Shakespeare and Comedy Bevington, etal. Shakespeare: Script, Stage Screen.

12
Shakespeare and Comedy Bevington, etal. Shakespeare: Script, Stage Screen

Transcript of Shakespeare and Comedy Bevington, etal. Shakespeare: Script, Stage Screen.

Page 1: Shakespeare and Comedy Bevington, etal. Shakespeare: Script, Stage Screen.

Shakespeare and Comedy

Bevington, etal.Shakespeare: Script, Stage Screen

Page 2: Shakespeare and Comedy Bevington, etal. Shakespeare: Script, Stage Screen.

DefinitionWhile there is general agreement about what constitutes a tragedy, scholars and theorists have reached little accord on comedy.

Although all of Shakespeare’s comedies are set in foreign locales (except The Merry Wives of Windsor), each retains a distinctly Elizabethan quality, especially among the common characters

Page 3: Shakespeare and Comedy Bevington, etal. Shakespeare: Script, Stage Screen.

Types of comedyScholars and critics have typed Shakespeare’s works as

Romantic Comedy

Romance

Comedy of manners

Farce and slapstick

Bawdy comedy

Grotesque comedy

Sentimental comedy

Yet his works seem to defy simple classification

Page 4: Shakespeare and Comedy Bevington, etal. Shakespeare: Script, Stage Screen.

14 of 35 in First Folio were placed under the heading of “Comedies”

TODAY, two of them THE TEMPEST and THE WINTER’S TALE are regarded as Romances

MEASURE FOR MEASURE and ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL are classified as Problem Plays

Page 5: Shakespeare and Comedy Bevington, etal. Shakespeare: Script, Stage Screen.

Effect of comedyShakespeare’s comedies extend beyond our normal assumption that it makes people laugh and ends happily

Tragedy is ennobling/Comedy is foolish

Comedy is fundamentally democratic

Stakes are not as high in comedy as in tragedy

Tragedy deals with the individual/Comedy with groups

Comic characters are at odds with the norms of society

Page 6: Shakespeare and Comedy Bevington, etal. Shakespeare: Script, Stage Screen.

Northrop Frye observes that Shakespeare’s comedies are initiated by “irrational law”

In “Taming of the Shrew,” a young woman cannot marry until her older sister is wed

Hermia is sentenced to death in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” if she does not marry the man her father prefers

In the first act of “As You Like It” Rosalind is banished from court because she is her father’s daughter

A death threat is at the heart of “Comedy of Errors”

Page 7: Shakespeare and Comedy Bevington, etal. Shakespeare: Script, Stage Screen.

The spirit of carnival pervades Shakespeare’s comedies Disguises and wearing masks

Women dress as men

Those women who do not cross-dress rail against men as Beatrice and Katharina do

Page 8: Shakespeare and Comedy Bevington, etal. Shakespeare: Script, Stage Screen.

Treatment of women Marriages seem to be a

patriarchal right

When women revolt against their role, they need to be “reformed”

OTHER CRITICS SUGGEST

Women are true subversives in society

They choose to enter into marriages as equals

Page 9: Shakespeare and Comedy Bevington, etal. Shakespeare: Script, Stage Screen.

Other qualities in Shakespeare comedy

Shakespeare demonstrates ingenious wordplay

Most comedies contain about 80 puns. Love’s Labours Lost features almost 200

For Shakespeare, puns were not the lowest form of comedy

Malaprops are frequently in evidence (Peter Quince and Nick Bottom; Dogberry; the twin Dromios)

Much of his humor is the product of a character using language, not wisely, but too much…verbosity is not a good quality in his comic characters (see example following)

Page 10: Shakespeare and Comedy Bevington, etal. Shakespeare: Script, Stage Screen.

Love’s Labour’s Lost (I.2.161-)

ADRIANO DE ARMADO I do affect the very ground, which is base, whereher shoe, which is baser, guided by her foot, whichis basest, doth tread. I shall be forsworn, whichis a great argument of falsehood, if I love. Andhow can that be true love which is falselyattempted? Love is a familiar; Love is a devil:there is no evil angel but Love. Yet was Samson sotempted, and he had an excellent strength; yet wasSolomon so seduced, and he had a very good wit.Cupid's butt-shaft is too hard for Hercules' club;and therefore too much odds for a Spaniard's rapier.The first and second cause will not serve my turn;the passado he respects not, the duello he regardsnot: his disgrace is to be called boy; but hisglory is to subdue men. Adieu, valour! rust rapier!be still, drum! for your manager is in love; yea,he loveth. Assist me, some extemporal god of rhyme,for I am sure I shall turn sonnet. Devise, wit;write, pen; for I am for whole volumes in folio.

Page 11: Shakespeare and Comedy Bevington, etal. Shakespeare: Script, Stage Screen.

And to conclude…“the conflation of inventive plots, memorable characters, and well-crafted speeches encourages actors to use their comedic talents to make many scenes in Shakespeare’s comic plays laugh-out-loud funny.”

Page 12: Shakespeare and Comedy Bevington, etal. Shakespeare: Script, Stage Screen.

References Barber, C.L. Shakespeare’s Festive Comedy.

Princeton, 1959.

Barton, Anne. The Names of Comedy. Toronto, 1990.

Brown, John Russell. Shakespeare and his Comedies. London, 1968.

Dollimore, Johathan, and Alan Sinfield, eds. Political Shakespeare. Manchester, England, 1985.

Evans, Bertrand. Shakespeare’s Comedies. Oxford, 1960.

Frye, Northrop. Anatomy of Criticism. Princeton, 1957.