Metatheatre In Hamlet Puns What is a pun a form of word play which suggests two or more meanings by exploiting multiple meanings of words or of similarsounding words for an intended humorous or ID: 253638
Download Presentation The PPT/PDF document "Puns and" is the property of its rightful owner. Permission is granted to download and print the materials on this web site for personal, non-commercial use only, and to display it on your personal computer provided you do not modify the materials and that you retain all copyright notices contained in the materials. By downloading content from our website, you accept the terms of this agreement.
Slide1
Puns and Metatheatre
In
HamletSlide2
Puns
What is a pun?
a form of word play which suggests two or more meanings, by exploiting multiple meanings of words, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended
humorous or
rhetorical
effect. These
ambiguities can arise from the intentional use
of
homophonic
,,
metonymic, or metaphorical language.
Henri Bergson defined
a pun as a sentence or utterance in which "two different sets of ideas are expressed, and we are confronted with only one series of words
".
Puns may be regarded
as
idiomatic constructions, given that their usage and meaning are entirely local to a particular language and its culture. For example, camping is intense (in tents).Slide3
Puns in Hamlet
Why does Hamlet use puns?
What effect do the puns have on the play and meaning of his words or his intentions?
Read the article on Puns and annotate – star five important sentences in understanding the role of puns in
Hamlet
.Slide4
Turn to Act 5 sc1
I need volunteer actors:
Gravedigger
Helper
Hamlet
Horatio
Note the puns and humor used in this section and the effect.
Note how Hamlet talk about death in this section and the tone.
After, we will watch the
Brahnagh
version of this scene.Slide5
Metatheatre
What is it?
Play within a play – where the audience becomes cognizant of the fact that we are watching characters watch a play
Cultivates self reflection on the part of the characters and audience
Cultivates catharsis (emotional purging)
Cultivates parody (mocking a technique and style)
Cultivates a microcosm of the theatrical situation and helps us separate reality from illusion (acting)Slide6
R
ole-playing
derives from the character not accepting his societal role and creating his own role to change his destiny
.
Stuart
Davis suggests
that "
metatheatricality
" should be defined by its fundamental effect of
destabilizing any sense of realism
: "
'
Metatheatre
' is a
convenient
name for the quality or force in a play which challenges theatre's claim to be simply realistic — to be nothing but
a mirror in which we view the actions and sufferings of characters like ourselves,
suspending our disbelief in their reality.
Metatheatre
begins by sharpening awareness of the unlikeness of life to dramatic art; it may end by making us
aware of life's uncanny likeness to art or illusion.
By calling attention to the strangeness, artificiality, illusoriness, or arbitrariness — in short, the theatricality -- of the life we live, it marks those frames and boundaries that conventional dramatic realism would hide
."Slide7
Turn to Act 3 Sc 2
Hamlet gives advice to the actors on how to act…ironic?
“speak the speech …as I pronounced it to you, trippingly on the tongue…do not saw the air too much with your hand…for in the very torrent, tempest and…whirlwind of your passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness…be not too tame neither…suit the action to the word…hold…the mirror up to nature to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image… Oh, there be players that I have seen…imitate humanity so abominably…”Slide8
Act 3 Scene 2
We will watch the
Branagh
version of the play within a play
Analysis of Polonius as acting the traitor Brutus (stabbed soon after this scene, ironically).
Effect of
metatheatre
in this scene?
Watch how Hamlet acts during the play…is Claudius demonstrating guilt or just frustration at Hamlet’s obnoxious nature?
What do we learn about Claudius in his soliloquy in scene 3?