WIT,SATIRE,AND SUBVERSION:THE INTELLECTUAL ROLE OF FOOLS AND JESTERS IN SHAKESPEARE

Abstract

This paper explores Shakespeare’s presentation of fools, clowns, and jesters as characters who go beyond comic relief and serve as truth-tellers and commentators. The study grapples with Shakespeare’s portrayal of social and political fools in his plays through close reading of Hamlet (the Gravedigger), King Lear (the Fool), A Midsummer’s Night (Puck), Twelfth Night (Feste), and As You Like it (Touchstone). It argues that Shakespeare considers these characters as intellectuals who, through wit, riddles, songs, and irony, reveal truths that other characters avoid.  The analysis suggests that in the tragedies, fools emphasize themes of mortality, madness, and power dynamics, while in the comedies, they critique human vanity, social pretensions, and the intricacies of love. Shakespeare’s fools, through humor, are licensed truth-tellers. The study, therefore, builds his characters are timeless and paradoxical in their contribution to dramatic structure and the wisdom of folly.