This essay will discuss this particular definition of farce a broad, physical, visual comedy, whose effects are theatrical and intended solely to entertain and its pertinence to the play The Brothers Menaechmus. The numerous ways in which the text moves beyond simple farce to much deeper issues of Roman culture, satire and the art of theatre. All emphasising it’s various forms which move beyond farce and to a much more thoughtful work.
The sentiment that The Brother’s Menaechmus is a farce ignores the deeper messages of a text not only written to entertain but comment on the fibre of Roman society. We shall begin at the ending to make sense of this “Yes and if there’s any bidder for the thing-his wife will go” (130). This ‘happy’ conclusion …show more content…
What is interpreted as madness is a purely social construct within Victorian times Homosexuality was inclusive of madness now such a view seems bizarre and such was the case in ancient Roman period. What constitutes madness is inevitably questioned within this scene. The Dionystic religious fervour “Bacchus! Yo-he, Bacchus, in what forest do you/ bid me hunt?” (113). He pretends to be overcome with and furthermore the imagining of Homeric intervention in the form of Apollo such ideals of madness are seen in myths of Peleus and Orpheus. These were traditionally women known as Bacchae but in this case take the form of a man. This depiction of the archetypal mad women simultaneously comments on society while contrastingly depicting a man within the same parameters of madness or what might be termed hysteria in a Freudian psychoanalytical framework this interplay between binary opposites stresses the complexity on the surface of what may appear to be a simple farce. Plautus humour never solely works on one level of comedy rather concurrently works on both a physical and mental, social level. Blending these two humours of physical and satire to varying degrees throughout the play. One example of this is “My master will reward his slave for 'thinking with his back '-and thinking twice” Messenio comments on the very quality of good and bad in his soliloquy on slavery which like many of the others speeches within the play reflects Roman ideals within the Greek setting of Epidamnus. Menaechmus comments on the patron client relationship of society depicting the hierarchical nature while also emphasising the mutual obligations of the dynamic. Comments on what real marriage or love is noted throughout a play saturated in social commentary in a play
The sentiment that The Brother’s Menaechmus is a farce ignores the deeper messages of a text not only written to entertain but comment on the fibre of Roman society. We shall begin at the ending to make sense of this “Yes and if there’s any bidder for the thing-his wife will go” (130). This ‘happy’ conclusion …show more content…
What is interpreted as madness is a purely social construct within Victorian times Homosexuality was inclusive of madness now such a view seems bizarre and such was the case in ancient Roman period. What constitutes madness is inevitably questioned within this scene. The Dionystic religious fervour “Bacchus! Yo-he, Bacchus, in what forest do you/ bid me hunt?” (113). He pretends to be overcome with and furthermore the imagining of Homeric intervention in the form of Apollo such ideals of madness are seen in myths of Peleus and Orpheus. These were traditionally women known as Bacchae but in this case take the form of a man. This depiction of the archetypal mad women simultaneously comments on society while contrastingly depicting a man within the same parameters of madness or what might be termed hysteria in a Freudian psychoanalytical framework this interplay between binary opposites stresses the complexity on the surface of what may appear to be a simple farce. Plautus humour never solely works on one level of comedy rather concurrently works on both a physical and mental, social level. Blending these two humours of physical and satire to varying degrees throughout the play. One example of this is “My master will reward his slave for 'thinking with his back '-and thinking twice” Messenio comments on the very quality of good and bad in his soliloquy on slavery which like many of the others speeches within the play reflects Roman ideals within the Greek setting of Epidamnus. Menaechmus comments on the patron client relationship of society depicting the hierarchical nature while also emphasising the mutual obligations of the dynamic. Comments on what real marriage or love is noted throughout a play saturated in social commentary in a play