The Point of Comedy in Plays

Categories: Merchant of Venice William Shakespeare

Essay, Pages 11 (2635 words)

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That will ask some tears in the true performing of it. If I do it, let the audience look to their eyes. I will move

storms. I will condole in some measure.—To the rest.—Yet my chief humor is for a tyrant. I could play Ercles rarely, or a part to tear a cat in to make all split.

The raging rocks

And shivering shocks

Shall break the locks

Of prison gates.

And Phoebus' car

Shall shine from far

And make and mar

The foolish Fates.

This was lofty!—Now name the rest of the players.—This is

Ercles' vein, a tyrant’s vein. A lover is more condoling.

Interpretation:

This is one of the audiences first impressions of Bottom. We have seen and heard from him before, but in this first monologue he is quite obnoxious and dramatic in an attempt to secure the character he wants to play. He is preparing to rehearse a play to be performed for Theseus and Hippoltya’s wedding, along with the other men in another part of Athens.

In the dialogue right before this passage, Bottom takes control of the rehearsal right away, conducting it through Quince by giving him commands that he likely would have chosen to do anyway, and leaving Quince to succumb to him without an option. As Quince tries his best to strategize the rehearsal, he gives Bottom the part of Pyramus, a “lover that kills himself…for love.”

To which Bottom replies with a rant to show off his ranting skills to Quince in the case that there is a tyrant character available for him to play instead.

He quickly comments following his performance that if he is to play the lover, however, that his part will be more sad! And he will convince the audience to also be sad because he will move them with his tears. Bottom jumps back and forth between the two opposing characters, taking the audience on a quick roller coaster ride. When he discovers his part will be of a lover and not of a tyrant, it seems he passive-aggressively complains about it to Quince through his rhyming rant. Then, he quickly accepts that he will be playing the lover after convincing himself that he will be able to move the audience with his exceptionally emotional acting skills.

3.2.45-57

HERMIA:

Now I but chide; but I should use thee worse,

For thou, I fear, hast given me cause to curse.

If thou hast slain Lysander in his sleep,

Being o'er shoes in blood, plunge in the deep,

And kill me too.

The sun was not so true unto the day

As he to me. Would he have stolen away

From sleeping Hermia? I'll believe as soon

This whole earth may be bored and that the moon

May through the center creep and so displease

Her brother's noontide with Antipodes.

It cannot be but thou hast murdered him.

So should a murderer look: so dead, so grim.

Interpretation:

This scene immediately follows 2.2, where Lysander had run off with Helena. Demetrius wakes Hermia and Hermia is convinced he has killed Lysander because he is no longer sleeping next to her. She curses Demetrius in rhyming couplets and asks that he murder her too if Lysander is dead. After all, he must be dead because she doesn’t believe he would ever leave her in the middle of the night. This foreshadows the journey of betrayal she is about to embark on when she discovers that Lysander has not been murdered, but is in love with his ex, Helena, again! When she does find out, she suspects he has changed his heart and doesn’t want to be with her anymore because Helena is taller than her.

Both Hermia and Helena do not know about the love potion that has magically changed their lovers’ feelings. As someone who believes she has been in love before, I think I can truly understand Hermia’s heartbreak in this short monologue. I personally relate to this feeling she has of him being dead, and that being the only explanation as to why he is missing. In past breakups, there have been shifts in the relationship that I was blind to and when my partner has left or broken up with me and completely disappeared out of my life, it kind of does feel like they are dead. One moment you are so close to a person and so intertwined with their soul that you believe they are your one true match, but in reality anything can change people’s minds and it doesn’t have to be because of a magic spell.

4.1.162-174

DEMETRIUS:

(to THESEUS) But, my good lord, I wot not by what power—

But by some power it is—my love to Hermia,

Melted as the snow, seems to me now

As the remembrance of an idle gaud

Which in my childhood I did dote upon.

And all the faith, the virtue of my heart,

The object and the pleasure of mine eye,

Is only Helena. To her, my lord,

Was I betrothed ere I saw Hermia.

