Society tends to make conclusions based on a person’s in status society. Using the Jester as an example William Shakespeare and Edgar Allen Poe suggests that one’s status in society does not necessarily correspond to their actual characteristics. Many tend to look down upon the jester, dismissing them as stupid people because the jester is typically known as an entertainer who is not very smart. Edgar Allen Poe tells us that “monarchs would have found it difficult to get through their day without a Jester to laugh with and … at” (Poe). However the jester in William Shakespeare’s twelfth night does not live up to the stereotype that jester are dumb. Shakespeare’s jester, Feste not only provides humor but gives intelligent …show more content…
For example he advises that “it is better to be a witty fool than a foolish wit”. However despite his intelligence the other characters in the play regard Feste as a fool because he is a jester, and jesters by their stereotype is not smart. They generalize this stereotype to all jesters, and they fail to recognize that “fellow is wise enough to play the fool and to do that well craves a kind of wit. Society combines the spectra of characteristics and social status and by doing so they suppress individuality because these characteristics and status may not always match, as seen by Feste. Edgar Allen Poe gives us another example in his short story Hop Frog. In this story,the main character Hop Frog is a constantly bullied by the king because he is a jester and a dwarf. These two characteristics invoke the notion that Hop Frog is dumb and is not worthy to be recognized as a human being. For example, the king once forced Hop Frog to drink wine , ignoring the fact that Hop Frog easily becomes drunk. However, Hop Frog is not someone he is labeled as shows this by extracting his revenge. Hop Frog captures the king and his ministers by tricking them until “the dismayed and struggling ourang-outangs
There is a tremendous difference between a fool and a jester. Fools are regarded as light-hearted, dim-witted, and absent-minded people whose outrageous stupidity amused the rest of the population. These jovial folk represented the lowest in society: too carefree to get ahead in society and too stupid to care. Many people believed that Jan Steen, a prominent and well-educated artist of the Dutch Golden Age, was a fool. It is not a far-fetched assumption to make since he donned the appearance of a fool in his own paintings. However Steen was no fool. Much like the history of jesters, Jan Steen’s unsavory appearances in his own work is often misunderstood and taken at face value. To look into Steen’s own depictions of his life in his paintings one might completely agree that he is a foolish drunkard who happened to be blessed with the ability to paint. It is interesting, then, to realize that Steen is more jester than fool, especially in his self portraits. In medieval times the only person who could get away with insulting the king and royal family was the court jester. Jesters would use their quick wit, silver tongues, and superior intellect to insult or comment on the presiding royalty and would often be received with thunderous laughter and applause. Steen, much like the jester, used a foolish appearance to give social commentary on the world around him. One of the best examples of this is in Steen’s “The Continence of Scipio” (see Figure 1). A goofy cast of characters replace the traditionally serious and dignified roles of the figures in the classic story but none so ridiculous as the narcissistic husband, Aluccius (who looks suspiciously like Stee...
In conclusion, there are many characteristics about Hop Frog, but the three main characteristics that make him an interesting character is that he is unfortunate of being a fool, he is clever, and he is vengeful. Even though Hop Frog is always being made fun of a lot, he is the one who gets the last jest and he is able to get revenge on the king and his ministers. If someone makes fun of someone else because they are not interesting then that person is wrong. Every person has unique characteristics about them, just as Hop Frog has unique characteristics about
Hop Frog had suffered through years of torment at the hands of the king. To begin with, Hop Frog was kidnapped from his own land and sent as a captive to the king. Hop Frog was made to suffer verbal abuse for his physical shortcomings and sufferings.
Hop Frog was the king’s own personal toy and many times he laughed with the king, but overall he was laughed at. This can make a person downgrade themselves and face sadness because they are not appreciated appropriately. The king defines Hop Frog as fat, round, and unwieldy, which in a sense is a cruel thing to say to anyone, especially someone already being laughed at. All this information put together could lead someone to act out in a way that ends in murder. On another hand, Hop Frog may not be justified because the only person treating Hop Frog so badly is the king. Hop Frog killed eight men by stringing them up, tar and feather them, and burning them alive in front of the townspeople. This seems almost inhuman for a person to act this
One way that Shakespeare uses humor in this play is by using plain humor that
Feste, the fool character in Twelfth Night, in many ways represents a playwright figure, and embodies the reach and tools of the theater. He criticizes, manipulates and entertains the other characters while causing them to reflect on their life situations, which is similar to the way a playwright such as Shakespeare interacts with his audience. Furthermore, more so than the other characters in the play he accomplishes this in a highly performative way, involving song and clever wordplay that must be decoded, and is thus particularly reflective of the mechanisms at the command of the playwright. Feste is a representation of the medieval fool figure, who is empowered by his low status and able to speak the truth of the kingdom. A playwright speaks the truth by using actors and fictional characters, who are in a parallel low status in comparison to the audience, as they lack the dimensionality of real people. Thus, the role Feste plays in the lives of the characters in the play resembles the role the play itself plays in the lives of the audience watching the performance. This essay will explore this comparison first by analyzing similarities between the way in which Feste interacts with other characters and the way the playwright interact with the audience, and then focus on the similarities between the aims and content of these interactions.
