Preview

A Midsummer Night's Dream: Comedy Essay Example

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
658 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
A Midsummer Night's Dream: Comedy Essay Example
A Midsummer Night's Dream Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream is a comedy that is full of mischief. Instead of having a main plot, it seems to be about random thoughts and emotions (much the same as dreams are). In fact, I have to wonder how much of the whole play is really supposed to be a dream – as Puck even suggests toward the end of the play.

There is no real protagonist to latch onto in this play, probably because there are three main groups of characters, but many people will find Puck to be the most interesting character. The whole play is based around Puck's antics, and he seems to be the play's main fool. In addition, it is he who sends everyone on hard (but funny) adventures. Puck is a fool in the true sense of the word during the time of this play - someone that entertains for his master. It was Puck's job in this play to entertain the fairy king Oberon. I picture Puck as wearing a funny hat and pointed toe shoes.

Another fool in this play would be Nick Bottom, but he is a fool in the present-day sense of the word. Bottom is not the type of fool who entertains his master. He is a fool because he allows his own idiocy and ego to stop him from accomplishing his goals, and he is totally unaware of how ridiculous he looks. Nick Bottom always thinks he is the best at everything. Even when Puck gave Bottom the head of a donkey, it didn't change his inflated opinion of himself.

This play begins when the duke of Athens (Theseus) is preparing for his marriage to the queen of the Amazons (Hippolyta). He is planning a four-day celebration for the occasion. As time goes on, there are so many twists and turns in the play that it is sometimes hard to keep things sorted out.

In one part of the play, Puck is sent to find a magical flower that is thought to contain a love potion. The juice of this flower can be spread over a sleeping person's eyelids to make that person fall in love with the first thing he or she sees when

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Shakespeare’s most popular play, A Midsummer Night’s dream, is a romantic comedy that features young lovers that fall deeply in and out of love in a brief period of time. This play is unique because it demonstrates tragedy and comedy at the same time. The comedy not only provides amusement and laughter but also helps ease tension between characters. In the play, A “Midsummer Night’s Dream”, William Shakespeare produces a comedy through foolish characters and mistaken identities.…

    • 569 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    AMSND Study Guide

    • 1616 Words
    • 7 Pages

    In the forest, the fairy Puck accidently puts the love potion on Lysnader’s eyes instead of Demetrius’s resulting in Lysander falling in love with Helena. As the night goes on, Lysander and Demetrius both fall in love with Helena, who thinks that they are mocking her, and Hermia challenging Helena to a fight. In the end Puck fixes his mistake, Lysander once again loves Hermia and Demetrius falls for Helena. The two couples marry and go to watch the play.…

    • 1616 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    A Midsummer Night's Dream is one of Shakespeare's most popular and frequently performed comical plays (Berardinelli). The play transformed into a cinematic production by Michael Hoffman has not changed in its basic plot and dialogue, but the setting and some character traits have. The play setting has been gracefully moved from 16th century Greece to 19th century Tuscany (Berardinelli). The addition of bicycles to the play affects the characters in that they no longer have to chase each other around the woods, but can take chase in a more efficient fashion. As far as characters are concerned, Demetrius is no longer the smug and somewhat rude character we find in act 1, scene 1 (Shakespeare pg. 6, line 91), but rather a seemingly indifferent gentleman placed in an unfortunate circumstance set to delay his wedding to Hermia. Perhaps the most noticeable change in the character set from stage to film occurs in the characters of Puck and Nick Bottom.…

    • 1464 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Comedy in A Midsummer Night's Dream is confined to the conservative oppression of women and contrived by the ironic licensed anarchist figure of Puck which while delights us with donkey kisses and lovers' mishaps, are neatly portioned within a common structure of society, agreeing with the hypothesis. The play is driven by a logical rhythm of conflict to harmony and its comedy remains in the temporary middle state of the 'Green World' preventing chaos from ensuing outside of these boundaries and therefore conserving it to rules and regulations. However, Shakespeare also utilises this simple structure in order for the audience to doubt its seemingly seamless ending as its accessibility allows us to question the events and attitudes of the play, using comedy as a tool to provoke radical thought. The irrational forest trope and lower class fool stereotype appear to be unsurprising but these conservative ideas are extended in giving them crucial roles in the unfolding of events and showing truth between the hypocrisy of others, rather than continuing the trope and just merely being a simple comedic release for the audience. Therefore, comedy's universality allows Shakespeare to convey profound ideas effectively, using the topsy-turvy world to provoke questions in the audience, making 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' truly radical.…

    • 1483 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Helena says that love is blind, and this foreshadows the actions that Titania and Egeus make when the interests of loved ones are in mind. First, when they argue about the Indian boy, Titania tells Oberon, “Set your heart at rest/ The Fairyland buys not the child of me”(2.1.121b-122). Titania is blinded to the disasters caused by the fight between her and Oberon because of the Indian boy she will not give up and has begun to love. Lastly, while Theseus and Egeus talk about Hermia’s marriage, Egeus says, “As she is mine, I may dispose of her/ which shall be either to this gentleman or to her death”(1.1.42-44). This quote shows that Egeus is blinded by his pride and what he thinks is right. He cannot see…

