How Is Comedy Used In A Midsummer Night's Dream A Comedy

One of William Shakespeare’s best remembered plays for its comical and ironic tone is A Midnight’s Summer Dream. There were characters designed to be humorous and that alone. Puck and Bottom behave very much alike, and have similar roles for different people. Both Puck and Bottom are comic relief characters in one way or the other. Both of them are needed for the play, because Puck’s spirits controls the whole story, which sets the tone for it, and Bottoms comic relief for the audience and play.

There is no doubt that Shakespeare was the author of great pieces of literature during an interesting time period. Given the circumstances, he was indeed mastering his craft during a very tumultuous juncture in British history. When one reads Richard III, they don’t necessarily have to know a great deal about the War of Roses to understand that there is some serious strife going on. However, if the reader takes some time to understand this fascinating string of events, the story of Richard and his fall becomes much more interesting. In all of his brilliance, Shakespeare manages to toy with the idea of humor in this very morose play. As a matter of fact, he does this in many, if not all of his tragedies.

William Shakespeare wrote the play A Midsummer's Night’s Dream over four hundred years ago. There are three types of irony, dramatic irony, verbal irony, and situational irony. Verbal irony is is when the speaker says the opposite of what they mean. Dramatic irony is when the audience knows more than the character. And situational irony is the opposite of what you think is going to happen happens.

Everyday we see, hear, or even say ironic things and we don’t even know about it. Now if we are around ironic things all the time,then what is irony? Well, there are three different types of irony. There is verbal, situational, and dramatic irony. Now what’s the difference between these types of irony? Well, verbal irony is when someone says something, but means the opposite. Dramatic irony is when is when you’re watching a movie or a play and you know something that a character in the play or movie doesn’t know. Finally, situational irony is when something happens that you didn’t expect to happen. In the play/movie A Midsummer Night’s Dream, there are many examples of irony.

The scene is filled with bawdy references and second meanings, meanings which the audience would undoubtedly find uproarously funny. Hal, too, often speaks this language of the lower classes, especially when chiding Falstaff: "These lies are like the father that begets them--gross as a mountain, open, palpable. Why, thou clay-brained guts, thou knotty-pated fool, thou whoreson obscene greasy tallow-catch--" (I Henry IV, II. iv. 224-227). The language Shakespeare uses in the tavern scenes is certainly different from the more solemn and courtly language found in the plays' more dramatic moments, as in Hal's gallantry towards Hotspur upon the latter's death:

In the comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the plethora of comedic styles used by Shakespeare illustrate his intention to poke fun at love throughout the play. The play is notorious for its intricate and irrational plotline, mainly due to the constantly shifting love triangles. Once the powerful fairies become involved with the fate of the naive lovers – Demetrius, Helena, Lysander and Hermia – matters are further complicated. The complication inflicted by the fairies is credited to the powerful love potion that Oberon, King of the Fairies, hands over to Puck, a mischievous fairy, to use on his wife Titania, with intentions to embarrass and distract her. This spiteful attitude is due to Oberon and Titania’s argument over the custody of an

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,

In his comedic play, A Midsummers Night Dream (1595), William Shakespeare utilizes the enchanting adventures of young Athenian lovers and a group of low-class rudimentary actors and their shared experiences with supernatural creatures to portray the opportunity of being in command of their destiny. By presenting conflicts to these three diverse realms, Shakespeare allows these characters to connect despite their hierarchical distinctions to reveal their determination to conquer their adversity. He uses dramatic irony, metaphor, and symbolism to heighten the audience's awareness of their self-determination and their firm control on their future. Shakespeare inspires the public by instilling in them that despite their challenging circumstances, they can still be masters of their own fate, bestowing a feeling of newfound hope and freewill.

Shakespeare’s usage of metaphor and simile in A Midsummer Night’s Dream is best understood as an attempt to provide some useful context for relationships and emotions, most often love and friendship, or the lack thereof. One example of such a usage is in Act 3, Scene 2 of the play. Here, the two Athenian couples wake up in the forest and fall under the effects of the flower, thus confusing the romantic relationships between them. Hermia comes to find her Lysander has fallen for Helena. Hermia suspects that the two have both conspired against her in some cruel joke, and begins lashing out against Helena. She says “We, Hermia, like two artificial gods, / Have with our needles created both one flower, / Both one sampler sitting on one cushion, / Both warbling of one song, both in one key; / As if our hands, our sides, voices, and minds, / Had been incorporate. So we grew together, / Like a double cherry, seeming parted; / But yet a union in partition / Two lovely berries moulded on one stem: / So, with two seeming bodies, but one heart; / Two of the first, like coats in heraldry, / Due but to one, and crowned with one crest.” (Shakespeare 2.3.206-13). Shakespeare writes this list of vibrant metaphors to establish the prior relationship between these two characters and to make it evident how affected Helena is by this unexpected turn of events, as well as to add a greater range of emotion to the comedy, thereby lending it more literary and popular appeal.

Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a play that utilises comedy to convey complex ideas that are seen throughout the play, concepts like the jealousy Helena has towards Hermia, Egeus’s strong hostility towards Hermia and Lysander’s relationship and unrequited love. He uses comical tools like unconscious irony and hyperbole to turn rather difficult topics into humorous representations of them. Events like how Puck thinks Titania had fallen in love with him, not knowing he was bearing the head of an ass, are portrayed in a humorous way so the viewer understands the meaning, but sees it as a light- hearted narrative. Shakespeare carefully uses comedy that does not overpower the meaning of the play, but puts a completely different perspective on some of the themes.

The rise of tension between characters is another characteristic of comedic plays. After Oberon sees the way that Helena has been treated by Demetrius, he orders Puck to apply the juice to the eyes of Demetrius. Puck accidentally applies the juice to Lysander’s eye, which causes him to fall in love with Helena. After the mistake had been caught, Oberon sends Puck to watch Helena and Oberon applies the juice to Demetrius’ eyes. This causes both men to fall for Helena and now the battle is for Helena and not Hermia. Helena is convinced that this is a joke or prank because neither of the two men loved her before. Now because of Puck’s mistakes the four decide to find a

Both William Shakespeare and Anton Chekhov use comedic relief in their plays, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “The Bear, A Joke” respectively. Chekhov’s ‘The Bear, A Joke” strategicly uses comedy in the timing of the play. Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” uses comedy to display irony in the play.

The first instance occurs after they have been ordered to find Hamlet, now a convicted murderer. They, understandably scared, attempt to find him but after much wandering and procrastination arrive in exactly the same place they started. A fitting punch line to the visual joke is Guildenstern’s comment “Well, at last we’re getting somewhere”. The second example transpires immediately afterwards when they construct a ‘trap’ for Hamlet (two belts held taunt before an entranceway) he evades this by simply walking around it and the two men enhance their folly by saying “there’s a limit to what two people can do”. The farcical quality of this piece of action is mirrored later on in Act III when the Player and his troupe appear on the boat. Ros and Guil are alerted to their presence by the now familiar pipe music and Rosencrantz is startled that the music it is coming from three barrels on stage. As soon as the music stops the lid of the middle barrel flies open and the Player’s head pops out. He climbs out, followed by his entire company and their instruments. This stage direction is extremely effective and droll and brings an interesting edge to the use of space.

Shakespearean plays are often known for their outstanding entertainment and classic comic conflict. In his masterwork, Hamlet, Shakespeare uses these aspects to serve his thematic purpose. He has used comedy throughout many of his historic plays, but in this play, comedy is the drawing point that makes it fun and entertaining, yet clear and intuitive. Generally, his tragedies are not seen as comical, but in reality, they are full of humor. However, these comic elements don’t simply serve to relieve tension; they have much significance to the play itself. The characters of Hamlet, Polonius, Osric, and the Gravediggers, prove to be very influential characters, and throughout the play, they are the individuals that

A literary comedy is defined as a story with the themes of a new society, overcoming the old society, marriage or rebirth, and criticism in the form of irony or satire. It usually includes couples who cannot get married because they are blocked by multiple problems. Moreover, A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Williams Shakespeare a classic example of a literary comedy it is about two couples who cannot be together. One of these couples is Hermia and Lysander, who are forbidden to marry while, the other couple Helena and Demetrius has one-sided love as Demetrius does not love Helena. It displays how old society does not want Hermia and Lysander to get married as the old society does not marry for love but, for beneficial reasons. It also displays marriage as in the end the resolution was a joint marriage. Making it a great example to compare it to other stories like “The Horse Dealer’s Daughter” by D. H. Lawrence which could be interpreted as many different genres. “The Horse Dealer’s Daughter” is about the life of the Pervin family whom live in poverty as their father’s business went bankrupt and mother has died so the Pervin siblings have to find new lives as they pay off their father’s debt. The story is specifically about Mabel Pervin as she finds out she is in love with Jack Fergusson, but there are many images that suggest that the story is not quite romance. By comparing the play to the story the reader might