Use of Humor in William Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet :: William Shakespeare

Use of Humor in Romeo and Juliet Romeo and Juliet is one of Shakespeare's most famous plays. One, could give many reasons as to why this play became such a huge success, but one of the most important reasons could be the use of humour in the play. The main reason for doing this could be to relieve the tensions in the play, and to entertain and keep the Elizabethan audience interested. Humour plays a very significant part in the play as it allows Shakespeare to create a lot of contrasts and moods, as and when he wants to. In Romeo and Juliet humour occurs in three forms. The first being, humour by the use of puns, irony and jokes. The second being through the actions of characters and by their behaviour and the third by the incidents of the play. Shakespeare uses characters like Mercutio and the Nurse to bring out the comical element of the play, and each character does this in a different way. One of Shakespeare's tools used to evoke humour is the mockery that is aimed at a particular character. Some of the funniest moments are when one character is sarcastic to another. One of the best examples of this is when Capulet asks Lady Capulet for a sword and she replies "A crutch, a crutch! Why call you for a sword?" In this line the mockery of Capulet is obvious and appealing to the audience as it is direct. Shakespeare is known to be fond of puns and uses them quite regularly but he doesn't use them as often as the Elizabethan audience expected him to. Shakespeare starts of the play with a lot of humour, with the conversation between Sampson and Gregory, both of them using a lot of puns. This type of punning, for example on the words "coals," "collier," " choler," "collar", goes on till the end of the play. The Elizabethan audience used to like puns and hence although Shakespeare has used many vulgar puns, it still has a positive effect on the popularity of the play. Although in the Act I Scene 1 there is a fight between the families the humour in the scene makes us forget the seriousness of the fight.