    • 234 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Numerous scholars who examine and analyze the comedy of A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare point to Puck as the most significant character in the play. Although Shakespeare masks Puck’s important role in the comedy by hiding him amongst the more powerful characters, it becomes apparent that Puck’s mischievous attitude and knack for creating chaos are what moves the play along without a designated climax (“The Comedies: ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream”). Puck is first introduced in “Act II Scene I” when a fairy notions Puck’s infamy by inquiring to him, “Either I mistake your shape and making quite, Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite called Robin Goodfellow” (II. i. 33-35). The fact that Puck is especially known for his ability to morph order to disorder, and likewise, foreshadows the idea of Puck playing an important role in the inevitable chaos and subsequent order between both the mortals and the fairies. Puck, the “shrewd and knavish” fairy assistant to Oberon, plays and undeniably important part in the constant battle between order and disorder in A Midsummer Night’s Dream through his intentional antics, comedic mistakes, and convoluted relationship with both fairies and mortals.…

    • 710 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Helena has a thing for Demetrius but he doesn’t feel the same way. Since Oberon is already trying to solve a problem with his wife he decides to try and help fix this one using a magic love flower. It has a couple of trails and errors but it all works out in the end. However at the end it is revealed by the character Robin Goodfellow that the entire play was a dream.…

    • 694 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    A Midsummer Night’s Dream was published by William Shakespeare in 1600 and it is still being read today. Shakespeare has a way with his humor where his jokes still seem to make sense and make us laugh today. The jokes that Shakespeare uses, not many people can understand, I think it is better when the audience sees those jokes played out in the movie because it adds to the humor and understanding of the play in the movie. In 1999, Michael Hoffman directed one of many of the cinematic adaptation of this play also called “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. Comparatively, Hoffman rewrote the Shakespeare play into a modern context where it was still the same play but in more of a 20th century setting. Watching “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” from the movie’s point of view and not just the play can help the audience get more of a clear picture of the things that did not make sense in the play before.…

    • 919 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    As Lysander says, "The course of true love never did run smooth." Love in A Midsummer Night's Dream is portrayed as complicated and difficult, yet Shakespeare does it in a way that is humorous and lighthearted. In this play love often brings out the worst in people, yet in the end it's what brings everyone back together. Love has the ability to spellbind people as Shakespeare represents symbolically through Puck's actions, and we see how intensely complicated it can be when it nearly tears apart Hermia's family and causes argument between the four main human characters. The four types of love, forced love, parental love, romantic love and complicated love permeate all aspects of life in this play and we see the awesome power it has over human emotion, psychology, and behavior.…

    • 863 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Manipulation Of Love And

    • 971 Words
    • 3 Pages

    A Midsummer Night's Dream is a tale involving the manipulation of love and the way love works itself out between various sets of people. It tells the story of characters that encounter chaotic situations of real love and also love that was controlled for the benefit of others. The characters caught up in the "love scandal"� are Oberon, Titania, Demetrius, Lysander, Hermia, and Helena. All these characters were involved in the different triangles of love presented in the story. The main theme in A Midsummer Nights Dream is the manipulation of love and how occasionally it takes time get the path of love on the right track.…

    • 971 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    What if you were tricked into no longer loving your true love. In Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare a shakespearean comedy, Puck is a fairy who’s profession is serving Oberon the king of the fairies. Puck also is a known jokester who always is getting himself in trouble. He is also a very static character throughout the play. Puck is a three dimensional and complex character because of his difference in traits from mischievous to loyalty to compassion.…

    • 532 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    An earlier play entitled, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, by William Shakespeare, is a comedy outlining the destinies of two bothered couples. Shakespeare tactically demonstrates the love of two Athens individuals, Lysander and Hermia. The conflict is, Hermia’s father is against the marriage of the two and insists upon marriage with a man named Demetrius. However, the already complicated situation becomes more complex when Hermia discovers that Helena, a deep-rooted friend, is in love with Demetrius. My initial interest of the play arose during the introduction of this conflict.…

    • 819 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout the play A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare uses both fate and free will to present his philosophy towards the nature of love. The characters struggle through confusion and conflicts to be with the one they love. Although the course of their love did not go well, love ultimately triumphs over all at the end of the play. The chaos reaches a climax causing great disruption among the lovers. However, the turmoil is eventually resolved by Puck, who fixes his mistake. The confusion then ends and the lovers are with their true love. Throughout the play Shakespeare's philosophy was displayed in various scenes, and his concept still holds true in modern society.…

    • 1193 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    One of the most prevailing themes of love is that of romantic, young love. It is portrayed as an emotion that lacks logical sense, one that is spontaneous, tragic, and disregards consequences. Hermia is madly in love with Lysander whom her father does not approve of. Because of this Hermia tragically declares that she will give up her life either to the nuns or death rather that marry Demetrious who her father consents to her marrying.…

    • 1456 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Magic and illusions can be used to manipulate others, alter one’s mind, impact their decisions and force one to think differently. The power that one has over others and how they use it against them, can impact their lives significantly. In A Midsummer Night's Dream, William Shakespeare creates a world of fairies and magic where they interact with humans who wander there, but this world is not as enchanting for those who are influenced throughout the events of the play. The fairies and their magical powers are the essential elements of the plot. Shakespeare uses Puck, the fairy to connect the two plots: the realm of the fairies and the humans, by playing the puppet master bringing about chaotic events. Puck’s mischievous personality causes…

    • 991 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays