1 November 22, 2016 Insults and Humor in Shakespeare: Proposal Abstract The Shakespeare plays have stood a test of time in the field of comedy. Insults and jokes are the major plot devices that affect the outcome in of “Much Ado about Nothing,” and “The Merchant of Venice” plays. This paper will discuss the different situation in which insults and humor are used by the play characters in the two plays. The research will primarily concentrate on how Shakespeare utilizes insults and humor/jokes in these two plays to communicate his message. Shakespeare communicated his comedy through humor and his plays are full of metaphors, shrewd word play and insults. Merchant of Venice The Merchant of Venice is a romantic and funny play that has a lot of witty characters. In Shakespeare’s times, people found different things funny like insulting foreigners. The play contains many examples that insult Jews since they were the minority in London in Shakespeare's era. From Adelman’s book, the Christian insulted the Jew as animals. The Shylock’s heart can never be softened because all he wants is revenge (Adelman p. 78). However, according to information collected from a review done by Halio regarding the play, Christians do not recognize their own institutional partiality and abuse fuel Shylock's fierceness. (p. 66). Despite being insulted, the shylock demands that the law be carried on because he is doing no worse than the Christians. Shylock believes that the Christians limit his life in endless ways and even his agreement with Antonio limits Antonio's life. Despite the fact that Shakespeare figures out how to entertain his audience, his play has a lot of inconspicuous insults. One more insult in the play is whereby Antonio was viewed as gay person. Portia is the character with most jokes. During the first staging of the play, the shylock actor would have been costumed in a red wig with a prosthetic nose, looking not at all like the Venetian characters. In this context, Portia asks in humorous way who is the Jew and who is the Jew. Again, when she was welcoming Antonio, Portia joked that she hoped Bassanio is just figuratively bound to him since, last she has listened, Antonio was bound to his companion by an extremely risky contract in reality. In the play, the male Christians are portrayed as sexist and arrogant (Heschel 417). They only expect to be entertained and not insulted. Another clear humor is seen on Gratiano's rough sexual joke which was portrayed in form of a ring as a symbol for the vagina. This made the play to hit a comic final note. According to Ellis, this poses question on how better they can destroy shylock with their sexual jokes. Elli believes that they cannot do it better than the shylocks thirst for revenge and love of money (p. 412). Generally, the play is an anti-Semitic one in light of the fact that the Jews are looked upon as dishonest and evil. In accordance with Ghoses’ book, the entire play does not portray the Jew as ...

1. 1
November 22, 2016
Insults and Humor in Shakespeare: Proposal
Abstract
The Shakespeare plays have stood a test of time in the field of
comedy. Insults and jokes are the major plot devices that affect
the outcome in of “Much Ado about Nothing,” and “The
Merchant of Venice” plays. This paper will discuss the different
situation in which insults and humor are used by the play
characters in the two plays. The research will primarily
concentrate on how Shakespeare utilizes insults and
humor/jokes in these two plays to communicate his message.
Shakespeare communicated his comedy through humor and his
plays are full of metaphors, shrewd word play and insults.
Merchant of Venice
The Merchant of Venice is a romantic and funny play that has a
lot of witty characters. In Shakespeare’s times, people found
different things funny like insulting foreigners. The play
contains many examples that insult Jews since they were the
minority in London in Shakespeare's era. From Adelman’s book,
the Christian insulted the Jew as animals. The Shylock’s heart
can never be softened because all he wants is revenge (Adelman
p. 78). However, according to information collected from a
review done by Halio regarding the play, Christians do not
recognize their own institutional partiality and abuse fuel
Shylock's fierceness. (p. 66).
Despite being insulted, the shylock demands that the law be
carried on because he is doing no worse than the Christians.
Shylock believes that the Christians limit his life in endless
ways and even his agreement with Antonio limits Antonio's life.
Despite the fact that Shakespeare figures out how to entertain
his audience, his play has a lot of inconspicuous insults. One
more insult in the play is whereby Antonio was viewed as gay

