The Tempest , written by William Shakespeare, is a play that is filled with humor. The characters in The Tempest are thought to be some of the funniest in all of his plays. The information below will look at The Tempest and its many different examples of humor. The first example of humor in The Tempest starts with how Prospero was betrayed. The old duke of Milan was betrayed by his own brother. The reason for the betrayal was so that the brother could become king.
The fact that Prospero can see what will happen in the future from one of his books is another example of humor, which might be regarded as black comedy, because The Tempest is filled with dark parts but also lighthearted parts as well. The fact that Prospero was not mad at the King of Naples, but he only wanted to take control and become king is another example of The Tempest’s humor. The line “I’ll drown my book” by Prospero when talking about how he will punish Ariel by drowning him in a lake if he does not obey his order shows The Tempest’s comic side because it shows his frustration towards Ariel for disobeying him.
The idea that there was a boat with no one steering that could end up crashing into Prospero’s island and ruin everything is another example of The Tempest’s humor, since such an event would be very unlikely to occur today. The conclusion might be that The Tempest has many examples of humor, and The Tempest is one of Shakespeare’s funniest plays. The first example of humor in The Tempest starts with how Prospero was betrayed. The old duke of Milan was betrayed by his own brother.
The reason for the betrayal was so that the brother could become king . The fact that Prospero can see what will happen in the future from one of his books is another example of humor , which might be regarded as black comedy , because The Tempest is filled with dark parts but also lighthearted parts as well . The fact that Prospero was not mad at the King of Naples, but he only wanted to take control and become king is another example of The Tempest’s humor .
The line “I’ll drown my book” by Prospero when talking about how he will punish Ariel by drowning him in a lake if he does not obey his order shows The Tempest’s comic side because it shows his frustration towards Ariel for disobeying him . The idea that there was a boat with no one steering that could end up crashing into Prospero’s island and ruin everything is another example of The Tempest’s humor , since such an event would be very unlikely to occur today.
The Tempest is an interesting play, it has its sad moments but on the whole, The Tempest contains a lot of humor. The play begins with a crazy man being stranded on an island full of wonders. The main character of the story, Prospero, once had control over all of the people who were on the boat that was wrecked in Tempest’s opening scene.
The wreck happened after his brother usurped him from his thrown and sent Prospero into exile along with his daughter Miranda whom he uses to get back at those who wronged him – more specifically, her fiancee Ferdinand whom she does not recognize for most of the play because he has been turned into a monster by Prospero’s magic (he is returned to normal in the end). The characters, Prospero and Miranda, are the only main characters in The Tempest who would consider themselves as having a sense of humor.
The humor comes from their jokes at each others’ misfortunes and those of other people. The way they deal with them is to either laugh or pretend they cannot hear what is being said about them which makes the audience chuckle because if they were not on an island full of wonders that includes magic then all three main characters would be dead. There are also some humorous scenes within The Tempest such as when Alonso and Antonio realize that Ferdinand has been turned into a monster.
At first they think he might be a devil but Gonzalo (an old man) says “he’s some relation to the Prince of Naples” (4. 1. 94). The characters begin to laugh at this and Prospero begins to laugh too so one can assume that possibly Gonzalo was the cause of their laughter as it is a funny line, however they keep on laughing so one can also assume that it might have been a joke between those three characters only.
The Tempest contains a lot of humor but on the other hand there are some parts which do not contain any humor such as when Ariel says “thou wast a spirit too delicate / To act her earthy and abhorr’d commands” (3. 3. 70-71). The character has just betrayed Prospero by restoring Ferdinand’s father Alonzo who was going to kill his own son. The lack of humor in this scene could be because the betrayal was very serious and caused a lot of bad things to happen to Prospero who had treated Ariel like a friend. The other example is when Caliban says “A curse upon my mother” (1. . 111), and then proceeds to say that he wishes all the ladies on the island were dead, with Prospero interrupting him saying “Peace / Thou venomous slave” (1. 2. 112-3).
The lack of humor in this scene could have been because if Caliban kept cursing then it would have just created more problems for Prospero so he put an end to it quickly so everyone else would not know about Caliban’s true feelings. The last example is when Antonio says “I’ll break my staff, / Bury it certain fadoms in the earth” (1. 2. 80-1), and then proceeds to say that he can no longer be Prospero’s servant because his brother Alonso has just become the new king of Naples after being overthrown from his thrown by Prospero which makes everyone laugh out loud without interruptions.
The lack of humor in this scene could have been because Antonio was actually happy about what has happened which would make the others laugh at him for acting like such a fool or it could be because Ariel had already told them something which made them think this whole situation was funny even though it wasn’t before he spoke.
The fact that The Tempest is a comedy by William Shakespeare means that it was meant to make people laugh in most of its scenes; however one can never be sure if their intentions were the same as the audiences’ because The Tempest was written 400 years ago and times change quickly, which also means that society has changed so his jokes might not have been humorous anymore by modern standards.
The way Prospero uses humor in The Tempest is by making fun at other characters points of misfortune so they would not get upset or bored with what’s going on in the play. Some examples are when he said “How now my lord Antonio, / Will you unhouse me before I shall set foot on shore? ” (1. 2, 1-2) which makes them all laugh because he is essentially asking if they would like him to leave the island using very little words.
The other example is when Prospero says “Sebastian, thou dost here usurp / The name thou owest not; and moil’th in darkness” (1. 2. 32-3), which makes the audience chuckle but was obviously meant to make Sebastian question what he had just heard so that he would ask again about it then everyone else could laugh which is exactly what happened after Antonio asked who said that then Sebastian asks for a second time before Prospero reveals himself which causes them all to laugh.
