Saturnalian Pattern in Shakespeare's Festive Comedy Term Paper

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Saturnalia and Shakespearean Comedy

C.L. Barber argues that all of Shakespeare's festival comedies, such as "A Midsummer's Nights Dream" and "Twelfth Night," make us of the convention of the Roman Saturnalia. During Saturnalia in ancient Rome, the social norms of that world were turned upside down. Paupers were allowed to don the robes of the gentry, and slaves enacted the role of kings. This was not simply a fun ritual to while away the long winter hours of darkness, but an effective Freudian psychological release for the lower classes of an otherwise repressive society.

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At least, they could abuse their masters for a day. Likewise, the ruling classes achieved some security, by knowing that the negative feelings of the lower classes could be released in a contained and ritualized fashion, rather than through the uncontained means of revolt and permanent disorder such as revolution.

Similarly, all of Shakespeare's festival comedies involve social inversions, whereby as in "A….....

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