Comedy of manners

Samuel Beckett, who similarly used theatrical silence and long amplified pauses for a innovative effect, heavily influences Harold Pinter’s work. The objective of this essay is to define ‘Silences’ and Pinter’s uses of pauses as a theatrical technique used in the form of non verbal communication between characters of Ben and Gus in Pinter’s, The Dumb Waiter. His plays can be studied on various levels of in depth readings. The sheer complexity of his work is what conveys these different diverse…

Jonathan Swifts “ A Modest Proposal”, a story written at the beginning of the 18th century, in a tongue in cheek style, to bring attention to various issues of the day including poverty, overpopulation and the hypocrisy of the Church. The subject on the surface is the proposition of selling human babies as food for profit, eradicating the poor people from the streets and providing a delicacy for the rich. The idea is presented in a very logical, straight forward way, the setting everyday life in…

Character Analysis Sir Andrew Aguecheek Twelfth Night, a comedic play, written by Shakespeare, eloquently develops unique traits, actions, and dialogue for each character to defy roles. Throughout the play, there are clear examples that convey the characteristics and the use of Sir Andrew Aguecheek in the play. He is the clueless, cowardly character who is used by other characters to create a humorous scene and plot, and the vehicle Shakespeare used to prove the stupidity of the royal class. In…

There is usually a fine line between humor and seriousness in most literature that Joseph Heller breaks in his novel Catch-22. Heller blends together comedy with frightening truths and criticisms about the military during World War II. Although there are many elements that contribute to the overall quality of the satire, the characters are the main focus and represent different elements of the military process. In particular, the absurdly named Major Major Major Major, who will be referred to as…

William Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing” is a well-known comedy, a tale of lovers, haters and everything in between. The play focuses on two lovers who are captivated by each other’s looks the two care for little more in each other. On the other hand, another two lovers, Beatrice and Benedick, challenge each other’s quick wit and on the surface, seem to be a pain or burden to one another, yet they always find themselves talking or thinking about the other. Throwing insults, or witty humor…

Section two ꞉ Binary Oppositions in play ‛ Waiting for Godot’ ꞉ ‛ Waiting for Godot’ is considered as a masterpiece in world literature ∙ It is one of Beckett’s beautiful plays∙ This astonishing play has two acts ∙ This play refers to the ‛ Theater Of The Absurd’∙ The mission of this type of theater is to showed the audience what can happen when human existence has no meaning or purpose ∙ Samuel Beckett is one of the pioneers of showing the binary oppositions in his plays with…

Aldous Huxley uses the theme: identity to associate political and social issues in the novel, Brave New World. In Brave New World, their society was much different than in 1930’s, but their were some similarities. The satire novel was interesting because of the sarcasm he uses to mock the 1930’s. He uses science, drug dependency, and even the caste system to identify the theme. The Alphas had to work harder than the rest of the caste system. In the novel ,the voice says,“Alpha children wear grey…

In Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, the Reeve's Tale and the Miller's Tale are mainly seen as stories for the express purpose of entertaining the reader. While the overall themes of the stories are presented in a much more lewd and irreverent light than many others, the two tales do display a common lesson for its readers to internalize. Throughout the entirety of both stories, the characters that end up most victorious cannot be called honorable, but they can certainly be called clever and…

When people hear the word conflict, they usually think about it in a negative context. However, Roman comedies are filled with rambunctious and silly characters that often get tricked into a situation, that go through the process of figuring everything out amid the confusion, and finding a happy ending to their troubles. Plautus’s plays tend to reflect the lifestyle and social aspects of the lower ranks of Roman people. This is significant because it gives readers an insight to what life may be…

A great comic book is a parody of the real world with its heroes and heroines behave similarly to how an ordinary person would behave if he or she was to put in the same situation. A great comic book takes place in a world that is similar to the real world but with an added twist which has a profound but believable effect on its world. With such a heavy inspiration from the real world, it is not surprising that the world of comic books has similar social issues to that of the real world. These…