A Midsummer Nights Dream with a critics views
A Midsummer Nights Dream with a critics viewsCOMEDY OF SHAKESPEARE
Webster dictionary defines comedy to be “a drama of light and amusing character with typically a happy ending.” Melvin Helitzer, the author of Comedy Writing Secrets, contends that contrary to tragedy that seeks to engage the emotions, comedy strives “to entertain through ridicule of characters, customs, and institutions or through a resolution of contretemps thrown up by the plot.” Helitzer’s theory of comedy could be easily related to work of Shakespeare who wrote many different forms of literary works and one of them is comedy. Shakespeare utilizes many ways to portray life in a humorous manner and make his plays a success because of it. A careful mix of love with humor was the key for the extreme success of his play “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Similar to Helitzer’s theory, Shakespeare introduced amusing characters, paranormal moments and clever dialogues to make his play a true comedy.
Again, comedy is the greatest form of entertainment best portrayed by witty actors with mesmerizing characteristics. Helitzer offers an explanation to why viewers like to watch comical characters. He stated that everyday people are looking for a small period of time where they could forget about the stressful world that they live in and imagine themselves in a far more different environment. Shakespeare realized this and his addition of bizarre characters such as Puck made “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” a genuine comedy. Puck has been beloved of audiences of all eras for his mischievous meddling: as Oberon’s helper, he aids in instigating the plot conflict as a benevolent antagonist. People can relate to Puck and wish they could live their lives as carefree as he does. Puck is a favorite of the audiences because he does not seem to take life seriously and all he wants is to have fun. For example, Bottom is the most egotistical character of the entire play and for this reason, Puck chooses him as the victim of his prank: he changes Bottom’s head into that of a donkey. This is a symbol of Bottom’s character (he makes an ass of himself). All the harm this trickster inflicts is remedied, and in his famous final speech he even apologizes for any offenses he may have committed and extends a hand of friendship to the audience.
Although entertaining characters are necessary, not everyone could be considered comical. Comical characters need that something additional that makes them stand out; for example, the ego of Bottom and the persistence of Helena were that something additional that made them different. But the inclusion of fairies led to some paranormal moments in the play that were especially amusing. The paranormal moments occur in the play when Shakespeare shows something that would never happen in real life. For example, after Lysander and Demetrius had been led around the king’s oak for a long time, they fell down and went to sleep. This contains no logic whatsoever, because they are trying to kill each other, and it is impossible to use defense when a person is sleeping. There is humor in that because everyone took it in stride, so to say. In the play, it is interpreted that that is supposed to happen. Another example is when Titania awakens after being in love with Bottom. She knows that Oberon did it, but she’s not angry at the fact that he did, or the fact that Oberon used the time to capture the Indian boy. It makes no sense, but it is funny. That is what Shakespeare intended to do and like Helitzer believed these events did lead to “a resolution of contretemps thrown up by the plot.”
The structure of Shakespeare comedies is common in all his comic drama. “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” goes through three phases. In the first stage there is order and discipline. Then it goes through a situation where there is chaos and disorder. Finally in the third stage order is restored again and the play ends in a festive ending. Through the entire play we see that Shakespeare’s focus and emphasis is clearly towards the structure and language of his comedies, which made them quite distinct from others. The language was evidently the main reason why Shakespeare¹s comedies were more amusing than other comedies of his time. He used many techniques to illustrate humor, and sometimes we have to know the inner meanings to find it comical. The play of words or puns were very popular in the comedies of Shakespeare. Quince makes a good pun when he mentions the French crown. It is a pun because it could have more than one meaning; it could mean gold coins or also baldness that is often caused by treatments of Sexually Transmitted Diseases. Another good example of a pun is what Lysander says to Hermia “For lying so, Hermia, I do not lie.” This example shows how good Shakespeare was at playing around with words as he uses the word lie in two different ways. Lie could mean either lying down or not telling the truth. Some of these puns show a lot of facetiousness and wit. Lysander says to Demetrius “You have her father¹s love. Do you marry him” implying that Demetrius might be attractive to males. The obscene jokes also play a great part in making the play comical. What is particularly absorbing is that most of these unclean jokes are unintended. The actors mean something else, but we get the wrong message. When the actors say “I kiss the walls hole” or “Cursed be thy stones” they literally mean it, while our mind searches for hidden meanings. Oxymoron and ironies give an additional meaning for the reader. Titania who has fallen in love with an ass says, “Thou art as wise, as thou art beautiful” when we know that an ass is neither beautiful nor intelligent.
In “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” there is a lot of humor in it, which creates an excellent play and a fabulous comedy. Shakespeare was obviously a master at his work, which is prominent in this play. Humor is the largest reason for the success of this play; the careful mix of all types of humor make this play a nice potpourri of tragedy and comedy. Another thing that makes the comedy humorous is the way Shakespeare shows stupidity among the characters. He uses different ways, like malapropism, exaggerated alliteration, mispronunciation and also bad punctuation. The colorful characters with out of this world characteristics made it fun for the audience to except the cruel games that were unintentionally played on by few of the characters. This play had everything that Melvin Helitzer believed that a comedy should have and this is the reason why “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” has been a crown favorite for centuries.