Re:TheAshLad - Sandbooks

utdeath. It is. only by paying the price of a failure to live a failureto
take pleasure a. failure to die that man is assured of survival.Punch's
women performers. Bearing in d that Mr Punch is a folkherorogue
scoundrel trickster of. the opposite sex from ourselveswhy are we so
keen to portray his story. And what might the womenProfessors add to
the drama of the traditionThe. traditional Punch and Judy show presents
Punch as the simpletonhero who. successfully outwits various
characters representing hisoppressions in. order to gain his freedom.
This 'clever fool' type isoften portrayed as a. male antihero in folklore
(Jack TilEulenspiegel Clever Hans Monkey. Anansi and Brer Rabbit
are someexamples). Somehow he always manages to achieve. through
his stupiditywhat others fail to achieve by concentrated effort.. Punch is
acombination of the fool and trickster. His characteristics are.
acollection of the archetypal shadow masculine traits those which
aresocially. deemed to be undesirable cowardice lewdness
rudenessstupidity. fickleness irresponsibility selfishness greed................
and. violence or cunningMr Punch the trickster carnival fool king of
anarchy is. an absurdmasculine archetype of those aspects of the human
psyche that want. toturn the world upside down and create chaos. His
gross appearancethe. bulbous hooked red nose and the phallic 'hump'
on his backcomically. reinforce his male sexuality along with the big
redslapstick which he. wields as the answer to all his troubles.
Hischaracter and appearance. have their roots in the ancient
ritualdramas celebrating birth. death resurrection conflict andfertility. In
our 'civilised'. hierarchical bureaucratic andpatriarchal society Mr
Punch has evolved. and survived through thecenturies as our national
'Lord of Misrule.'Punch men. often portray Judy as a wonderfully
fussy bossy pantomimedame type with a. high falsetto voice. (Note that
this makes thecharacter a parody of the. male's fantasy of
woman).When knocked down she bobs up again several times in.
comic protestalways with one more thing to say. Sometimes her final.
utterance isalmost orgasmic in nature so that the mock puppet death we.
arewitnessing might more closely resemble 'le petit mort' rather
thanactual. mortality.When she returns to discover that Mr Punch has
inadvertently (in. true'ignorant simpleton' style) made the baby into
sausages she is as anywoman. would be at first distraught and then
angry. However havingfully expressed. her grief and given Mr Punch a
piece of her d shequickly moves into. acceptance and realises this is her
opportunityfor freedom Well now Mr. Punch You made the baby
sausages so youcan look after the baby sausages. That's fair I'm going
930