Theseus is a witty character and through this character Shakespeare makes jibes and jests at the old fashioned morality plays of the day. “A tedious brief scene of young Pyramus and his love Thisby; very tragical mirth” this is the title of the play, which is a farcical contradictory. “A tedious yet brief tragical mirth.”
Depending on how the Theseus and Hippolyta plots are acted they could be amusing. Witt, sarcasm and irony is used by certain characters to mock the play of Pyramus and Thisby creating amusement for the audience watching a ‘Midsummer night’s dream. They laugh at the plays blunders for if they don’t they would become very bored. Theseus and some of the other audience members make sarcastic comments of the play. “This lion is a very fox for his valour,” a fox is regarded a cowardly animal. Lions are supposed to be fierce but they make it out to be a coward.
“Well shone, moon. Truly the moon shines with a good grace,” Hippolyta mocks the face they need an actor to represent moon.
Shakespeare makes a glance at Bottom’s past metamorphosis by Theseus saying”……..he might yet recover, and prove an ass.” An audience watching would pick this up and find it comical.
The plot of Theseus and Hippolyta contains verbal comedy mixed with slapstick from the Pyramus and Thisby play. Also love and marriage is a base for the following plots. In each plot both love and marriage are portrayed.
In the two of Shakespeare’s comedies designed to celebrate a wedding he introduces magic and fairies, and in both they control actions of others in the play. In ‘A Midsummer night’s dream’, the fairies, Oberon, reconciles the lovers and bestows a benediction on marriage.
Although Oberon and Titania’s relationship could be perceived as a comical warning of what marriage may turn into if jealousy and temper take over it should be seriously considered. The comedy shown in Titania and Bottom’s interaction is used to contrast the seriousness of Oberon’s character. Oberon needs to be serious so the blessings he bestows on Theseus’ marriage aren’t empty words.
The comedy situated in this plot is Titania’s infatuation with Bottom. These scenes when played in the right way would be hysterical to any audience. The fact that Bottom is an ass and therefore would normally appear unattractive to Titania, the burlesque of their declarations of love and the appearance on stage must have been extremely entertaining for courtiers in Shakespeare’s time and it still is today for modern audiences. The farce and Titania’s platonic view of Bottom create humour of the extreme.
“Thou art as wise as thou art beautiful,” at first glance this comment seems untrue and Bottom is definitely not beautiful, but in fact it’s true because he isn’t wise at all proving how unbeautiful he really is.
Bottom strives to produce elegant phrases to try and fit in with the situation around him yet fails miserably because his subject matter remains homely. Bottom’s malapropism provides a lovable character and shows, again how stupid he is. He mixes the word ‘codpiece’ around and gets ‘peascod’ which totally does not make sense with what he was meaning. In fact Bottom manages to mix up most of what he is doing. He confuses ‘cobweb’ with ‘peasblossom’. This would be hard to pick out if the audience wasn’t listening intently but it adds to Bottom’s character.
Puck is Oberon’s jester. He is the one who causes the confusion between the lovers by ironically mistaking Demetrius for Lysander because they are wearing the same style clothing.
He finds the panic of the mechanicals seeing Bottom’s metamorphosis and situation with the lovers amusing. His mischievous character creates the farce of Bottom being turned into an ass. Without Puck the comical situation of the lovers wouldn’t have occurred. He creates all the slapstick comedy within the play proving him an important character.
The farce of the lover’s situation and the characterization of the four characters create extreme humour. Their pattern of actions, normal to comedies of intrigue, has eccentric twists caused by Puck’s mistakes.
The real humour within this scene is after Puck and Oberon have meddled with the situation. Everything is mixed up. Helen assumes Demetrius, Lysander and Hermia are all mocking her. The more frantically they protest the more comically ludicrous the situation becomes.
The icing on the cake is Hermia’s attempt to fight Helena which is a parody of the intended duel between eh two men.
Later on, after they have awoken into the rational reality of Theseus’ court, their midnight antics are mocked through the burlesque of Pyramus and Thisby.
The entire scene would appear hysterical to an audience because of the over exaggeration of the characters and the absurd situation Puck has placed them in.
The mechanical’s preparation for the play Pyramus and Thisby has an atmosphere of pantomime and farce. It mocks the amateur play productions of the craftsmen from the guilds.
The characters shown in this plot are laced with endearing human qualities.
Each character is humorous on its own: Flute’s modesty about his beard; which in fact does not exist; Snug’s anxieties of learning his part when in fact he has no lines.
Bottom is by far the funniest character. The over exaggeration of Bottom’s desire to play all parts creates a pattern of comedy. His whole dealing with Titania would be humorous to an audience. Bottom’s malapropism and misplaced epithets add to the stupidity and over exaggeration of the character.
“You were best to call them generally, man by man….” H meant individually here.
“A lover is more condoling”. He means expressive of grief. There are many other sentences Bottom confuses with other things.
Personally, I believe the mechanicals to be the funniest plot in the play and it’s totally different to all the other plots because it’s written in prose.
Overall, Shakespeare uses the comedy to contrast with the seriousness of the underlying story of love and marriage.
In each plot there are different types of comedy used: in the mechanicals burlesque and farce; in the plot of Theseus and Hippolyta, wit, sarcasm and irony are the main types of comedy used.
It would have given entertainment to the courtiers in Shakespeare’s time, as it does today. Also, the play constantly jibes at the old fashioned plays of those times.
