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How Shakespear Creats Humor In - College Essay

How Shakespear Creats Humor In

To create humor in drama, one must either make witty
wordplay, create an amusing situation, or use physical
comedy. Often jokes may be incorporated into a play, or a
comic situation may result in a series of complicated
antics. The tradition for some of these comic devices has
been carried over for hundreds of years, dating back to
Shakespeare in the 1600's. In his play, A Midsummer Night's
Dream, Shakespeare creates humor through three diverse
devices: oxymoron's, malapropisms and mistaken identities.
All result in a farcical mix of comic situations.
Wordplay, such as the use of oxymorons, is an abundant
source of humor in Shakespeare. The word oxymoron comes
from the Greek meaning ...

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he surely does not mean a voice which is both
monstrous and little, for something cannot be both monstrous
and little. What Bottom is trying to say is that he will
speak in a "very" little voice. Bottom does not realize
what he has said and creates amusing confusion for the
reader. One of Helena's oxymorons is in Act 3, scene 2,
line 129: "oh devilish- holy fray!" Obviously something
cannot be devilish and holy at the same time, and by most
people's standards, the devil certainly is not pious.
The ignorance of Bottom and his friends seems to be
bottomless and voluminous and results not only in oxymorons,
but also in "malapropisms." A malapropism is the confusion
of two words that sound alike but mean different things,
which results in humor. Sometimes the ignorant use of the
wrong word is funny simply because stupid characters look
foolishly pretentious. This is often the case with Bottom,
who tries constantly to appear extremely educated and uses
long impressive words without any ...

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How Shakespear Creats Humor In. (2007, June 19). Retrieved January 22, 2025, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/How-Shakespear-Creats-Humor-In/66723

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PAPER DETAILS

Added: 6/19/2007 10:47:30 PM
Category: English
Type: Premium Paper
Words: 901
Pages: 4

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