But like in sickness did I loathe this food.

But as in health, come to my natural taste,

Now I do wish it, love it, long for it,

And will for evermore be true to it.

Interpretation:

Demetrius is under a love spell and believes he loves his ex Helena again. Like the other three lovers, he doesn’t really have an explanation for how that could have happened. He tries to reason with his change of heart to Theseus. He thinks of his love for Hermia like his love for a cheap insignificant toy that he once adored as a child, but now he is older and no longer desires to play with that toy anymore. This is incredibly insensitive and gross of a man to change his mind so drastically, that not only does he not love Hermia anymore, but so much so that she is now just a cheap old toy he used to play with as a child and he is prepared to get rid of her altogether to be with his old, newfound love, Helena. He then gives an explanation to Theseus of his love for Helena, creating another metaphor that he loves her like he loves one of his favorite foods. These two were once a couple in love, but broke up at some point before he courted Hermia and the play begins. He describes it as being similar to if you ate too much of your favorite food and got bored, tired, or disgusted by it for awhile. For that while, he moved on to a different taste that he prefered over her, but feels like he finally remembers how much he once loved that food and decides he will again indulge in Helena.

The Merchant of Venice

2.2.1-15

LANCELOT:

Certainly my conscience will serve me to run

from this Jew, my master. The fiend is at mine elbow and

tempts me, saying to me, “Gobbo,” “Lancelot Gobbo,” “Good

Lancelot,” or “Good Gobbo,” or “Good Lancelot Gobbo” —“use your

legs, take the start, run away.” My conscience says, “No.

Take heed, honest Lancelot. Take heed, honest Gobbo,” or,

as aforesaid, “Honest Lancelot Gobbo, do not run. Scorn

running with thy heels.” Well, the most courageous fiend

bids me pack. “Fia!” says the fiend. “Away!” says the fiend.

“For the heavens, rouse up a brave mind,” says the fiend,

“and run.” Well, my conscience, hanging about the neck of

my heart, says very wisely to me, “My honest friend Lance-

lot, being an honest man’s son”—or rather an honest wom-

an’s son, for indeed my father did something smack,

something grow to. He had a kind of taste.

Interpretation:

Currently employed by the Jew, Shylock, Launcelot is fighting with his conscience in this monologue to himself. He hates Shylock and thinks he is the devil, or at least a reincarnated version of him. I imagine Lancelot is facing the angel on one shoulder (or conscience) who tells him to be faithful to his master and not run away, and the devil (or fiend) on his other shoulder trying to convince him to run away and find a new job. You can get a good idea of the character Lancelot plays in this scene. Despite the seriousness of the decision he is making, it’s kind of funny hearing him banter with himself as if there were three people in the room.

He ultimately cannot be satisfied in any way here, because if he leaves Shylock’s service, he is following the advice of the fiend, but if he doesn’t listen to his conscience, he will be working with the Jew who he believes is the devil reincarnated. His conscience quickly convinces him that it is in his best interest to stay with his master Shylock because he is the honest son of an honest mother and father, but he is not very strong in his decision at the end of this passage. Following the passage, Lancelot runs into his father, Gobbo, and plays a trick on him so he doesn’t know he is speaking to his son. Once he convinces Gobbo he is his son again, he reveals his impulse to run away. This foreshadows the upcoming scene where Lancelot asks Bassanio to offer him a job, to which he does and Lancelot accepts in order to leave Shylock’s service.

2.4.10-20

LANCELOT:

Adieu! Tears exhibit my tongue. Most beautiful

pagan, most sweet Jew! If a Christian do not play the knave

and get thee, I am much deceived. But adieu. These foolish

drops do something drown my manly spirit. Adieu.

JESSICA:

Farewell, good Launcelot.

Alack, what heinous sin is it in me

To be ashamed to be my father’s child!

But though I am a daughter to his blood,

I am not to his manners. O Lorenzo,

If thou keep promise, I shall end this strife,

Become a Christian and thy loving wife.

