The Meanings of Comedy* - Shakespeare Navigators

Sypher I rrrr MEANTNGs oF corlrEDy
5I
anism is a free discharge of repressed psychic energy or resentment
through laughter. Its purpose is comparable to the release of the
dream, except that the dream is private and asocial, whereas the
comic uproar is "infectious." Freud goes so far as to say "The
comical appears primarily as an unintentional discovery in the social
relations of human beings." Meredith, of course, emphasized more
strongly than Bergson that comedy is "the ultimate civilizer."
The ambivalence of comedy reappears in its social meanings, for
comedy is both hatred and revel, rebellion and defense, attack and
escape. ft is revolutionary and conservative. Socially, it is both sympathy
and persecution.
One of the strongest impulses comedy can discharge from the
depths of the social self is our hatred of the "alien," especially when
tlie stranger who is "different" stirs any unconscious doubt about our
orvn beliefs. Then the comedian unerringly finds his audience, the
solid majority, itself a silent prey to unrecognized fears. He can point
out our victim, isolate him from syrnpathy, and cruelly expose him
to the penalty of our ridicule. In this role the comic artist is a
"conservative" or e!'en a "reactionary" who protects our self-esteem.
Wherever comedy serves as a public defense mechanism, it makes ail
of us hvpocrites: we try to laugh our doubts out of existence, Wherever
comedy is a symptom of fear, our mirth indicates the zeal with
which we are maltreating our scapegoat. Certainly the laugh of the
satirist is often a sneert and there is an undercurrent of satire in
most comedy.
To this extent the comic response is tribal and, if it is malicious,
uncivilized. Any majority secretes venom aga"inst those who trouble it,
then works off this venom in mocking some figure like Shylock the
Jew, the lJsurer, hated by right-thinking Christians precisely because
he Jives in the free and open market on a premise of ruthless competition.
Shylock is the naked image of renaissance "initiative," whose
thrift is called greed only because he is Hebrew. "And thrift," Shylock
protests, "is blessing if men steal it not." Could any gentile
entrepreneur put it better The inconsistency is implied by the shadow
of pathos falling across Shylock's ugly figure. Let us avoid the old
dispute whether Shylock is tragic: it is clear enough that according
to the confused premises of the play a Christian without money is
tragic and a Jew without money is funny. And Jews should be
without money. Unless the Jew is Jessica, who becomes Christian
by gilding herself with ducats.
Granted that Shaliespeare sees his victim in double perspective (for
Shylock the monster becomes Shylock the man when he asks "If you