Midsummer Night's Dream Insult Comedy

Portraying Insults Through Plays William Shakespeare, an English playwright and poet, wrote the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 1595. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a play of four lovers who were entangled in a flower potion that caused the “victim” to fall in love with the first thing they saw after they awakened. By the final scene of the play, the lovers are reunited with their original partners, thus creating a joyous ending for all. Throughout this work of Shakespeare’s, multiple elements of comedy are evident. A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare portrays insult comedy in various areas.
Shakespeare’s play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream,exhibits both humor and Shakespearean comedy. Insult comedy can be defined as the use of insults-often one-liners- at the expense of another character to create comedy. The purpose of insult is to gain a comedic reaction from an audience, as it has become more and more popular over time. Insult is classified as a “haha” comedy due to the fact that it is not a normal way to speak to someone and it also gets the audience to react.
The first example of insult comedy being incorporated into this play is when Lysander and Demetrius are feuding over Hermia’s love, and Lysander says to Demetrius, “You have her father’s love, Demetrius;/Let me have Hermia’s: do you marry him.” (1.1.94-95).
In this quote, Lysander is implying that Demetrius already has Hermia’s father’s blessing so he should just marry him instead of Hermia. Shakespeare most likely incorporated this element of comedy at this particular scene because he wanted to express the feud between Lysander and Demetrius as well as show the jealousy over Hermia. The comment made by Lysander indicates that he is a more serious character and has strong protection or desire over
Hermia. An insult is also present when Helena will not stop following Demetrius around and so he says to her, “Tempt not too much the hatred of my spirit;/for I am sick when I do look on thee” (2.1.215-216). To translate the comment, Demetrius is telling Helena that looking at her makes him ill, as his hatred for her is drastic. The purpose of Demetrius’s comment was to show his own hatred and annoyance for Helena, which shows that his character has more of a disrespectful attitude towards women. Comedy is shown through this insult because while Helena was acting as a lost puppy towards him, he was uninterested and wished she would leave him alone. This insult was incorporated into the play to not only show the two characters’ feelings towards each other, but also to show how much would change in the near future of the play.
When Lysander wakes up with the juice on his eyes, he is now in love with Helena instead of Hermia, which causes a feud between the two women. Hermia proclaims to Helena, “O me! You juggler! You canker-blossom!” (3.2.291). These insults are saying how Helena is a fraud who destroyed her and Lysander’s love. These comments are insulting due to the fact that Hermia was under assumption that Helena had taken her lover from her. These insults are comedic due to the fact that accusing an individual of something or expressing anger through name-calling is a popular way to earn chuckles from a crowd. Insult was incorporated into this specific scene to show the tension and jealousy between the two women. Character and plot are connected to this insult because they not only represent Hermia’s dedication towards Lysander but it also ties together the after effects of the flower potion.