Stock characters in various comedies
A Stock character is a stereotyped imagined character that is recognized by audiences easily as a result of often being recurrent in the tradition. They are characters that are easily targets for satire and are mainly criticized as characters that are secure.
‘The brother’ whose author is well known as Terence describes stock characters in his comedy. Micion who is Demea’s brother is seen to be very reckless in his parenting of Demea’s child named Aeschinus. Demea is a very strict parent who lives his child to be handled and guided by the mischievous bachelor brother (Terence et.al 234). Micion is seen to spoil the child since the child is seen to steal a girl from her house. Micion here is seen as a stock character since he is well targeted by the author of the book to clearly portray family parenting. Micion is blamed for everything here since Demea holds him responsible for all the misfortunes the family has been involved in and blames him for the actions of his child in impregnating the mother of a girl friend (Terence et.al 234). Demea thinks that he is the very first person to know of the misfortunes which is ironical since the son and Micion know everything which makes the son fear telling his father since he is strict. Micion is seen to be different than people thought he really was.
The Midsummer Night’s Dream is a well known comedy by William Shakespeare which shows the happenings surrounding Puck. The stock character found in this comedy is known as Puck who is a mischievous character who has been a nuisance to the local society by taking advantage of housewives who are bartered by their husband (Gagarin et.al, 5). Puck loves fun making and always love jokes even where seriousness is deserved. Shakespeare uses many characters in this comedy and portrays Puck as the stock character since he do not do as per the people’s expectation just like Micion who is also portrayed by Terence as a reckless parent.
Today’s media also uses the stock characters in their comedy activities. For example in the comedy of ‘Blackface’ the stock characters have been used to show how discrimination is one form of racism and which should not be accepted (Mahar et.al 494). The comedy uses stereotypes of two characters Jim Crow and Zip Coon who at last are stereotyped as Coon to show how racial discrimination is stereotyped especially by the comedies in the media. Buck in this comedy is the main stock character who is black in origin and is proud regardless of his color and always has interest in the white ladies who are not his class (Mahar et.al 494). These are example of stereotypes mainly shown in the American comedy films which are very similar to the traditional comedies since the use of stock characters is emphasized currently and traditionally.
The ‘Braggart’ is also an example of a current comedy where stock characters are widely used. Pyrgopolynices is the stock character in this comedy and is portrayed to be a solder who is braggart who conduct himself in an awkward manner and is arrogant in nature. He is proud and does not accept defeat and cannot be humble in dealing with other people (Charney et.al, 116). Similar to the ancient comedies by Terence and Shakespeare the modern comedies use stock characters to show the unacceptable stereotypes used today especially by the media and films globally and especially in the western countries.
Works Cited
Charney, Maurice. Comedy: A Geographic and Historical Guide. Westport, Conn. [u.a.: Praeger, 2005. Print.
Gagarin, Michael. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome: 5. Oxford [u.a.: Oxford Univ. Press, 2010. Print.
Mahar, William J. Behind the Burnt Cork Mask: Early Blackface Minstrelsy and Antebellum American Popular Culture. Urbana [u.a.: Univ. of Illinois Press, 1999. Print.
Terence, , and Peter Brown. The Comedies. Oxford: OUP Oxford, 2008. Internet resource.
