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How Does Shakespeare Create Humour In A Midsummer Night's Dream

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Humour is a literary tool used for the entertainment of audiences and amusement. Shakespeare’s, A Midsummer Night’s Dream utilises a multi formed humour to show many aspects such as the foolishness of the mechanicals, the clash of the fairy realm vs. human world and the romance of the lovers. Through an array of dramatic and literary techniques, Shakespeare creates a play with elaborate humour that is still understood by audiences of today. The Idiocy of the Mechanicals is used to create humour in Midsummer through literary and dramatic techniques. As the Mechanicals are gathered and are discussing their roles in the play Bottom says “You were best to call them generally, man by man...”, oxymoron is used to show Bottom/Mechanicals as foolish …show more content…

One of the first incidences between the fairy vs. human world is when Puck mistakenly places the love potion in Lysander's eyes by accident because of the order from Oberon “Thou shalt know the man by Athenian garments he hath on” this vague instruction which uses dramatic irony is humorous as we know that there are two men in Athenian garments which later on results in mistaken identity. It is when Bottom's head has been turned into a donkey Titania says “Mine ear much enamoured of thy note” the incongruity in this statement is humorous as we know that Titania is only saying this because she is under a love potion and that it is unlikely that she would fall in love with a donkey-headed man. Later in the play Titania and the fairies lavish Bottom she says “Come sit down, while I kiss those fair large ears” this use a foolish oxymoron as we still know that she is under a love potion and says that he has normal and large ears at the same time which is contradictory and comedic. Overall through the use of techniques like dramatic irony, oxymoron and incongruity humour is developed to show the contrast of the fairy realm and the human

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