Malcontent

Malcontent

The Malcontent is a character type often used in early modern drama. The character is discontent with the social structure and other characters in the play. He or she is often an outsider, who observes and offers commentary on the action and may even show awareness that they are in a play. Shakespeare's Richard III and Iago in Othello are typical malcontents.

The role is usually both political and dramatic; with the malcontent voicing dissatisfaction with the usually 'Machiavellian' political atmosphere and often using asides to build up a kind of self-consciousness and awareness of the text itself which other characters in the play will lack to the same extent.

Important malcontents include Bosola in Webster's The Duchess of Malfi, Vindice in Middleton's The Revenger's Tragedy, Malevole in Marston's The Malcontent, and Hamlet in Shakespeare's Hamlet.

The morality and sympathy of the malcontent is a massive variable, as we can see in the examples listed above. Sometimes, as in Hamlet and The Malcontent, they are the sympathetic centre of the play, whereas Iago is a very unsympathetic character.

The most important thing about the malcontent, is that he is malcontent—unhappy, unsettled, displeased with the world as he sees it—not at ease with the world of the play in which he finds himself, eager to change it somehow, or to dispute with it. He is an objective or quasi-objective voice that comments on the concerns of the play and comments as though he is somehow above or beyond them.

The concept has a lot to do with the Renaissance idea of 'humours' and a surfeit of 'black bile' which caused melancholy.

This can be related with Don John the bastard in 'Much Ado About Nothing.'

The word itself is named after Niccolò Machiavelli, His piece "The Prince" has the first Malcontent


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать реферат
Synonyms:

Look at other dictionaries:

  • malcontent — ⇒MALCONTENT, ENTE, adj. Vieilli ou littér. A. [P. oppos. à mécontent] Qui n est pas aussi satisfait qu il pourrait l être; morose. Le caractère variable, non pas mécontent, mais malcontent du comte (BALZAC, Lys, 1836, p. 64). B. Synon. de… …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • malcontent — malcontent, ente (mal kon tan, tan t ) adj. 1°   Qui n est pas content. •   Le galant [le renard] aussitôt Tire ses grègues, gagne au haut, Malcontent de son stratagème, LA FONT. Fabl. II, 15. •   Afin que personne ne soit malcontent, PASC. Prov …   Dictionnaire de la Langue Française d'Émile Littré

  • malcontent — mal con*tent , a. [F., fr. mal ill + content. See {Malice}, {Content}.] discontented; uneasy; dissatisfied; especially, dissatisfied with the government. [Written also {malecontent}.] [1913 Webster] The famous malcontent earl of Leicester. Milner …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Malcontent — Mal con*tent , n. [F. malcontent.] One who discontented; especially, a discontented subject of a government; one who expresses his discontent by words or overt acts. Spenser. Berkeley. [1913 Webster] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • malcontent — 1580s, noun and adjective, from Fr. malcontent; see MAL (Cf. mal ) + CONTENT (Cf. content) (adj.). Related: Malcontented; malcontentedly; malcontentedness …   Etymology dictionary

  • malcontent — Malcontent, cerchez Content. Estre malcontent de quelque chose, Pati aegre, Il s escrit le plus souvent en deux mots, Mal content …   Thresor de la langue françoyse

  • Malcontent — (franz., spr. mallkongtāng), unzufrieden, mißvergnügt; vgl. Malkontenten …   Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon

  • malcontent — I noun agitator, anarchist, ardent champion of change, brawler, caviler, censurer, complainant, complainer, critic, crusader, demonstrator, detractor, diehard, disputer, dissenter, dissentient, dissident, extremist, fanatic, faultfinder, fighter …   Law dictionary

  • malcontent — MALCONTÉNT adj., s. v. contestatar, protestatar. Trimis de siveco, 04.03.2009. Sursa: Sinonime …   Dicționar Român

  • malcontent — [adj] dissatisfied belly aching, complaining, discontented, disgruntled, unhappy, unsatisfied; concept 403 …   New thesaurus

  • malcontent — ► NOUN ▪ a discontented person …   English terms dictionary

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”