Breaking Down the Bard - Asides

A couple of weeks ago, we covered the soliloquy, and what makes it different from a monologue (feel free to catch up here if you missed that post). Today, we're going to talk about another device that Shakespeare uses, the aside.

An aside is when a character onstage speaks to the audience or to one or more characters in the scene and is not heard by one or more other characters onstage. Anyone onstage who's not supposed to hear what's being said miraculously doesn't hear it! Shakespeare employs this device as a way for a character to comment on the action onstage, often with mockery or sarcasm. Like a soliloquy (which is basically a long aside), a character using an aside to break the fourth wall gets the opportunity to share more of themselves than the audience would otherwise see.

As we go through some examples, I want you to realize that Shakespeare doesn't write any stage direction indicating that this is an aside. Some modern editors will identify asides in printed editions, but this is often inconsistent, so it's a good idea to know how to find these (and play with them) on your own.

Here's a mocking aside, from Puck in Act III, Scene 1 of A Midsummer Night's Dream:

Bottom:

"Thisbe, the flowers of odious savors sweet" --

Quince:

Odorous, odorous.

Bottom:

-- "Odors savors sweet;

So hath thy breath, my dearest Thisbe dear.

But hark; a voice! Stay you but here a while,

And by and by I will to thee appear."

Exits 

Puck:

A stranger Pyramus than e'er played here.

Exits

Flute:

Must I speak now?

Puck totally disses Bottom's acting to the audience (who can see and hear him), but none of the other characters onstage react, and just carry on with their rehearsal. In Midsummer, none of the human characters see or knowingly interact with Puck, so he maintains his otherworldliness as a powerful spirit.

Asides are at the heart of this hilarious scene from Twelfth Night (Act  II, Scene 5), where Malvolio fantasizes about his boss' affections, not realizing he has an audience of his enemies eavesdropping:

Malvolio:

Tis but fortune, all is fortune. Maria once told me she did affect me, and I have heard herself come thus near, that should she fancy, it should be one of my complexion. Besides, she uses me with a more exalted respect than anyone else that follows her. What should I think on't?

Sir Toby:

Here's to an overweening rogue!

Fabian:

O, peace! Contemplation makes a rare turkey-cock of him. How he jets under his advanc'd plumes!

Sir Andrew:

'Slight, I could so beat the rogue!

Sir Toby:

Peace, I say!

Malvolio:

To be Count Malvolio!

From Malvolio's perspective, he is alone in the garden, so I think of his lines as a soliloquy with impeccably-timed pauses, where the other characters make their reactions. Sir Toby, Sir Andrew, Fabian (and perhaps Maria, depending on the production), hide and take turns reacting to Malvolio's antics and shushing each other.

At the beginning of Romeo & Juliet, the Capulets (Gregory and Samson) and Montagues (Abraham and Balthazar) are having a confrontation and consulting their kinsmen as they go:

Abraham:
Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?

Samson:
I do bite my thumb, sir.

Abraham:
Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?

Samson:
Is the law on our side if I say "ay?"

Gregory:
No.

Samson:

No, sir, I do not bite my thumb at you, sir,

but I bite my thumb, sir.

Samson and Gregory need a second to discuss things privately before continuing to push the Montagues' buttons, so they take it. It also shows the audience that there are rules in this society that can and cannot be broken, and that some people, aka Samson, are afraid of the consequences.

This scene from Measure for Measure is FULL of asides: Lucio joins Isabella for moral support (and a little bit of coaching) as she pleads to Angelo to spare her condemned brother's life. 

Isabella:

We cannot weigh our brother with ourself.

Great men may jest with saints; 'tis wit in them,

But in the less foul profanation.

Lucio:

Thou'rt i' th' right, girl, more o' that.

Isabella:

That in the captain's but a choleric word,

Which in the soldier is flat blasphemy.

Lucio:

Art avis'd o' that? More on't.

Angelo:

Why do you put these sayings upon me?

Isabella:

Because authority, though it err like others,

Hath yet a kind of medicine in itself,

That skins the vice o' th' top. Go to your bosom,

Knock there, and ask your heart what it doth know

That's like my brother's fault. If it confess

A natural guiltiness such as is his,

Let it not sound a thought upon your tongue

Against my brother's life.

Angelo:

                  She speaks, and 'tis

Such sense that my sense breeds with it. --

Fare you well. 

In this short piece of Act II, Scene 2, we have Lucio cheering on Isabella (probably without Angelo hearing, because Angelo doesn't address Lucio or tell him to shut up), and Angelo taking a quick time out to let us know that Isabella might be persuading him.

Asides in Shakespeare are hidden gems for you to discover, and they give you opportunities for comedy or to create a relationship with the audience, so make sure you give them their due!

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