There was also a midget dancer named Trippetta who had to entertain the king and the 7 generals. Both Hop Frog and Trippetta were taken from their homeland to be used by the kind but Hop Frog was tortured by the kind. During a masquerade the king had harmed Trippetta angering Hop Frog and from there he devised and plan as the king and the 7 generals had no costume for the ball. At this chance he took his revenge in a way the surprised him as they didn’t think he could physically do what he did due to his weight and
In A Midsummer Night's Dream, playwright William Shakespeare creates in Bottom, Oberon, and Puck unique characters that represent different aspects of him. Like Bottom, Shakespeare aspires to rise socially; Bottom has high aims and, however slightly, interacts with a queen. Through Bottom, Shakespeare mocks these pretensions within himself. Shakespeare also resembles King Oberon, controlling the magic we see on the stage. Unseen, he and Oberon pull the strings that control what the characters act and say. Finally, Shakespeare is like Puck, standing back from the other characters, acutely aware of their weaknesses and mocks them, relishing in mischief at their expense. With these three characters and some play-within-a-play enchantment, Shakespeare mocks himself and his plays as much as he does the young lovers and the mechanicals onstage. This genius playwright who is capable of writing serious dramas such as Hamlet and Julius Caesar is still able to laugh at himself just as he does at his characters. With the help of Bottom, Oberon, and Puck, Shakespeare shows us that theatre, and even life itself, are illusions that one should remember to laugh at.
It’s interesting to take into account that Feste is supposed to be. to be the fool of the play, but he doesn’t setup the humorous gulling. of Malvolio and fails to provide the entertainment and humor Sir Toby Belch and Sir Andrew Aguecheek bring to the show. Instead, Feste takes part of the humor only with revenge on his mind and not to provide humor, and relies only on quick plays on words to supply humor.
In Elizabethan times, the role of a fool, or court jester, was to professionally entertain others, specifically the king. In essence, fools were hired to make mistakes. Fools may have been mentally retarded youths kept for the court’s amusement, or more often they were singing, dancing stand up comedians. In William Shakespeare’s King Lear the fool plays many important roles. When Cordelia, Lear’s only well-intentioned daughter, is banished from the kingdom Fool immediately assumes her role as Lear’s protector. The fool is the king’s advocate, honest and loyal and through his use of irony sarcasm and humour he is able to point out Lear’s faults. Functioning much as a chorus would in a Greek tragedy, the fool comments on events in the play, the king’s actions and acts as Lear’s conscience. As he is the only character who is able to confront Lear directly without risk of punishment, he is able to moderate the king’s behaviour.
Characters in comedy and tragedy are generally quite different. Comic characters are (or used to be) lower class individuals (Aristotle, Goldsmith). Indeed this is the case with t...
Feste, however, never takes sides with any of the characters, and in this way, he becomes a kind of commentator for the play. He is able to examine the characters, revealing the bare truth about them and he unites the main and sub-plot in a similar way.
only fool who is subject to foolery, many other characters are subject. to foolery by their silly acts as well. There are two types of fool in the play, namely Feste the professional jester who is in fact quite. intelligent, and the non-jester fools, who are not fools but act like. fools. I am a fool.
Humor in William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night In Twelfth Night we see different types of humour. There is the witty
As You Like It features, like so many of Shakespeare's plays, a professional clown, Touchstone, and it's worth paying some attention to his role for what it contributes towards establishing and maintaining the upbeat comic spirit of the play. For the jester is the constant commentator on what is going on. His humour, pointed or otherwise, thus inevitably contributes to the audience's awareness of what is happening, and the way in which other characters treat him is often a key indicator of their sensibilities.