William Shakespeare is no stranger to bending and breaking conventions. Hailed as an inventor of words from "elbow" to "sneak" and a master playwright who created some of the most enduring plot structures, such as that of Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare's legacy results from his unfailing creativity. flaw. It was this reluctance to follow the classification of "tragedy" too strictly that allowed him to incorporate elements of comedy into one of his most tragic works, King Lear. Although moments of laughter are relatively difficult to find in his 17th-century play, Shakespeare's tragedy undeniably contains elements of comedy. By blurring the lines between tragedy and comedy, critics have argued for centuries that Shakespeare may have overstepped his bounds by mixing two fundamentally incompatible genres. But the opposite is true; King Lear needs elements of comedy to succeed, both in its literary and entertainment roles. The importance of comedy in King Lear is most clearly seen in its role as relief, its position as a means of coping with tragedy, and finally its strategy of subtle criticism throughout the play. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essayComic relief is perhaps one of the most common uses of comedy in entertainment, dating back to the Shakespearean era to today. Google defines comic relief as “comic episodes in a dramatic or literary work that offset more serious sections” (Google). When the plot of the play risks becoming too distressing for the viewer, an element of comedy is added to lighten the mood before plunging back into tragedy. The character most responsible for this comic discrepancy in King Lear is undoubtedly the Fool, whose stupidity is attributed to his particularly carefree attitude. Freed from the trauma that King Lear struggles with throughout the story, the Fool has the unique ability, throughout the play, to provoke laughter in the face of tragedy. It is in Lear's frustration at having disowned his favorite daughter, Cordelia, that the Fool is first introduced. Lear and Kent are discussing the events of the afternoon when the Fool enters and claims that the two noblemen have much to learn from him, saying "[s]irrah, I will teach you a speech" (Shakespeare 1.4 .112). This seems absurd given the Fool's apparent stupidity in comparison to the supposedly educated nobility, Lear and Kent. The Fool continues, prefacing his rhyming song with "[m]ark it, nuncle" (1.4.114), recalling the confidence of a rapper facing his opponent in a number, as if his little song were the deepest thing or the most poetic. never written. Of course, this is not the case, but the Fool nevertheless delivers his absurdist song with passion. Adding to the comic absurdity of the scene, the king finds the song more intriguing than crazy and continues his conversation with the Fool with vigor. Although the Fool may seem a frivolous character, his comic presence is crucial to King Lear. Its melodic interjections and light character help to release the tragic pressure that persists throughout the piece. This periodic relief allows the play to reach the lowest of lows, and in fact makes these lows even more tragic in comparison to the comedy that precedes it. For example, the Fool exercises his remarkable ability to lighten the mood in one of the play's most distressing moments, when Lear is lost in his own madness and refuses to retreat indoors during the storm. After having succeeded in convincingthe former king to find refuge, the Fool takes the stage in an equally comic and disturbing monologue. He begins his speech by saying: “It is a brave night to calm a courtesan. I will announce a prophecy before I go:” (III.2.80), which in the vernacular translates to “it would be a good night to sleep with a prostitute, but I will say this before I do that.” After such a dramatic scene, the audience would respond gratefully to this entertaining remark. This brief relief allows the Fool to delve into his prophecy which essentially predicts the fall of Lear's kingdom at the end of this conflict. Without the Fool's comic interjection, perhaps his tragic prediction would seem too dramatic or make the play too depressing for a spectator to watch during their evening. By temporarily relieving the pressure of the tragedy, the Fool's warning has a heavier meaning than was foretold in the pre-existing tragedy. He ends this speech with another comical remark: "[t]his prophecy Merlin will make, for I live before his time" (III.3.96-97), meaning "this is something Merlin could say, therefore I am ahead of my time to say it now.” The comic framing of his speech, breaking with the tragedy of Lear's situation, allows the viewer to pay more attention to what the Fool has to say. At first, his overconfidence in his own intelligence is comical, and the audience is able to laugh once again at the Fool's absurdity. But ironically, the Fool is probably correct in his prediction, and it is his status as an outsider that allows him to clearly interpret the dynamics of the conflict. If the framing of his speech had been as serious as the mood of the scene in which it is set, the viewer might have turned away, thinking that they were not missing much information if they were not listening