Literary Archetypes The Big Lunk A romantic hero

Literary Archetypes

• The Big Lunk: A romantic hero type, but lacking something, so not entirely heroic - for instance he can be indecisive, unintelligent or easily misled. He is always a young man. In Shakespeare, he is represented in characters such as Romeo, Hamlet, Troilus, Claudio (Much Ado About Nothing), Orsino (Twelfth Night), Orlando (As You Like It) Lysander, Demetrius (A Midsummer Night's Dream), Ferdinand (The Tempest) and Leonatus (Cymbeline). • The Innocent Babe: The babe is often a tragic character , a victim of malignancy, whether this causes - or, in comedy, seems to cause death. She is young - often very young and is personified in Shakespeare in Ophelia (Hamlet), Desdemona (Othello), Imogen (Cymbeline), Hero (Much Ado About Nothing), Cordelia (King Lear). • The Flawed Ruler: Generally found in tragedy, this powerful man with a flaw which causes -or nearly causes, in comedy - his downfall. He is usually an older character. Examples: Oberon (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) Prospero (The Tempest), Macbeth, King Lear, Othello, Cymbeline, Anthony, Brutus (Julius Caesar).

• The Bright Young Woman: This is a girl who takes matters into her own hands to get what she wants - BYTs are generally those who bring about the resolution of comedies. They are (obviously) young, though often older than the babes. BYTs include: Helena (All's Well That Ends Well), Portia (The Merchant of Venice), Viola & Olivia (Twelfth Night), Rosalind (As You Like It), Kate (Taming of the Shrew), Beatrice (Much Ado About Nothing), Miranda (The Tempest). • The Malign Influence: A character who causes trouble out of hatred, jealousy or temper. He actively wishes others ill and works toward that. He can be any age. Some Malign Influences are Iago (Othello), Don John (Much Ado About Nothing), Cloten (Cymbeline), Claudius (Hamlet), Tybalt (Romeo and Juliet), Cassius (Julius Caesar). Hecate (Macbeth). • The Imp of Mischief: A misleading character, often supernatural, who misleads and deceives people, makes fun of them, sets cats among pigeons for amusement’s sake, but is not actively malign. Their age is irrelevant, and they may be male or female. Examples: Puck (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Ariel(The Tempest), Parolles (All's Well That Ends Well), Sir Toby Belch(Twelfth Night), Mercutio (Romeo and Juliet), The

• The Powerful Woman: Often seen as malign, this is a woman who has real power over the fate of other people as well as herself, and is therefore someone to fear. In tragedies, she always dies, and in comedies she will usually come under the influence of a male character in some way. She is generally mature. Some powerful women from Shakespeare are: Lady Macbeth, Goneril and Regan (King Lear), Cleopatra, Titania (Midsummer Night’s Dream) Cymbeline's Queen. • The Figure of Fun: This character is pretty much present purely to be laughed at. He (and it is generally a man) often pretends to more intelligence than he has, and generally gets his pomposity punctured. The age of this character doesn’t matter. Some examples are: Dogberry (Much Ado About Nothing), Malvolio (Twelfth Night), Polonius (Hamlet), Nick Bottom (A Midsummer Night’s Dream). • The Wise Fool: The word “fool” in this context is a positional denotation, rather than an intellectual one. Often quite sharp and shrewd, the wise fool is character who is allowed to tell unliked truths to rulers without being punished, by virtue of their position. Examples: Lear's Fool, Jaques (As You Like It), Lavatch (All's Well That Ends Well).

• The Comic Relief: A Servant/Friend who helps the lead(s) but is generally not too intelligent. They usually have no particular pretentions to intelligence and while they are often made gentle fun of they don't suffer for it. Some examples include Nurse (Romeo and Juliet), Sir Andrew Aguecheek (Twefth Night), Verges (Much Ado About Nothing), The Mechanicals (Midsummer Night’s Dream). • Tragedy’s Minion: This is a character who is manipulated by the Malign Influence into acting in his favor and against one of the leads, though they are generally innocent in themselves of any malign intent. For instance: Margaret (Much Ado About Nothing), Emelia (Othello). • The Mistreated Villain: A character who does things which the audience perceives as wicked, but only because he has been driven to them by the way he has been treated. The age of this character is irrelevant, but they are often older and long-suffering. Examples: Caliban (The Tempest), Shylock (The Merchant of Venice).

• Find contemporary examples for all of these archetypes. Remember, an archetype is a stock type of character that appears over and over again in different stories.

What is a joke and what makes things funny?

What is a joke? • A joke is two simple things: A setup, with an expectation, and a surprise punch line. – I saw my grandmother the other day, probably for the last time…Oh, she’s not sick or anything, – She just bores the hell out of me.

Two Stories • A joke is actually two story lines. • Let’s look at another example. – My wife just ran off with my best friend. – Boy, do I miss him. • So the first story leads us to expect that the man is sad that he is upset that his wife left him. • The surprise second story is that he is sad because he misses his buddy.

High Comedy

THE COMEDIC LADDER • Comedy of Ideas (high comedy): • 1. Characters argue about ideas like politics, religion, sex, marriage. • 2. They use their wit, their clever language to mock their opponent in an argument. • 3. This is a subtle way to satirize people and institutions like political parties, governments, churches, war, marriage. • Comedy of Manners (high comedy): • 1. The plot focuses on amorous intrigues among the upper classes. • 2. The dialogue focuses on witty language. Clever speech, insults and ‘put-downs’ are traded between characters. • 3. Society is often made up of cliques that are exclusive with certain groups as the in-crowd, other groups ( the would-be-wits, desiring to be part of the witty crowd), and some( the witless) on the outside.

• Delve through the text and find an example of one of the high comedy elements. • Highlight or write out the text. • Explain what make that particular scene funny.