Interpretation:

Before this passage, Lancelot reveals to Jessica that he will not be working for Shylock anymore and they will likely not see eachother again. Jessica also hates Shylock, who is her father, and thanks Lancelot for cheering her up while he worked under Shylock’s service. Lancelot cries with her as they say their goodbyes and he predicts that she will be able to leave her father and marry a Christian. She cries again to herself when he leaves because she is ashamed of the way she feels towards her father. She realizes, however, that she is only bound to him by blood. She is ashamed of his behavior and doesn’t like that his reputation can be used against her as well.

I relate to this, yet again, because though I love my mother, she can be quite obnoxious at times. I often hear friends and family compare us to one another and I definitely agree that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, but I’m happy to spend long periods of time away from her where I have been able to create my own identity and I’m not just “Erin’s daughter.” (Yes, you two have the same name!) She ends her lines with a rhyming couplet as her tears begin to dry and she imagines what Lancelot said becoming true. I think this is done because her mood shifts from distraught and sad to somewhat hopeful and happy as she imagines getting married to Lorenzo and being taken away from her home with her father.

Reflection:

For my first two Commonplace passages, I focused on finding defining passages for characters that included couplets and/or rhyme scheme. In Bottom’s passage, he rants in verse, and in Hermia’s passage she also speaks in verse. Demetirus’ passage was interesting to me because some of the end words in the couplets could be, or are related. One of the ideas we discussed in class is noticing when the characters are speaking in verse and to ask ourselves why. Bottom is a mortal who is often very dramatic like he is in this passage, and I like to describe him as having a “big head.” To have a big, or large, head is to be overconfident, conceited, cocky, and/or arrogant. He goes on and on in his lines about how great of an actor he is, believing in himself that he could play any part excellently.

Obviously at the end of the scene his head is transformed into that of a donkey and he becomes the literal “ass” or “butt” of the joke. I find this passage the most interesting for the reason that he describes himself playing these characters, and yet the audience is unable to see him as anything but ridiculous. He describes being the lover who portrays such a heart breaking, tear-jerking scene and says he will cry so much that the audience will be blubbering with him because he’s that good an actor. And in belief that an evil tyrant must be able to rave and rant, he gives the audience an example of a what should be an angry rant, but instead sounds like a silly nursery rhyme!

Hermia’s entire passage is made of rhyming couplets, except for a small part that seems to be out of place when she says, “and kill me too.” She has always had three options. She can either marry Demetrius, become a nun, or die, according to her father and the king. So when she discovers that her lover, Lysander, is gone and thinks he must be dead, this is almost the defining moment when she makes her final decision that she would rather die than be with Demetrius or without Lysander.

She also could have considered the option that Lysander was not dead and that he actually left her, leading her to want death over anything else. Demetrius ends up not wanting to be with her either, which again means death for Hermia! In Demetrius’ passage he creates the two metaphors for Hermia and Helena. I feel like you would think that the rhyming couplets begin at line 165, but I actually think they begin on line 164. “Snow” and “now” do not rhyme, but are what I know as eye rhymes. I think it’s interesting because these plays were performed and not read, until centuries later of course, and I’m not sure if Shakespeare did this on purpose at all. But when I read it, it creates a new start in Demetrius’ passage like he’s taken into a trance as he speaks about his two loves.

For my passages from The Merchant of Venice, I focused on passages from or with the character Lancelot because he is supposed to be the comic relief in this “comedy” that isn’t very funny at all. I actually find his passage from 2.2 to be funny and charming! His reasoning and decision making are so pure and innocent and it sounds like he is truly trying to do what is best, whether that means it is the most honorable decision or the decision that will make him most happy. Jessica mentions how Lancelot also cheered her up in the house while he worked under her father. In line 13, he uses the word “manly” and it made me question Lancelot’s masculinity. I think that one reason he is found to be the comedic relief is because he isn’t very manly. For starters, he has a hard time with decision making like we noticed in the first passage, but he is also kind of small and quirky and not necessarily what you would describe as “manly.”