Shakespeares comedy is based on cruelty and subversion free essay sample

Shakespeare created comedy in Much Ado through the characters behaviour, dialogue and prose but his comedy is often seen as cruel and subversive. Cruelty can be defined in many ways, one definition is behaviour which causes physical or mental harm to another, another is to inflict pain or suffering and enjoy the pain or distress of others. Plato said that ‘laughter is an emotion that overrides rational self-control’. From this definition we clearly see that this play cannot be cruel and only comedic because although Don Pedro almost sabotages Claudio’s wedding, all ends well so the characters do not enjoy inflicting pain towards others or at least succeed. This must be a comedy rather than tragedy as it ends in two happy marriages. Much Ado About Nothing is considered to be one of Shakespeare’s best comedies and the play is not only considered a comedy but a romance as well, a romance being a feeling of excitement and mystery associated with love. We clearly see throughout this play that mystery associated with love through the characters Beatrice and Benedick. This play is classed as a comedy rather than a tragedy as it is about the relationship between two couples and although it almost ends in death it swiftly changes direction into a comedy as the ending is happy and therefore unlikely to be based around cruelty. Critics say ‘the tragic and comic fade into each other by almost insensible gradiations’ and therefore this play can be nothing more than just humorous and not have vindictive humour. Playful humour in one’s eyes can be seen in Act 1 when Beatrice deliberately humiliates or misconstrues the messenger by changing his words and coming back with insults about Benedick ‘I would burn my study. But, I pray you, who is his companion? ’ Although here Beatrice is throwing insults about Benedick we can read between the lines, we know that she is actually in love with Benedick and she is then in fact the victim of self-deception. This quote refers to Plato’s theory of comedy being cruel as he believed comedy was laughing at people and not with them. The language that the messenger uses in this passage is Petrarchian and Shakespeare deliberately uses the messenger here to seem fake in the words in which he speaks so we see here that Shakespeare makes the messenger mock the language used by Petrarch, ‘He hath borne himself beyond the promise of his age, doing, in the figure of a lamb, the feats of a lion. ’ This basically means that he did better than expected considering his age, he may look like a lamb but he behaved like a mighty lion. Petrarch wrote poems about women being perfect, he wrote that they were put on pedestals and admired for their physical aesthetic appeal, his sonnets were admired and imitated throughout Europe during the Renaissance and became a model for lyrical poetry so we now see how the Shakespeare used the messenger to mock the ‘emotional and expressional’ language used by Petrarch, ‘Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart, Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea. ’ This is an example of the language Petrarch used in his poems. Benedick too mocks petrarchian language when quarrelling with Beatrice, ‘I cannot endure my Lady Tongue’. This mocks Petrarch because of Lady Love, being a woman who is a ‘sweetheart’ or beloved woman. We see Beatrice’s inappropriate humour in Act 2 where she uses horns as a reference to penises, ‘with horns on his head’, Shakespeare uses her to break the boundaries between men and women, men and women were not equal in the time period as society was very patriarchal and women were frowned upon if they were to take a dominant approach over men but clearly here Shakespeare is using the comic individual, Beatrice, to almost play a male like role. This is clearly Shakespeare using Beatrice to be subversive as this would have been accepted if a man was to joke about rude things, women were not meant to. In the play Beatrice lives with a man named Leonato, he is not her father and it would have been likely that he would have gave her up to another man for marriage but in the play we see this is not the case which suggests that Leonato doesn’t mind her witticism and lack of female like traits and again shows us that he can only find her humour and behaviour funny and not harmful. Hero, Leonato’s daughter on the other hand conforms to the wishes of her father and Claudio as her lover and this is what would have been expected during the Shakespearian era. As mentioned before her humour is seen as inappropriate but only one character in the play dislikes some of Beatrice’s aphorism and that is Antonio but this is only mentioned once throughout the play, ‘Well, niece, I trust you will be ruled by your father. ’ As he is the only character throughout the play to think this the play can only be considered as comedic and not spiteful or cruel. Shakespeare uses horns as a leit motif in the play to refer to cuckolding and Beatrice often mocks men for their obsession of not becoming a cuckold ‘and there will the devil meet me, like an old cuckold, with horns on his