"And at times, the fool"

Rosemary Larkin

Professor Gideon Burton

English 382

23 November 2015

“And at times the fool”: Shakespeare’s Fool in Modern Media

The trope of the Fool is consistently used throughout Shakespeare’s work to fill many roles: comedian, counselor, commentator. Scholarship regarding the Fool is further complicated by the agreed upon divisions within the trope, specifically differentiating between a “natural fool” and a “professional fool.” The professional fool specifically has developed into a rhetorical device integral to the audience’s interpretation of themes, characters, and particularly moral systems within the story. “Most of these figures, including Feste in Twelfth Night and Lavatch in All's Well That Ends Well, are professionals who are consciously wiser than the jesting roles they adopt[. . . .] All of them see and describe the plays' events in meaningful ways that are not available in normal social discourse” (Wiggins). Although superficially different from its Shakespearean origins, the professional fool’s manifestations in modern media have exploded into a cross-genre trope which interfaces with the audience in order to accommodate disparate social spheres and resolve conflicts arising from clashing moral systems.

Defining a Fool

Shakespeare’s comedies and tragedies distinguish between two general roles for the Fool exists, and each tends to be accentuated the respective genres. Tragedies use the fool as a moral foil for the self-centric and poor judgment of title characters. Comedies fixate on the social classes as does their Fool: rather than latching to a specific character, the Fool can step in and out of the social order, interact with any character, be accepted in any venue. Additionally, the Fool exempt from social niceties, making their commentaries and explanations objective and trustworthy. A Fool is fundamentally defined by being trustworthy. In moral situations, the Fool advocates for the audience. Not that the Fool imposes the audience’s moral system onto the story, but that the Fool acts as intermediary for the audience to accept without condoning the morality of the protagonist. Especially in modern media, inherent moral systems vary wildly and often conflict with the accepted social contract or regional morality. The Fool is then responsible for expressing those concerns in any number of ways, the most consistent and common being truthfulness. Genuine honest reaction to things anchors the audience to the worldview of the protagonist. Fundamentally, the Fool is defined by its relation to the protagonist, although modern media does develop the character of and stories for the Fool in order to evolve the trope with the evolution of characters, especially since serialized media in particular is slow to develop primary plot elements and as such compensates with a well developed supporting cast. Still, there are core characteristics that contemporary fools share with Shakespearean ones.

I will break down the prevailing attributes all Fools share, focusing on 5 that are consistently supported in Shakespeare’s professional fools (hopefully being able to reconcile with natural fools as well).

Next, I wish to focus on attributes that are common but not necessarily mandatory. Ideally, the versatility of these characteristics will lead into a sketch of the modern fool.

Since so many modern interpretations meld professionals and naturals, mental illness is often used to exempt potential fools from social niceties and account for often superhuman exaggerations to their social standing, their breadth of knowledge, and their often unique sense of humor. Humor is possibly the most problematic aspect of defining a modern fool as “foolishness” does not necessarily overlap with the purpose of a fool within the story and world. We need to be careful of combining the fool with a sidekick, especially when comedic characters and generally clueless ones tend to be audience favorites.

Shakespearean Fools

Mercutio from Romeo and Juliet

Puck vs. Bottom from A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Feste from Twelfth Night

Touchstone from As You Like It

Clown from King Lear

Polonius from Hamlet

Contemporary Fools

Cordelia/Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Comedian from Watchmen

Wit from The Stormlight Archive

Barney Stinson from How I Met Your Mother

Charlie Young from The West Wing

Parker from Leverage

Jayne/River from Firefly

Hoenheim from Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

The Doctor from Doctor Who

Marty from Cabin in the Woods

Kiskue Urahara from Bleach

Kramer from Seinfeld

Works Cited

1. Wiggins, Martin. "Fools." The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2001. 21 November 2015. Web.
2. Astington, John H. “Three Shakespearean prints.” Shakespeare Quarterly: Summer 1996: 47, 2: ProQuest Research Library. 178. Web.