Comic Cruelty in Twelfth Night In a Shakespearean comic setting where confusion, asininity, and impoliteness rule, the very characteristics of comic disrespectfulness become ethics. A comic saint or side character who constantly tricks chumps and straight men for the crowds delight is probably going to win the watchers appreciation. However it isn't only the straight keeps an eye on misery or even the comic impact itself which drives this crowd response. Or maybe, the exemplary characteristics of appeal, cleverness, mind, and unmistakable trustworthiness with which Shakespeares jokesters and pranksters are for the most part pretty much injected go to the fore as prominent qualities in his few of his plays. One non-comic model: King Lears Fool, whose tricks fill an instructive need for the honest Lear, is abused for his discourteousness and directness, yet is eventually vindicated when his premonition demonstrates correct.