attentively what he has to say. . The Fool's precedent as a comedic character gives him a unique focus that other characters do not receive. His comedic tone and role as provider of relief in a consistently depressing situation make his plot-sensitive comments more impactful than if he were a character whose mood is regularly serious and insightful. These provide elements of comic relief, while still giving the audience a much-needed break. of the tragedy that consumes King Lear, also emphasize the greater role of comedy as a means of coping with tragedy. It is a common experience that, when faced with an indescribable tragedy that is difficult to respond to, we resort to humor to manage the pain. Even if a situation would not be considered funny in other circumstances, when faced with overwhelming tragedy, sometimes the only response to keep from breaking down is to laugh. This is why, despite the pitiful nature of the situation, we find comedy in Lear's madness. An example of this use of comedy can be seen in Act 1, when Lear has banished his closest allies, Kent and Cordelia, and is unaware that his other daughters and their accomplices are plotting against him. Here, Lear speaks with an accomplice of the wicked sisters, Oswald, Goneril's steward.LEAR: O, you, sir, you! Come here, sir. Who am I, sir?OSWALD: My lady's father.LEAR: "My lady's father"? My lord's valet, you fucking dog, you slave, you priest! OSWALD: I am none of these, my lord; I beg your pardon. LEAR: Are you glaring at me, you rascal? [Hits him] OSWALD: I will not be struck, my lord. KENT: And I won't be tripped either, you basic football player. [Stumbles on his heels] (I.4.77-85). In this scene, the nobles mock the steward after he fails to recognizecorrectly Lear, gaining satisfaction, even entertainment, from his discomfort. When Oswald refers to Lear as his lady's father rather than the former king, this is deeply insulting to the insecure king. He is no longer powerful in himself, but his power comes from that of his daughters. This loss of recognition, this loss of power, is one of the greatest catalysts for Lear's descent into madness. Not to mention his daughter's almost immediate defiance of him once he adopted his will, which made Lear more sensitive to this lack of respect from his daughter's steward. In order to endure this indignity, Lear first indulges in abuse, accusing Oswald of some vile insults. But as Kent joins us, the taunts take on the appearance of a kind of game, humorous for the men as well as for the audience. Faced with misfortune, the two men resort to comedy, unfortunately derived from insult, to cope with the difficulty of the situation. The use of humor as a method of coping with tragedy is also one used by the audience and not just the characters. When a scene is so incredibly sad, so much so that it is impossible for the play to recover from such misfortune, the only reaction left is to laugh. A scene that only depicts the deepening tragedy can seem humorous when the play reaches a point of irreversible despair. The best example of this occurs at the very end of the play, when almost all the characters have died in very diverse and horrible ways. Standing among the corpses, among the last three to survive the play's tragic finale, the Duke of Albany says simply: "Our present business / It is the general misfortune" (V.3.324-5). This phrase, while reflecting the truly heartbreaking tone of the scene, also seems comically redundant. Despite the tragic nature of this conclusion, it is not a shocking reaction to smile when reading or hearing this line. Albany's observation is blatantly obvious, so obvious that pointing it out seems absurd, leading to a comical interpretation. The Duke's outright declaration of the "business" of the scene, in its potentially comic redundancy, draws attention to the viewer's natural reaction to laugh when tears do not seem to be enough. It is this slight break in the tension caused by this line that allows the viewer to leave the room sad but somehow satisfied with the plot as a whole. It aims to free the viewer from the inevitable grip of tragedy without diminishing the impact of the finale. The comic reaction induced by this phrase offers the audience a way to cope with the end of the play, just as the characters in the play use laughter to cope with their tragedy. While the comedy within King Lear works to relieve and cope with the tragic nature of the work, the use of comedy within the tragedy plays an important role in drawing attention to the general absurdity of the situation that results from the character's obsession with noble or powerful status. Humor is a common tool for expressing cultural criticism. In the case of King Lear, Shakespeare subtly expresses his reluctance towards the culture and consequences of nobility through humorous circumstances. Many laughter-inducing scenarios result from cultural misunderstanding, whether it is the Fool's ability to ignore social norms or Lear's madness expressed through his mockery of the circumstances associated with nobility. In the sixth scene of the third act, Lear, the Fool and Edgar, disguised as Tom of Bedlam, arrange a trial for the evil sisters Regan and Goneril. The two sisters, who concoct a plan.