2. person.
Portia is the character with most jokes. During the first staging
of the play, the shylock actor would have been costumed in a
red wig with a prosthetic nose, looking not at all like the
Venetian characters. In this context, Portia asks in humorous
way who is the Jew and who is the Jew. Again, when she was
welcoming Antonio, Portia joked that she hoped Bassanio is just
figuratively bound to him since, last she has listened, Antonio
was bound to his companion by an extremely risky contract in
reality. In the play, the male Christians are portrayed as sexist
and arrogant (Heschel 417). They only expect to be entertained
and not insulted.
Another clear humor is seen on Gratiano's rough sexual joke
which was portrayed in form of a ring as a symbol for the
vagina. This made the play to hit a comic final note. According
to Ellis, this poses question on how better they can destroy
shylock with their sexual jokes. Elli believes that they cannot
do it better than the shylocks thirst for revenge and love of
money (p. 412).
Generally, the play is an anti-Semitic one in light of the fact
that the Jews are looked upon as dishonest and evil. In
accordance with Ghoses’ book, the entire play does not portray
the Jew as a good person. Each character in the play abuses the
Jew and when Jew had his thoughtful lines, they were only
intended to be witty.
Much Ado About Nothing
The play is tragicomedy which mostly concentrates on self-
dramatization, self-deception, self-awareness and self-love. The
play has the mockery and raillery of the dignified class. With its
far-fetched metaphors and similes, the hyperbole, the
arrogances and insults, the play has a constant absurdity.
Closest to mind of the dignified sort and regularly not
effectively to be recognized from it, Benedick the humor of the
play. He has logical perverse, impudent mockery and shrewd

3. humorousness (Margolies p.47).
In this play, Benedick and Beatrice are the most fascinating
characters despite their humorous subplot. Beatrice's
unexplained anger toward Benedick can be seen even from the
start point (Shakespeare 456). Benedick has been hurting
Beatrice and this results to her greeting him with anger,
weariness and scorn. In the end we perceive that affection and
desire for him are still covered inside her. She has figured out
how to utilize jokes and insults to mask deeper emotions.
In this upside down world, there is a consistent feeling of
oddity and fun loving disagreement. People tell home truths
under the cover of veils and truth is misread as trickery.
Beatrice insults Benedick, pretending not to know it was him.
According to their reaction, everybody was anticipating a
response from the other (Bowles 326). Despite the fact that their
insults are gnawing, their capacity to keep up such cunning,
interconnected fighting appears to outline the presence of a
solid bond between them.
Claudio modestly solicits Benedick what he thinks of Hero,
declaring that he has begun to love her. Benedick humorously
plays down Hero's magnificence, poking Claudio for
contemplating about turning into a domestic husband (Antinora
p. 1). Beatrice on the other hand frequently talks her mind
without worry about modesty. For instance, he interrupts the
conversation between Leonato and the massager. All through
the play, she is extremely cunning with words, showing
impressive logical aptitude and natural capacity for humour
(Bloom 117). Furthermore, her way with words is honed when
the object of her humour is Benedick.

4. Works Cited
Adelman, Janet. Blood Relations: Christian and Jew in The
Merchant of Venice. University of Chicago Press, 2008.
Antinora, Sarah. "Please let this be much ado about
nothing:'Kill Claudio'and the laughter of release." Ceræ: an
Australasian Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 1
(2014): 1.
Bowles, Robin. Culture Clashing in William Shakespeare's
Much Ado about Not (h) ing. University of Portland, 2009.
Bloom, Harold, and Michael G. Cornelius. Much Ado about
Nothing. Infobase Publishing, 2010.
Ellis, David. Shakespeare's practical jokes: an introduction to
the comic in his work. Associated University Presse, 2007.
Ghose, Indira. Shakespeare and laughter: A cultural history.
Manchester University Press, 2013.
Halio, Jay L. "The Merchant of Venice (review)." Shakespeare
Bulletin 24.2 (2006): 63-68.
Heschel, Susannah. "From Jesus to Shylock: Christian
Supersessionism and “The Merchant of Venice”." Harvard
Theological Review 99.04 (2006): 407-431.
Margolies, David. "Much Ado About Nothing." Shakespeare’s
Irrational Endings. Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2012. 36-55.

5. Shakespeare, William. The Arden Shakespeare. Much ado about
nothing. Eds. Claire Elizabeth McEachern, et al. Methuen,
2007.