This essay analyses the humorous techniques combined with a romantic love represented in some of Shakespeare’s plays such as “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “The Taming of the Shrew”, and whose main topic of both plays is the funny love that always ends in marriage. Nevertheless, when we remark a certain amount of knock- about humor in these plays is because the main couples who finally end falling in love, is as a consequence of a spell or a blackmail in exchange of money. Hence, right here we are able to consider a great mixture of the real with the fictitious.
To begin with this task, in the Shakespeare’s play “A
Midsummer Night’s Dream”, there are three loves connected
stories that happen in
To understand the humorous Shakespeare’s technique in this
comedy, it is necessary to explain that the three stories end being the same
one. First of all, it is as well to consider the aim ironic point, that is, the
Cupid’s Flower, which has the power to make a person falling in love with the
first person he or she sees. Nevertheless, the first victim is Titania, who
falls in love with a comedian who is going to act for the Theseus and
Hyppolita’s wedding. The next conflict happens when Demetrius and Lysander love
Otherwise, making reference to “The
Taming of the Shrew”, there
are two couples that are engaged in
As a matter of fact, both Shakespeare’s plays represent humor with a romantic
love element in a kind of plays which have been called “low romantic comedy”.(1)
Especially, they become comical love stories when the love of their marriages are
manipulated. In one case, in “The Taming of the Shrew”, the comical marriage
represents an economic institution, so Petruchio is interested into marriage because of
money. He prefers addressing the institutions of marriage and wealthy instead of inner
passions of love. The relationship is negotiated between the future husband and the
father of the future wife. At the beginning, the marriage involves a transfer of money,
but and at the end, it gets to be a couple in love.
Moreover, Shakespeare focuses his humorous techniques around
love when he introduces a pedant in the play and this one acts as the father of Lucentio
to confirm Lucentio has a wealthy backgroung until that, the real father, Vincentio,
appears in the middle of the wedding.
Vincentio- “Fair sir, and you my merry
mistress,/That with
your strange encounter much amazed me,/My name is
call'd Vincentio; my dwelling
Seen.” (2)
Furthermore, in
difference to “The Taming of the Shrew”, Shakespeare describes a funny
Moreover, the funny love in this play is dealt with
difficulty. The conflict in “A Midsummer’s Night Dream”
comes from the troubles of romance, so Lysander comments “The course of true love never did run smooth”. The love’s
difficulty is because of the asymmetrical love among the four Athenians: Hermia
loves Lysander, Lysander loves Hermia,
In conclusion, according to the opinion of Luis Astrana Marín, in “The
Taming
of the Shrew” Shakespeare not only makes references to “El Conde Lucanor”, but also
to Agustín de Rojas “El Natural Desdichado”. The comical style appears when Sly, the
funny character in Shakespeare’ plays like as Mogrollo in Rojas’plays, takes place in
the play .Both of them drink a lot (in this case, one drinks wine, and the other one drinks
beer); one speaks a bad English and the other one speaks a bad Italian ;and both put up
at palaces, after that they had slept their drunkenness in the streets.
“The Taming of the Shrew”
Lord -What's here? one
dead, or drunk? See, doth he breathe?
Second Huntsman -He breathes, my lord. Were he not warm'd with ale,/
This were a bed but cold to sleep so soundly.
“Rojas’ Plays”
Emperador-Pena importuna/pues el mundo es cual
la luna q va tras nosostros/mas ¿quien duerme por aquí?
Cap Iº-A un hombre siento roncar/llegarele
a despertar./hombre.
Also, we can point out there is a dependence on the Spanish comedy on the part of Shakespeare. However, once Sly is called “Christophero”. Look at these verses. SCENE II. A bedchamber in the Lord's house.
I am Christophero Sly; call not me 'honour' nor
'lordship:' I ne'er drank sack in my life; and if
you give me any conserves, give me conserves of
beef: ne'er ask me what raiment I'll wear; for I
have no more doublets than backs, no more stockings
than legs, nor no more shoes than feet; nay,
sometimes more feet than shoes, or such shoes as my
toes look through the over-leather. (4)
On the other hand, “A
Midsummer’s Night Dream” is considered as an ideal of “romantic
comedy” in which the fortunes of love and the humor of character are skilfully
blended. There are several strands, the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta
providing the background or the enclosing brackets with contain the play. In
the foreground are the two pairs of lovers, the women constant, the men
changing their affections as the magic herb “love in idlness” bids them. In the
background is the fairy world, centering on Oberon and Titania and their quarrel, which involves the human
lovers. Puck moves between the human and the fairy world. The incongruity of
bringing the grossest element in the human world into contact with the gossamer
world of fairy is exploited by Shakespeare with delicate brilliance. (5)
-http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/shrew/themes.html
-http://www-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/midsummer/index.html
-http://www.novelguide.com/tamingoftheshrew/index.html
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(1) Daiches, David. A Critical History of English Literature. Second Edition. Volume II.
(2) http://www-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/taming_shrew/index.html
(3) (4)Astrana Marín, Luis. Obras Completas de William Shakespeare. Tomo I. Ediciones Aguilar .1932.
(5)Daiches, David. A Critical History of
English Literature. Second Edition. Volume II.