Crossword clues for malcontent
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
malcontent \mal"con*tent`\, a. [F., fr. mal ill + content. See Malice, Content.] discontented; uneasy; dissatisfied; especially, dissatisfied with the government. [Written also malecontent.]
The famous malcontent earl of Leicester.
--Milner.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Wiktionary
a. dissatisfied with current conditions; discontented n. a person who is not satisfied with current conditions; a discontented person
WordNet
adj. discontented as toward authority [syn: disaffected, ill-affected, rebellious]
n. a person who is discontented or disgusted
Wikipedia
The malcontent is a character type that often appeared in early modern drama. The character is discontent with the social structure and other characters in the play—and is often an outsider who observes and comments on the action, and may even acknowledge 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 that other characters in the play lack.
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 highly variable, as in the examples 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 the character is malcontent—unhappy, unsettled, displeased with the world of the play, eager to change it somehow, or to dispute with it. The malcontent is an objective or quasi-objective voice that comments on the play's concerns as though somehow above or beyond them. The concept has much to do with the Renaissance idea of 'humours' and a surfeit of 'black bile' which caused melancholy.
According to Callaghan (1989: 125), "Misogyny is part of the malcontent pathology, part of the alienation of those characters from whom we expect inventive against women by virtue of dramatic convention, whose misogynistic voice is privileged at the purely dramatic level to function as the enunciator of gender ideology". Furthermore, "The special position of the malcontent is produced by his intimate knowledge of the pragmatic world of everyday life and its language of common sense, which he uses to address the audience in a manner that establishes shared experience. This makes the role of the malcontent a complex one. Further, on the one hand, he functions as the medieval Vice the audience loves to hate, while on the other the interpellates some of their own fundamental social norms in a way which implicates them in his villainy" (ebd.).
Category:Shakespearean characters Category:Stock characters
A malcontent is an early modern dramatic character type.
Malcontent(s) may also refer to:
- The Malcontent, a stage play by John Marston c.1603
- Malcontents (France), a political faction active between 1574 and 1576, during the French Wars of Religion
- Malcontents (Low Countries), a political faction active between 1578 and 1579, during the Eighty Years' War
Usage examples of "malcontent".
For seventy years, defectors, malcontents, pirates, and pacifists had accreted around the refuge of our alien Queen.
Sira, had conspired with the malcontents to assert and anticipate the rights of primogeniture.
If our own government had not been in the pocket of Jew creditors and extortionists, and so fearful of the proletariat itself, which was forever whining, forever demanding, malcontents who despised the natural social order, then perhaps the world would have had a very different and glorious future.
The more Khan attempted to ensure the security of his domain, by showing zero tolerance for any subversive elements at work, be they religious fanatics, malcontented students, or disgruntled academics, the more bitter the opposition to his reign seemed to become.
But it is my balsamic advice, that rather than promulgate this matter, the two malcontents should abdicate, and that a precept should be placarded at this sederunt as if they were not here, but had resigned and evaded their places, precursive to the meeting.
The colonel, pursuing his advantage, marched to Muxadavad, the capital of the province, and was there joined by Ali Khan and the malcontents.
Nori, curt, without the usual flowery phrases, and addressed impudently, To the Leader of the Gai-jin, so he had translated it as best he could in the same fashion, interpolating it where necessary: The roju congratulates you and other gai-jin on your escape with your lives and little else from fires started by malcontents and revolutionaries.
Charentin from the Frondeurs, as the malcontents called themselves, and had carried out his threat of checking the flow of bread to the city.
Assured of this he harboured with the malcontents of Higo and Hizen, to take his part and perish some years later in the Amakusa uprising.
Odd behavior, he mentally observed, considering they were probably Malcontents and would be lobotomized within 24 hours.
Houses, conscripts from the barracks, malcontents out of the Moras district.
I have summoned you here to explain to you that, contrary to what has been suggested by certain rumormongers and malcontents, this is not the first time Romans have invaded the kingdom of Persia.
But as, since his treason to his accomplices, he had not found in all Scotland a noble who would have drawn the sword for him, he resolved to go and seek the Earl of Lennox, his father, hoping that through his influence he could rally the malcontents, of whom there were a great number since Bothwell had been in favour.
For seventy years, defectors, malcontents, pirates, and pacifists had accreted around the refuge of our alien Queen.
Not only were the outlying districts in a state of revolt, but even round Pretoria the Boers were inclined to take the offensive, while both that town and Johannesburg were filled with malcontents who were ready to fly to their arms once more.