To give a brief introduction on the comedy that Shakespeare has carefully woven through the use humour, it is important to take note as to how he employs various forms of humour such as verbal humour, slap-stick humour, witty banter as well as situational humour. The play begins with an induction in which a drunkard, Cristopher Sly, is fooled into believing he is a king as he laments
“Upon my life, I am a lord indeed,
And not a tinker; nor Christopher Sly”
(Induction.2.70-71)
and orders a play to be performed for him. Interestingly, the play he watches is what constitutes the main body of The Taming of the Shrew. By creating false realities here, Shakespeare is able to employ situational humour to humour readers as they ridicule Christopher Sly for his foolishness and naivety.
Moving on to the main plot, most of the plays humour again comes from the way in which characters create false realities by disguising themselves as other people. Almost all characters in the play take on identities other than their own at some point of time during the play for example, Tranio as Lucentio, Lucention as Cambio and Hortensio as Litio. Moreover, it situational humour can be most indubitably identified by Petruchio’s attire in the scene of his wedding – 3.2.41-47) Biondello describes Petruchio’s appearance to Baptista as he says that Petruchio comes wearing:
“New hat and an old jerkin; a pair of old breeches thrice turned;
a pair of boots that have been candle-cases, one buckled, another laced;
an old rusty sword tane out of the town armoury, with a broken hilt and chapeless;
with two broken points;
his horse hipped- with an old moth saddle and stirrups of no kindred- ”
This depiction of Petruchio conforms to Shakespeare’s technique of using false realties in order to create humour as Petruchio’s appearance is inappropriate for a wedding and causes him to look like a fool. His somewhat sloppy look causes readers to chuckle as his appearance is extremely ridiculous.
Shakespeare also employs another essential element of humour in which he lets the audience know what is happening, while the characters themselves remain oblivious to the truth. He does this using the soliloquy, in which Petruchio states the method he will use in order to woo Katherina:
“And woo her with some spirit when she comes!
Say that she rail, why then I’ll tell her plain
She sings as sweetly as a nightingale.
Say that she frown, I’ll say she looks as clear
As morning roses newly wash’d with dew.” (2.1.168-172)
This soliloquy serves to reinforce the fact that “things are not always as they seem”, so we find that the relationship between Petruchio and Katherina even more amusing, as we can see that it is merely an elaborate game of chess, instigated by Petruchio to ‘capture’ Katherina. This scene is very significant as it makea use of the creation of false realities and mistaken identities, to manipulate the audience’s perception of Petruchio that brings entertainment.
by
laurakuan94 (student)
