Friday, March 27, 2009

The opposite of subtle, Justice

There are many levels to the Justice's character in this play. His personality has depth as do his actions. In justice's name he disguises himself as a fool. All of his actions are written off in the name of the commonwealth, for the king and for justice. But is it justice to dress up and trick people? To serve justice through means of trickery? Isn't one form of trickery just as bad as cutpurse trickery? It is also interesting to think about the implications of one dressing up as a fool, it begs to question which really is the costume and the true character, justice or fool? That is just an initial thought; the particular speech I wanted to talk about is his rant against tobacco and beer. While he is sitting at a bar, and has finished one drink already and has called for another and called for company and an audience. He truly seems to be enjoying himself in his affrontery, and then denounces that which he just partook in. He rants against the wrongs of tobacco and beer in act 2 scene 6, and ends his speech with, "And still the bottle-ale slavereth, and the tobacco stinketh" (2.6.85-86). This is but one instance of the humor to be had by outright hypocracy, the joke is not a subtle one, but is still funny nonetheless. I am excited to keep an eye on this character in particular. If this were a horserace or a sporting event I would like to put my money on Knockem as the guy I like or the horse I want to bet on. He seems like a good fellow to me, his obsession with "Vapours" reminds me of a peaceful guy who is concerned about good vibes, and if you don't spread good vibes then don't project your bad vibes on him. He reminds me of Merrythought.

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