Maxims Violation as the Construction of Humor in William Shakespeare’s the Comedy of Errors

Abstract

This study aims to analyze maxim violations in William Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors as a linguistic construction of humor in the characters’ dialogues. The analysis is based on H. P. Grice’s (1975) Cooperative Principle and its conversational maxims, which include the maxims of quantity, quality, relation, and manner. This research employs a qualitative descriptive method, with the primary data taken from the digital script of the play published by the Folger Shakespeare Library. The findings reveal a total of 50 maxim violations throughout the drama. The maxim of relation constitutes the highest frequency with 16 occurrences (32%), followed by the maxim of manner with 13 occurrences (26%), the maxim of quantity with 11 occurrences (22%), and the maxim of quality with 10 occurrences (20%). The dominance of relation violations indicates that humor in the play is predominantly constructed through responses that are irrelevant to the context, resulting in misunderstandings among the characters. These misunderstandings serve as a major comedic element and reinforce the theme of mistaken identity. Overall, the study concludes that Shakespeare intentionally employs maxim violations as a linguistic strategy to enhance humor and dramatic irony in The Comedy of Errors