Dogberry: An approach Thursday, 15 November 2018 jonathan peel jls 2016 Thursday, 15 November 2018

“What is the significance of Dogberry…?” 1: HUMOUR for the masses and for those bogged down with the formal elements of the play 2: Marxist social theory…. (!) jonathan peel jls 2016

Humour 1) Verbal MALAPROPISMS and PUNS We have discussed this often: make a quick list of 5 of Dogberry’s malapropisms or puns taken from 3.3, 3.5 and 4.2 Focus on the errors which carry a “wrong meaning” e.g.: “If I was as tedious as a king, I could find it in my heart to bestow it all on your worship” jonathan peel jls 2016

Humour Contextual and visual Contextual: His inability to speak clearly is a conceit used by Shakespeare to slow down the revelation and to enhance the dramatic irony of the second half of the play Visual – “sight gags” are increasingly used to cover for the lack of humour in the word play to modern ears. jonathan peel jls 2016

MARXIST THEORY… A bit more A level than GCSE, but… We need to look at Dogberry through a different lens if we are to find any other useful material Read your insert (next slide), courtesy of AQA LitB 4 jonathan peel jls 2016

jonathan peel jls 2016

Ideas for Dogberry and the Watch Overt meaning: love story, romcom. Covert meaning: an exploration of a complacent bourgeoisie being embarrassed by a “stupid” working class man, resulting in a shift of power away from the elite. Shakespeare was not of “high birth” and sought to imply a need for equality in his drama. This helps to allow a reading of Dogberry as the hinge for the class-struggle in the play Comedy is essentially a genre of equality. Moreover, the essential message of the Dogberry scenes is on of an ill-educated working class group helping to destabilise a ruling elite. Dogberry is the leader of this group. As the monarch’s power becomes less “absolute” in the 16th and 17th century depictions of the relative unsuitability of the wealthy to govern, simply because they are wealthy become more common. Democracy replaces Plutocracy, albeit in the context of a system ruled by an hereditary monarch. Theatre attendance was utterly democratic was the sphere in which rich and poor rubbed shoulders. It is a chance to comment on strata of society. Another comment on metre: The rich deliver poetry in “high form”, the lower classes always speak in prose or in fragmented language. In this play, it is the lower classes who often make the most sense. jonathan peel jls 2016

So, Dogberry as a proto – Lenin? Not really BUT Allow yourselves to consider him in this light. Shakespeare was a radical writer who many think challenged the complacency of a Protestant Hierarchy. Don’t just see Dogberry as a boring “comic turn” jonathan peel jls 2016

Oh, by the way: Why not write the essay? 45 minutes Stripey paper Submit by Wednesday Lesson jonathan peel jls 2016