How Does Shakespeare Use Humor In A Midsummer Night's Dream

Bottom is the first fool or idiot to appear in the play. His first appearance is in Act I, scene ii, when the mechanicals got together. He is part of the groups called mechanicals, who are basically tradesmen who planned to put on a play for the

Of course, no Shakespeare play would be complete without the use of puns. Shakespeare uses this type of humor as a witty way to keep the dialogue fresh and flowing. The reader gets a taste of these funny little bits as early as the first act and first scene, when Brakenbury starts, “With this, my lord, myself have naught to

    It is not unusual that the fool should be a prominent figure and make an important contribution in forming the confusion and the humor in an Elizabethan drama. In William Shakespeare's comedy, Twelfth Night, Feste the clown is not the only fool who is subject to foolery. He and many other characters combine their silly acts and wits to invade other characters that either escape reality or live a dream. In Twelfth Night, Feste, Maria and Sir Toby are the fools that make the comedy work in many senses.

Fairies, mortals, magic, love, and hate all intertwine to make A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare a very enchanting tale, that takes the reader on a truly dream-like adventure. The action takes place in Athens, Greece in ancient times, but has the atmosphere of a land of fantasy and illusion which could be anywhere. The mischievousness and the emotions exhibited by characters in the play, along with their attempts to double-cross destiny, not only make the tale entertaining, but also help solidify one of the play’s major themes; that true love and it’s cleverly disguised counterparts can drive beings to do seemingly irrational things.

Helena puts forth the evocative themes of “hate” and “mock[ery],” clearly exhibiting that she feels quite a lot of emotion towards the way that Lysander and Demetrius are acting. Helena’s evidently very low self-esteem causes her to believe that Demetrius and Lysander are “joining in souls” or teaming up on her to make fun of her, when they are contrarily being quite affectionate. This clearly exemplifies how dramatic irony, a common theme throughout the play, can actually intend to teach the lesson that love is very complex and quite magical, conveyed by the fairies. Similarly to Helena, Bottom, a farcical member of the mechanicals that gets comeuppance for his high self-esteem by being turned into an ass by Puck, is also unaware of the reality of his situation. When Bottom comes to the realization that he has undergone some sort of change, he is still completely uninformed about his true state of being, but yet the audience knows exactly what has occurred. Bottom infers, “This is to make an ass of me” (3.1.99). It is very ironic that Bottom thinks they are “mak[ing] an ass of [him],” when in reality he has literally been transformed into an ass. This random, confusing aspect of the play symbolizes the randomness and complexity of love. Additionally, later in the scene, Titania admires Bottom’s appearance, demonstrating the blindness of love. Shakespeare evidently utilizes the comedic device of

What is a comedy? According to a famous filmmaker, Woody Allen, thinks “Comedy is rather like a dessert, a bit like meringue.” A Midsummer Night’s Dream - a play written by William Shakespeare, is a comedy which talks about a love story between four lovers that live in Athens. Demetrius, Lysander, Hermia and Helena are all fighting for each other. The play “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” written by Shakespeare, consisted of a lot of humorous situations, for example: When Titania fell in love with Bottom who had an ass; when Lysander suddenly fell in love with Helena, when Demetrius suddenly fell in love with Hermia. This essay is considered as a comedy, as it consists of exaggeration, irony, funny characters,

“Beware of your stereotypes and prejudices, they can trap you in a box and make you miss what life has to offer you”─Med Yones. One has to see past the stereotypes in life, just as one should do for A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare. This literature masterpiece entails a quarrel of a pair of lovers caught entangled in a treacherous web of tainted love and magic. This comedy, viewed through the archetypal literary criticism lens─which focuses on the stereotypical aspects─, makes the audience wonder and push beyond the boundaries of the stereotypes with the tale. Combined with its other elements, A Midsummer Night's Dream is more entertaining and meaningful when viewed through the archetypal literary criticism lens; such as in Act 1: scene 1; Act 3: scene 2; and Act 5: scene 1 in both the printed text and the 1999 film versions.

by the Athenian garment, he had on?” The use of dramatic irony here is effective because it creates comic relief thus helping both characters amuse the whole audience. Puck is known for his notorious pranks and skits constantly making it harder for everyone else in the play. On that note, Bottom (unconsciously) makes the audience laugh as he too makes it harder for everyone else, with his arrogance and stubbornness. In addition, Puck and Bottom both have many things in common including their similar lines of comedy, constantly making life harder for others and both being arrogant at

An early interaction between the wealthy noble Olivia and her hired fool mocks the hierarchal stereotypes and provides an example of Shakespeare's ironic commentary on the social class distinction. In this scene, Olivia, mourning her brother's death, is angry with Feste, her fool, for his unexcused absence. Feste responds to this anger with wit and proceeds to disprove the stereotypes surrounding his title. As a fool, Feste is expected to embody his title and possess little wit. However, as he and Olivia continue to argue, he uses his wit to flip this cliche, proving her to be the true fool. Olivia exits this scene in higher spirits, due to Feste’s comedy, rather than Feste exiting in a body bag, as most would have expected. Shakespeare uses Feste’s humor and diction in this scene to develop not only the characters but provides more insight on the social class distinctions present in the play.

After he came back from the fairy world, where he was an ass, he could not explain his experience in words but thought it was all a fantastical dream. In Bottom’s dream speech he says, “Man is but an ass if he go about to expound this dream. Methought I was—there is no man can tell what.” (Mid. 4. 1. 220-225). He being at a loss for words is not like Bottom’s character. He is eager to talk and do all things in his power to be the center attention be it every character in the play within the play. He has to think rather than not because of his unspeakable experience with Titania, the Fairy Queen. His visit in the fairy world brought him many pleasantries as he was pampered by the bewitched Titania and her aids hand and foot. If not for Robin Goodfellow, also known as Puck, removing the asses head Bottom would have still been

“Then you are mad indeed, if you be no better in your wits than a

William Shakespeare is the author of the comedy play ‘A Midsummer Nights Dream’. This play was written around 1595. In this essay I will be answering the question how does Shakespeare creates humour in act 5 scene 1. There are many reasons as to how the play was humorous; one of the main reasons was the staging you would have the real audience, the court on the stage and on the original stage you would have the mechanicals perform. The other reasons on how Shakespeare creates humour are with the characters (fairies, court and mechanicals) and the repetitive incorrect use of language and errors. An example of this could be when in act 5 scene 1

Finally, the Fool provides humor. First, the "nothing" jokes in 1.4 provide much humor. In addition, the Fool's songs are humorous and informative. Moreover, one can find humor in the way the Fool treats the King. When the Fool disappears in 3.6, most of the humor of the play dies with him.

In the play King Lear by William Shakespeare, the Fool is introduced as an lower-class character as he acts carefree and speaks in riddles. However, the Fool’s role in the play is not as plain and simple as it seems. Considering the Fool’s excellent relationship to Lear, he plays a significant role in supporting Lear’s sanity, thus he has the time to figure out the truths. The Fool takes on the important role of sustaining Lear’s sanity by staying loyal to Lear, providing comic relief to Lear, and teaching Lear of his faults.

In Elizabethan times, fools were used as entertainment in royal courts, with a specific role to entertain the king. However, in “King Lear”, the fool plays a much more significant role than comedic relief, as he, ironically, is able to provide insight into human nature and draw correlations between the play and everyday life. This is most evident when he talks to King Lear about what he has done wrong or what he has overlooked.