Truth Spoken in Jest // Psychology

So i wanted to add a little more backing behind my idea of the prophetic jester.

What is the purpose of speaking truth in jest? Why dose one do it?
It turns out that it has to deal with conflict.  Wither we are dealing with members of our family, co-workers, or just customers, eventualy challenges and conflicts arise.  We have a few ways to react but the most common are to try and avoid the situation, pretend it isn't happening, we can stand toe to toe with it, or more like the first we can try and save our face.

Saveing face often refferse to our tendancy to be more concerned about how we are perceived that saying what needs to be said.

...we may err in saying too little when things go wrong. ... This is especially so during what could be called a "courting period." Instead of saying things directly, we often try to hint. But the honeymoon is likely to end sooner or later. At some point this "courting behavior" often gets pushed aside out of necessity. We may find it easier to sweep problems under the psychological rug until the mound of dirt is so large we cannot help but trip over it.  Gregorio Billikopf

 Ultimately the jest allows both parties to choose wither or not they want to continue feeding the conflict.  It allows the truth to be spoken plainly while allowing the speaker to save face.  It the offending partly is ready to change he has the option of changing while if choosing not to hear the speaker still appears a good person.

In Lear the jester is allowed to speak the plain blunt truth and remain in Lear's company because the truth is spoken in jest.  The truth is allowed to work in Lear till he is finally ready to change.  However, the fight it out approach, that Cordelia and Kent take just end up getting them banished because Lear will throw out the baby with the bath water at that point to save admitting he is wrong.

Make it [Explicit]

Tue Sorensen

Me:

Hey there,

My name is Chris, i'm a college student studying Shakespeare.  One of the recent plays i studied was Much Ado.  Hence i watched Kenneth's adaptation and subsequently your review.

I really appreciated your review of Kenneth's Much ado about Nothing.

Shakespeare all throughout his plays deals with vast contrast, wither it is between scenes, number of actors on stage at a time, seasons, or even through foils.  There is a defined power in providing contrast.  I'm with you i really feel that it added a whole new color to the rest of the characters and the movie.  It augmented this idea of much ado because compared to him the world is drunk on the clouds.

Thanks,

Christopher Morgan

http://chris-clm.blogspot.com/

Tue:

Thanks, Chris! Always happy to hear from a fellow Shakespeare appreciator! If you like, you can check out theshakespearestandard.com, where I write a multimedia news column on a fortnightly basis.

Who the...

Who's the Fool

The old addage wisdom comes with age seems to be far from true in King Lear.  The fool is the only one who can speak the truth without getting thrown out, yet since it's the fool speaking true and the aged that's the fool and the fool who is wise, who's fooling who?

Fool: 

They'll have me whipped for speaking true, thou'lt have me whipped for lying, and sometimes I am whipped for holding my peace.

May not an ass know when the cart draws the horse?

If thou wert my Fool, nuncle, I'ld have thee beaten for being old before thy time.  Thou shouldst not have been old till thou hadst been wise.

Much truth is spoken in our society in jest!  In fact most of the time that is when pure truth is spoken, yet because it's in jest nothing is done about it; therefore, we end up just like King Lear, pared [our] wit o'both sides, and left nothing i' the middle.  So the next time your friend or roommate throws a "jest" listen and then throw the book at them!  This book preferably. One would be fool not to listen and they need to quit playing the fool and get their horse in front of the wagon.  But the rug is you may be the one attempting to be wise before your old!

I love the conceit of the fool! Yet the bigger question is who's the fool!