NAME: VEEZISH AWAIS.

SUBMITTED TO: MA’AM AMINA WASIF.

MAJOR: ENGLISH LITERATUE.

ROLL.NO: 1925116126.

ASSIGNMENT
ANTON CHEKHOV’S PLAY “THE BEAR”

Q.WHAT IS A FARCE AND HOW DOES IT DEPICT EVERYDAY LIFE?

ELABORATE ON YOUR IDEAS, KEEPING ANTON CHEKHOV’S PLAY
THE BEAR, AND SPECIFICALLY THE TWO MAJOR CHARACTERS IN
MIND.

INTRODUCTION TO FARCE:
A farce is a type of exaggerated comedy that features an absurd plot, ridiculous situations and
humorous dialogue. The main purpose of a farce is to keep an audience laughing. The characters
are usually stereotypes or simplified examples of different traits and qualities. Comic devices
typically used in farces include mistaken identity, deception and wordplay such as puns, double
meaning and exaggeration. A farce is a crude form of comedy which creates horse laughter
among the spectators. It is generally an episode which is inserted in a normal play with a view to
provide light and somewhat cheap entertainment to the low class spectators. The farce ends in a
happy comedy where no harm is done to anyone. The farcical episodes were quite popular in the
Elizabethan age to please the groundlings. It provokes the audience to simple hearty laughter.
There is also a tragic farce. In a tragic farce, the humor is always bleak, but still present.

ORIGINS OF FARCE:
Farces have existed since the early days of western theatre in the 5th century BC when the ancient
Greek playwright Aristophanes first wrote his comedies. His plays included the larger-life
characters, ridiculous situations and vulgar humor. His plays also have the elements of farce but
they also carry serious social messages through satire. Menander focused more on the humor
about marriage, adultery and romance. He is known as the most famous beginner of new comedy
playwright. Then after his death, the roman playwright Plautus adapting the Menander’s plays
became the first master of farcical comedy. He mastered the convention of mistaken identity.
 This dramatic genre had its origins in the 13th century practice of augmenting or stuffing, Latin
Church texts with explanatory phrases. The term farce designated interpolations made in the
church litany by the clergy. Later it came to mean comic scenes inserted into church plays.

The term farce was first applied to comic plays during the middle ages in the 14th century by
English. The word derives from a French word meaning “to stuff” and was used to describe
comic bits inserted (“stuffed”) in between scenes in religious plays. During the middle ages, the
audience would be treated to a sort of interlude during the mystery and morality plays. Often
those interludes were intended to bring a change to the serious morality plays. This is the
beginning of farce during the middle ages.

The traditions of Italian farce became the basis of commedia dell’arte. Commedia dell’arte, also
known as Italian comedy was a humorous theatrical presentation performed by professional
actors who travelled in troupes throughout Italy in 16th century.

Farce took its own theatre form in France 15th century and in England in 16th century.
Shakespeare and Molière eventually came to use farce in their comedies. Shakespeare wrote the
best known 16th century renaissance farce The Comedy of Errors. It was in the 15th century
France that the term farce was used to describe the elements of clowning, acrobatics, caricature,
and indecency found together within a single form of entertainment.

In the late 19th century, farce continued to survive in the form of bedroom farces. These farces
consisted of sexual affairs e.g. Georges Feydeau play A Flea in her Ear. In a bedroom farce
there is a room with several doors leading to bedrooms. Because the doors are so central to the
humor in these plays, they are also called “door farces”. Also a new found expression of farce
was found in film comedies with Charlie Chaplin, the Keystone Kops, and the Marx brothers.

CHARACTERS OF A FARCE:
 The characters in farce have no resemblance to real life.
 The characters are mere caricatures.
 The characters are highly exaggerated, placed into improbable and ludicrous situation.
 The characters belong to the realm of nonsense.

FARCE IN REAL LIFE:

Sometimes, misunderstanding lead to absurd and farcical situations in real life. In fact, the 1967
Arab-Israeli war could be thought of as a real life example of a tragic farce. Israel and its Arab
neighbors were posturing and bluffing in the run-up to the war, but none of them actually wanted
it to happen. Then, the soviets falsely told the Egyptian government that Israel was planning to
attack Syria. Egypt threatened to attack Israel in retaliation, but Israel saw this as an unprovoked
attack since they were never really planning to attack Syria. In a movie, this might be a
misunderstanding; but in real life it led to many problems like the current bleak state of Israeli
Palestinian conflict.

