Sarcasm in Shakespeare

In Shakespeare, as I said in the last blogpost, the majority of the humor seems to be sarcasm. Very lewd and witty, the sarcasm used in the majority of his comedic plays, and As You Like It especially. Three of the characters, Celia, Jaques and Touchstone, who play the comedic relief in the play are the characters that use the majority of sarcasm. They use it both attack other characters, and to make themselves seem more intelligent than the other characters. They also use it to advance the plot, and to build their relationships with other characters. By using sarcasm. the characters are able to show how they feel for the other characters, and are able to be rude without actually being rude, further making their characters improve and deepen.

Sarcasm is a motif that is seen it a large amount of Shakespear's plays, including his tragedies. While not as prevalent as lewdness, he uses sarcasm to show intelligent characters, and characters that arn't scared of what people think of them. This is another example of why Touchstone is very sarcastic. He's very intelligent, and doesn't want people to miss that, and so uses sarcasm to both upset them, and to lord his intelligence over them. This helps to show his character a little more, and also to make him feel like a more developed character. Celia uses sarcasm in a similar manner, where it is used to show that she is a strong woman, who doesn't depend on anybody, and uses wit and sarcasm to show how she feels about herself.

How the Globe and Myself differ in opinion

In the Globe's production of As You Like It, the style of speech is a lot different to what I expected. The way that the actors speak is a lot more what I would expect from a soap opera or drama. It is very drawn out and classical sounding, which I didn't expect from a comedy. The ends of words are drawn out, which I understand is because of the size of the space. By drawing out what they are saying, the actors are able to project the voices over a large distance. Also, the actors are very interactive with the audience, something that makes the play feel a little more like what I would have expected from a contempory Shakespeare play.

Something else that I noticed that was different to the play was the way that the humor is portrayed. The humor is very in your face and not subtle at all, moving against what I expected, which was that the humor would be carried in the undertones. This is because of the sexual innuendo. However, in the Globe production, the humour takes on a slapstick style, becoming very overt. This is something that I didn't like about the Globe's production, as it removed some of the wit and power from some of the comedic speeches.

The characterisation of Orlando is something that I really liked. The actor playing him is very active and strong sounding, and plays the part exactly how I would have imagined him to be. He's very strong willed and insolent, exactly how the script makes him appear. The other characters are similarly portrayed how I expected them to be, with one exception. The character of Touchstone is very over the top and overt, which I did not expect at all. I expected for him to be very witty, and for his speech to be very sly and cunning. However, in the play, as I mentioned earlier, he is very over the top, which may actually speak to the intended audience for the initial play, which was the peasantry.

My favourite aspect of Act 1

During Act 1, we are introduced to a variety of characters, all of which have very different personalities. They are a wide range of characters, with differing relationships and opinions. The favourite relationship that I have seen is the one between Orlando and Oliver.

This relationship is both intriguing and sad. Oliver, the eldest son of the family, was charged by his father to give Orlando an education. However, he hasn't done this, he has in fact refused. This is because he is scared that Orlando may try to take his power. This is a typically tragic story that is mirrored in a lot of story, including one of my personal favourite novels 'Solomon Cane' by Robert E. Howard. The whole story of a young son wanting to get what he is rightly owed by an older sibling is something that pulls very hardly at my heart, for reasons unknown to me. I find that it supplies a more interesting and believeable relationship between the characters, and is also something that the majority of people can relate to, as the majority of people have had sibling relationships.

Because this relationship is pervasive throughout the scene, and the driving force through Orlando and Oliver's motivations, I feel that this is my most favourite theme in the play.

Mindmap of the characters of As You Like It

My favourite comedy sketch

This comedy sketch, from Michael Mcintryre's Comedy Roadshow, is a prime example of stand-up comedy. The combination of Mcintyre's apperance, accent and observations make it a thoroughly entertaining. However, what makes the exert especially funny is the way that the audience are able to make connections. Known as associative comedy, the audience furtheres the joke, without needing the comedian to make the joke himself. The example of this is in the end of the joke, when he mentions about the knife in his sock. The situation of the show is what allows this to happen. The show is set in Glasgow, where there is a large amount of knife crime. Again, because the audience is familiar with the situation, they are able to make the joke themselves, making it even funnier. Combined with the satire of the playful racism between England and Scotland and the accents affected by Mcintyre, this combines to make the comedy very pertinent to the audience, the group that comedians typically aim their material towards.