Laughter as A Form of Social Unification Within Shakespearean Comedy

The classic definition of Elizabethan comedy is a literary narrative in which the protagonist overcomes the hardships keeping them from achieving their objective. Three of William Shakespeare’s most notable comedies are As You Like It, Twelfth Night, and Measure For Measure. All three exist in the Elizabethan period, where harsh social order consumed and constructed the existence of its people. Shakespeare intentionally places his characters in unconventional settings or circumstances to explore the human condition beyond the constraints of a hierarchical society. The disordered flux within these narratives allows the audience to think of themselves under the circumstances presented on stage and critique themselves accordingly.Comedy urges the audience to question their prescribed positions within social spheres, their driving forces beyond these spheres, and their relationships with one another beyond the walls of the theater. The following will dissect how laughter within the theater allows for unity between the different social classes in an audience as well as a productive means of promoting self-critique.

As You Like It is set in the Arden forest - a setting without the political or social oversight of the court. Shakespeare sets up primary conflicts that were made within the court but must resolve under the circumstances of the forest, such as the brothers’ vehement fight for the Du Boys’ inheritance, the interrupted romance between Rosalind and Orlando, and the humiliating banishment of Duke Senior. The play’s driving comedic force is the character’s transition into different roles than they possessed within the court, which induces disorder for the characters and the audience members alike. A patriarchally-controlled Rosalind becomes a man with agency in her relationships, a lust-driven Orlando becomes a “love-stricken” man, a once-privileged Jacques becomes a common fool, a once-exiled Duke Senior becomes the ruler of the forest, and a poor shepherd is the wisest of them all. All of these characters abruptly take-on roles, which questions the validity of social roles as a whole. Using the absurd circumstances of the narrative, Shakespeare poses a driving question to his audience: if one can so easily transition into a different version of themselves, why do some social roles foster higher value than others? As prophetically quoted by Jacques, the self-proclaimed fool, “all the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players” (20 ). A subtle critique shows itself in Shakespeare’s absurd equation of humans to players, suggesting that humans are constructed facades of themselves under a hierarchical society. The comedic array of flipped social conventions asks the play’s audience to reimagine a society free from financial, social, and patriarchal constraints. 

Preceding the previous work of Shakespeare was Twelfth Night, which uses exclusion as to produce a comedic effect. The play’s setting oscillates between two courts within the city of Illyria, where members of the elite and working-class navigate their inability to possess what they cannot have. The blurring of identities through warped gender performance, face-covering veils, and fake letters all keep the characters in a state of misinterpreted reality while the audience is privy to the actual nature of the events. One of the scenes where we see exclusion as a means of comedy is Maria’s fraudulent letter to Malvolio. Maria, arguably the most self-righteous and religious character of the play, plants a letter that leads Malvolio to believe he will become Olivia's new husband and the receiver of her fortune. She describes that she carried out her plan “most villianously; like a pedant that keeps a school i’the’ church” (54). Shakespeare urges the audience to laugh at Maria’s manipulation of Malvolio because of his pompous attitude toward others. At the same time, Maria’s virtue is questioned as she self-admittedly commits a “villainous” act. Shakespeare uses this scenario to illustrate the flippancy of Maria’s morality and her lack of loyalty toward a fellow member of the working class. Her exclusion of Malvolio in her scheme mirrors the human tendency to use exclusion as a means of self-promotion. Depending on whom the audience sympathizes with in this fictional scenario is significant in their moral standing. Shakespeare sets up a test of morality for the audience where they must explore the extent to which social stratification amuses them. If a particular audience member is able to laugh at the characters’ misfortunes, they must be able to laugh at themselves as well. Shakespeare sets up a judgment-based society within the audience itself, where its members gauge one another’s morals and politics based on others’ laughter (or absence of it). 

The following comedy, Measure For Measure, is set in a hedonistic and unruly era within Elizabethan Vienna. The primary conflict is Duke Vincentio’s inability to govern his city and Angelo’s substitution for his role, which works to explore how different characters in the play believe a society should govern itself. The characters have different driving forces for their actions, and comedy allows the audience to attach or detach to these traits. The comedic tool of substitution exhibits the idea that one character can do the work that another is unable to do or does not want to do. Audience members consider how figures in their communities depend on one another to produce an ideal society. From here, they can locate how their own society’s infrastructure polices or enables their agency. Duke Vincentio, a character desperate for external validation from those he governs, suggests, “let this Barnardine be this morning executed, and his head borne to Angelo” (77) to save Claudio’s life. The irony in this plan is that Duke Vincentio is substituting one man’s life to save another. He claims to put moral justice above all else, yet is willing to kill another person for a good reputation. Shakespeare uses the Duke, supposedly a figure searching for moral goodness, to critique the hypocrisy within politics. He claims that he substituted Angelo to govern Vienna sufficiently. However, his lack of mercy for Barnardine shows that he wants the reputation of a moral figure over actually being one. The “objective” within this comedy is for Vienna to situate itself in a place of moral soundness, and the Duke exemplifies a leader that puts on a facade of righteousness rather than conducting it. The flaws of the Duke illustrate how a society’s rulers must play by their own rules for them to uphold them. The character’s ironic substitutions of one another urges the audience to laugh at their own hypocrisy in social relations.

Comedy in Shakespearean theater reaches audiences of varying social classes and urges them to unify through shared laughter. As You Like It, Twelfth Night, and Measure For Measure all use comedy as a means of dissecting the human condition. The social conventions within the plays and the surreal settings they exist in allow the audience to see the likeability in figures they would not usually like, and the flaws in figures they normally would. Social status is distorted within all three plays and laughter permeates throughout the different social statuses of the audience - unifying people beyond class. Portrayals of flipped social conventions, exclusion, and substitution function to hold a mirror to the audience. People can situate one another based on their observation of others' reactions. Their emotional reactions to Shakespeare’s narratives expose their own characteristics and morals. Through a comedic tone, Shakespeare invites his audiences to face fictional portrayals of their personal flaws - asking them to critique themselves in gentle, laugh-inducing ways. When the audience leaves, they can do what they will with their observations.

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