Farcical humor seems to be like some of our most common real life situations. Everyone can
recognize the comedy of a farce. In real life, people falling down; absurd outlandish situations;
pies to the face; all these things make us laugh for reasons that are somewhat mysterious, and yet
somehow universal.

FARCICAL PLAY “THE BEAR”:

Anton Chekhov is a Great Russian writer, but today he is more famous outside Russia than in his
own country.in England he is deemed as the greatest Russian playwright, storyteller and writer of
the modern times. An important quality of his plays is not the action, but the emotional
accompaniment of the action. His play The Bear is a one-act play, which is a farce full of fun,
noise and laughter.

When we go through the play “THE BEAR” we find that it is a farce. It is full of many absurd
situations and remarks. There are three main characters in the play and they all make us laugh
with their absurd behavior and comments. The bear is a funny play, which exposes the social
conditions of the Russian society with reference to the feudal lords and ladies and their funny
behaviors. In this play two characters have been shown, who behave like enemies towards each
other in the beginning but start loving each other in the play. There are so many absurd situations
in the play.

When the curtain rises we find Popov in mourning dress. She is a beautiful young lady. She is
looking at the photograph of her husband, Nicolai Mihailovitch who had died seven months ago
her servant Luka is advising her to leave her mourning and accept the will of God and go out to
see her neighbors. However, his way of advising her is very absurd. He gives the examples of
cats, midges, and spiders. We simply laugh at these examples.

But Popova is not ready to accept her advice. Actually, she wants to prove that she is sincere
with her husband even after his death. The absurd thing is that while looking at the photograph of
her husband and Popov calls him a ‘bad child’. The word ‘bad child’ makes us laugh.

Then Smirnov comes in the play, who introduces himself as a landowner and a retired lieutenant
of artillery. He tells Popova that her late husband owed him one thousand and two hundred
roubles on two bills of exchange. He wants his money to be paid at once, as he has to pay the
interest on a mortgage the next day. If he fails to do that, his lands will be snatched away from
him and he will be compelled to commit suicide. Popova agrees to pay him money, but not at the
moment because she doesn’t have spare cash and also because her steward is not present. When
Popov refuses to give Smirnov the money, he says, “I have not the pleasure of being either your
husband or your finance, so please do not make scenes”. These remarks are very absurd.
Smirnov behaves insolently and insists that he will not leave the place until his money is paid.
Then Popova gets angry and there is an exchange of harsh word between them. In her rage,
Popova calls him a course bear and bourbon. The dispute becomes so serious that Smirnov
challenges her to fight a duel. When Popov accepts the challenge of duel from Smirnov, he says
that he will bring her down like a chicken. The word chicken is very funny.

Mrs. Popova readily accepts his challenge, even though she has never fired a pistol before in her
life. This is the most comic and absurd situation in the play that Popov brings her husband’s
revolvers and asks Smirnov to teach her how to fire. He not only teaches her how to fire, but he
also tells her the prices of different revolvers. Another absurd situation is that Popova changes
her mind repeatedly. At one time, she asks him to leave and at another asks him to stay.

Then Popova says after Smirnov has just shown her how to fire a pistol:

Now don’t you try to get out of it, Mr. Smirnov? My blood is up. I won’t be happy till I’ve
drilled a hole through that skull of yours. Follow me. What’s the matter? Scared?

It is of course farcical that Smirnov chooses this precise moment to declare his love for Popova,
while she is joyfully contemplating shooting him in the head. What makes this situation even
more farcical is that the angrier Mrs. Popova gets, the more Smirnov falls in love with her, and
her stirred up emotions correspond to his feelings of passion for her.

As we know that in a farce there is always a happy ending. Similarly, there occurs a happy
ending at the end of the play “The Bear”. Smirnov completely falls in love with her beauty and
innocence and boldness. Therefore, he offers her to marry him. In the beginning she laughs at the
idea, but soon she melts away as he takes her in his arms.

ELEMENTS OF FARCE:
Humor: All farces rely on a sense of absurd. Humor is the main element in a farce. Types of
humors that are used in faces include: bawdy humor (it includes low or potty humor,; sexual
jokes; double meanings; and drunken behavior). Bedroom farces (it includes sexual humor).
Physical comedy (it includes pratfalls, spit-takes, stunts, clowning and any physical activity as
sources of humor).

Identity of Characters: It revolves around the mistaken or threatened identity of characters.

