedick in arguing their cases
ranges from puns to conceptual wit, in which the characters use
allusive understatement and sophisticated logic (McCollom 73).
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In Much Ado about Nothing, Beatrice and Benedick dont so
much disdain each other as they enjoy the enactment of
disdain. Benedick shows his affection for Beatrice in an ironic
way at the ball, when Beatrice has insulted him and he then
asks Don Pedro for any excuse to leave the party. The fact is
that he could have left at any time on his own accord, but he
says,
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But Benedick actually loves Beatrice, and he
tries to write her a love poem. When he has
difficulty, he is forced to ask Margaret for help
in the writing of his courtly love poetry:
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Dogberrys outrageous malapropisms and utter stupidity, such as
They are condemnd into everlasting redemption (Act IV, Scene ii)
in general provide occasion for some of the memorable merriment in
this play (Bryant 142).
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As You Like It (1599)
Carrie Morene says that much of the humor, satire and irony of As
You Like It resides in the words and actions of Rosalind, Jaques, and
Touchstone. Rosalind and Touchstone are whimsical yea-saying
skeptics who affirm the values they seem to mock (Ornstein 141).
Rosalind adopts the role of a saucy lacky, and in this guise she
assures Orlando that he cant be Rosalinds true lover because he
lacks the marks of a lover: a lean cheeka blue eye and sunkenan
unquestionable spirita bear neglected hose ungartteredbonnet
unbandedsleeve unbuttonedshoe untiedand everything about
[him] demonstrating a careless desolution.
At the end of this speech Rosalind (as Ganymede) says that Orlandos
being well-groomed is suggestive of his loving himself [more] than
seeming the lover of any other.
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In As You Like It, Touchstone has the role of a
Court Jester, but he also contributes to the
action of the play. One of his monologues is
very similar to Cyrano de Bergeracs monologue
about his nose, as he attempts to quarrel by
the book.
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Twelfth Night (1599)
In sixteenth century England there were the twelve days of Christmas
which was followed by twelfth night, the title of one of
Shakespeares plays.
Servants took their masters places for a day and the lower orders
were allowed impertinence against their betters that would have
been heavily fined any other time of the year. The festivity generally
celebrated the age of grace that Christ ushered in, the age in which it
was revealed that human sins were already cleansed in the blood of
Gods Son (Grawe 110-111).
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In Twelfth Night, everyone is a fool except for the fool. Viola fools
others by dressing up as a man. Sir Toby fools Malvolio. The lovers
fool themselves by pursuing characters who are not interested in
them.
Feste, on the other hand, knows them all for the fools that they are
(Draper 211-212).
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Feste, the fool in Twelfth Night is a character
reminiscent of the character of Vice in the Tudor
morality plays. Vice was a crude character who
taunted the Devil with a wooden dagger and rode
off the stage on the Devils back (Hotson 84). Fest
leaves the stage in the same way:
HAMLET: How absolute the knave is! We must speak by the card, or
equivocation will undo us. (Act 5, Scene i)
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Hamlets soliloquy as he talks to poor Yoricks skull in this same scene
seems less concerned that the life is gone than that the laughter is
gone. It begins, Alas, Poor Yorick. I knew him well. And it
continues,
Not one now, to mock your own grinning? Quite chapfalln? Now
get you to my ladys chamber, and tell her, let her paint an inch thick,
to this favour she must come. Make her laugh at that. (Act V, Scene
i)
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King Lear (1605)
Northrup Frye says that in King Lear, Shakespeare is ironically parodying a tragic
situation.
Many of Shakespeares play contain a fool, a clown, a jester, or a madman, but the
fool in King Lear is not so much of a fool as the king is. In fact, at one point in
the play, the fool says, Nuncle! Would I had two coxcombs and two daughers?
Lear asks, Why, my boy? and the fool responds, If I gave them all my living, Ill
keep the coxcombs myself. Theres mine; beg another of thy daughters (Muir 39).
The fool is here saying that he would give something to his daughters if he had
daughters, but he would still keep the cap so that he could make a living. He is
further telling Lear that he has given everything to his daughters, and this means
that he must now beg his daughters for a living (Lin 8).
When the King says, Dost thou call me a fool, boy? the fool replies, All the other
titles thou has given away; that thou wast born with (Evans 441).
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Macbeth (1606)
There is very dark humor and irony in Macbeth when Lady Macbeth taunts
her husband by equating his desires to kill the king with his sexual promises.
She links his twin deeds of assassination and lovemaking (Homan 940).
The play Macbeth also contains the famous drunken porter scene of Act 2,
Scene iii. This scene comes between the murder of King Duncan and the
discovery of his body, and is therefore the most tense moment of the play.
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The drunken porter scene is comic relief, and
occurs at a time in the play when the audience
needs comic relief. But the comic relief of the
drunker porter scene also adds to the tragedy of
the play in two ways:
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Conclusion # 1:
Shakespeares Tragedies
vs. Shakespeares Comedies
Shakespearean tragedy is engaging, while Shakespearean comedy is
transcending. But they are different in another way as well.
Northrup Frye says, just as comedy often sets up an arbitrary law and then
organizes the action to break or evade it, so tragedy presents the reverse
theme of narrowing a comparatively free life into a process of causation.
(166)
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Frye says that in comedy there tends to be a tricky
slave (dolosus servus) that is an eiron figure who
acts from a pure love of mischief, and is able to set the
comic action going (212).
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Conclusion # 2:
Women in Shakespeares Comedies
Carol Neely suggests that in Shakespeares comedies there are four women whose
skills at logic, wit, and language play make them as strong as the strongest of
Shakespeares men.
These women are Katharine in The Taming of the Shrew, Portia in The Merchant of
Venice, Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing, and Rosalind in As You Like It.
Portia, the most intellectual of the women, takes on the disguise of a male lawyer in
order to prove her superior intellect to the men of Venice.
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Beatrice uses her charming intellect to match wits with Benedick,
thus proving her equality.
These plays all begin in a mans world, but the women come in and
take over, and by their intelligence and wit, they transform the men
from foolish lovers intowe hopesensible husbands (Neely 215).
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William Shakespeares Humor:
William Shakespeares Humor:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare
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