Shakespearean Comedy

I’d like you to organize your notes like this: Interactions

Basic Characteristics Characters are ordinary people- relatable Begins with potential disaster A struggle of young lovers to overcome difficulty Separation and unification Multiple, intertwining plots Ends with reconciliation and restoration Ends with marriage and new beginnings ……..and no one dies!

The Humor Emphasis on situations instead of characters Limits the audience’s connection to characters and their misfortune—we can still laugh at their troubles Mistaken identity, deception Clever, witty “low” characters Physical humor Verbal humor Puns- a humorous use of a word in which two possible meanings of the same word (or similar sounding words) are suggested. Malapropisms- mistakenly using a word in place of a similar-sounding one. Produces humorous results. From the French word mal a propos, which means inappropriate

Pun: I wondered why the baseball was getting bigger. Then it hit me. A bicycle can't stand on its own because it is two-tired. I'm reading a book about anti-gravity. It's impossible to put down. Malapropism: “Texas has a lot of electrical votes.” – Yogi Berra “He hits from both sides of the plate. He’s amphibious.” –Yogi Berra “Adieu: be vigitant, I beseech you.”- Dogberry “O villain! thou wilt be condemned into everlasting redemption for this.”- Dogberry

The Importance of Marriage Marriage at the end of a comedy emphasizes the focus on the community vs. in a tragedy, which emphasizes the focus on the individual The advancement of the individual or the family was the most important criterion in the choice of marriage partners Material benefits Ties between families-financial and material resources Marriage is an unbreakable bond that promises the continuation of community through children

The Battle of the Sexes Female character shine in Shakespeare’s comedies- witty, wise, integrity and character Patriarchal Society- Women treated like property in marriage, expected subservience

The Battle of the Sexes (continued) Female Archetypes in Much Ado About Nothing Submissive Wife- Innogen Literally has no lines Dutiful Daughter- Hero “Daughter, remember what I told you.  If the Prince do solicit you in that kind, you know your answer” (II.i.61-3) Comedic Heroine- Beatrice [I]t is my cousin’s duty to make curtsy and say, “Father, as it please you.”  But yet for all that, cousin, let him be a handsome fellow, or else make another curtsy and say, “Father, as it please me” (II.i.49-52)

Final Note The title of the play, Much Ado About Nothing, actually contains a pun, although some of its meaning has changed as our language has evolved. In Shakespeare’s time the verb “note” or “to note” would have a meaning similar to “gossip.” The word “nothing” would have sounded similar to “noting” in Elizabethan dialect, therefore creating two possible and relevant meanings.