Attitude towards the plot: The plot mocks the social code, is clue based, involves funny
violence, and a happy ending.

Setting: most of the actions in a farce take place in one location. A single location also allows
for plenty of confusion, mistaken identities and chaos as the plot builds to a frenetic and hilarious
climax.
Wit and manners: the plot toys with the concept of what should be done (is proper) and the
rebellions against that code. It is the witty approach to these issues that creates farce.

Reversal of expectations: The element of surprise can happen anywhere in the action and
usually does. The resolution always includes a comic reversal.

Velocity and speed: Things happen quickly. Its comedy: timing, timing, timing.

Intent: many farces mock the upper class, with central characters illustrating the author’s views
on idiocy and corruption of the wealthy people.

Multiple and fragile substructures: Structure is based on social satire and it follows the rules
that we can see and which guide the characters. It is the written guide by which the characters are
trapped.

Use of character roles: Young lovers, witty servants, hen-pecked husbands, misers, and rising
socialites. A loosened, yet enhanced, commedia cast.

EXAMPLES OF FARCE:
Georges Feydeau is best known for his farces, such as A Flea in her Ear, which is a
classic French farce from 1907.
It is a comedy of situation involving marriage and deception. A suspicious wife sets a
trap to expose her supposedly unfaithful husband. The husband however bears an
uncanny resemblance to a drunken porter, and when circumstances bring the two into
proximity in the seedy hotel Casablanca, all her breaks loose
The Marriage Proposal was also written by Anton Chekhov. This little farce is very
popular and one of the funniest writing of Anton Chekhov. It is a farce because the main
characters, Lomov and Natalia, are both absurdly sensitive and so prone to arguing over
minor details that Lomov cannot manage to accomplish his marriage proposal The
marriage proposal is a farce because the concept of two people being unable to start their
engagement because they are too busy bickering is totally absurd, and the two characters
are so exaggeratedly sensitive and argumentative.
The Cherry Orchard was written in the ear 1903and it was considered the last play by
Anton Chekhov. The writer categorized this play in comic genre with few farce elements;
however some consider it a tragedy. The play is all about the tragic plight of the family of
Lyubov that remains unable to save their estate and the cherry orchard, they are so proud
of.
Shakespeare often inserted farce in his plays e.g. A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The
Taming of the Shrew, Marry Wives of Windsor. The Comedy of Errors is considered to
be one of Shakespeare’s earlier written plays; a comedy about separated family and
mistaken identity. In this play, there are two twin sons of an old merchant_ both named
Antipholus and the Antipholuses have twin servants, both named Dromio. After both
being separated from their twins in a shipwreck, Antipholus and his slave Dromio go to
 Ephesus to find them. The other set of twins’ lives in Ephesus, and the new arrivals cause
a series of incidents of mistaken identity, which is absurd and funny. Just like farce ends
with happiness, at the end of this play the twins find each other and their parents.
The Importance of being the Earnest is the most renowned of Oscar Wilde’s comedies.
It’s the story of two bachelors. In this play, two young gents have taken to bending the
truth in order to put some excitement into their lives. One character invented a sick
brother to go to the county and another character pretended to be someone else in while
flirting with a girl. All arising issues are resolved in a rather funny manner when both the
men change their names to “Earnest”. In the end, both men revealed as liars due to the
complications created by the same names.
Christopher Marlowe’s play Doctor Faustus also has a farcical scene. Brandon Thomas
play Charley’s Aunt (1892) is also one of the best American farcical plays and it deals
with the extravagant results of a female impersonation. The Great Russian writer Anton
Chekhov’s play The Seagull is also a farce. James Townley’s High Life below Stairs
(1759) has been termed as the best farce of the eighteenth century.

TERMS RELATED TO FARCE:

Burlesque: Burlesque refers to a performance; comedy or farce that depends on

exaggeration for its humor.it was common in the 17th century in London theaters. Burlesque is a
form of satire, since burlesque comedy involves ridiculing any basic style of speech or even
writing. Farce is generally regarded as intellectually and aesthetically inferior to it. Burlesque is
more a way of acting, an exaggerated and satirical style. It’s most suited to farce, and to act farce
in a perfectly straight style.

Absurdism: Absurdism is even more extreme than a farce. In a farce, the characters are all
basically believable, but somehow get into an absurd, highly improbable situation. In an
absurdist comedy, however, the characters themselves may be nonsensical. Basically, everything
goes off the rails in a farce; but in absurdism, there are not any rails to begin with.