head. ’ The comic individual, Beatrice, is clearly mocking men here and is even mocking a character of such authority, the devil. Beatrice gains power from the male obsession and perpetuates the male paranoia of the unfaithful wife. Although she mocks men for their paranoia her comments are seen as funny and aren’t seen as her going too far with the anxiety of men. Benedick also makes a lot of references to horns throughout the play ‘pluck off the bulls horns and set them in my forehead’. A cuckold being a man who is married to an unfaithful woman. This could be interpreted as an act of cruelty on Beatrice’s behalf because of her enjoyment in mocking men’s obsession but we later find out that her humour has no cruel intention towards men so comedy cannot be cruel through Beatrice. At the time of this play Queen Elizabeth I was on the throne and this may have been a great influence on Shakespeare’s work on the comic individual. Queen Elizabeth was the first woman on the throne and she was much like no other woman as well, Susan Doran quotes ‘Elizabeth I is the best known and most admired English monarch’. Queen Elizabeth I did not fit the typical Petrarchian image and was much like Beatrice’s character, being powerful and having a dominant role over others. In Act 2, scene 1 there is the masked ball. The masque has been a famously Italian tradition since the 15th Century and these balls are very exciting and stimulating because people can pretend to be someone else. No one knows who is who and people say things that they wouldn’t normally say which leads us on to Beatrice’s ‘rude’ remark. Here Beatrice’s humour goes beyond funny, ‘he is the princes jester’. Here Beatrice oversteps the mark and implies that Benedick goes out of his way to hurt others and this is not seen as funny but cruel, so arguably the comic individuals comedy may be seen as having cruel intentions in this part of Shakespeare’s Much Ado rather than just playful humour. At this part in the play disguise is used intentionally to poke at the characters. This is comedy of situation or mistaken identity. Benedick becomes the victim here, critic Denton Snider suggests he is ‘victimized by the mask’ and Beatrice is not deceived and has complete freedom and control over the situation. This may be seen as cruel as it is intentional but mostly the remarks from Beatrice are not meaningful and are just made to wind up the victim of deception, Benedick. Further on we see serious undertones rather than humour which suggests the play may have quite tragic undertones ‘he lent it me awhile, and I gave him use for it. ’ Here Beatrice implies that there is a history between her and Benedick which isn’t seen as funny and is meant to give us other feelings towards the individual. Beatrice and Benedick consistently repeat repartee and are in a constant battle to outdo one another, ‘my dear Lady Disdain- are you yet living? ’ ‘Is it possible disdain should die while she hath such meet food to feed it as Signior Benedick? ’ Both are victims of deception and are determined that they hate each other. Both characters however have one view that is similar and that is they will never marry ‘if he send me no husband, for the which blessing I am at him upon my knees. ’ We later on see that both characters have been absent minded and do indeed change their ideology on marriage. This again shows us that Benedick and Beatrice are victims of self-deception as they are deluded, they are both blinded by love. Denton Snider wrote ‘He is, in one form or another, the victim of deception. ’ We see Benedick as the victim of deception at the end of Act 2 where Don Pedro, Claudio and Leonato trick him into believing Beatrice has admitted her love for him but of course she hasn’t done such a thing and it was a devise to set them up, ‘that your niece Beatrice was in love with Signior Benedick’. Although the three characters lied this cannot be seen as cruel and only comedic as nobody is getting harmed and the lie turns out to be good and ends up with the two characters being happy and in love. At this point in the play comedy is created in the form slapstick, which again shows the audience that the device made by the three characters in for comedy purpose only. ‘Your niece Beatrice was in love with Signior Benedick. ’ Here the slapstick is apparent as the victim of deception would be shocked or what he thinks is shocked and would make noise or possibly fall over. Although Shakespeare did not add stage directions it is obvious where slapstick is acted out in the play. An act of ‘cruel’ deception may be seen in Act 2, scene 2 where Don John and Borachio devise a plan to break apart the upcoming marriage between the two lovers, Hero and Claudio. This isn’t something that the audience would have found comedic at the time and can therefore be seen as slightly cruel. This is the only scene in the play that can be considered to be remotely cruel and spiteful but like every other good play or film there is equilibrium, being where there has to be balance between good and bad but resulting in only a happy ending and therefore this play is none more than a romantic comedy and not a tragedy