Oberon discovers the mistake that Puck had made and sends Puck to find a new potion that will make things happen as they were to. As a result of this second love spell, Lysander and Hermia are in love again, Demetrius and Helena fall in love, and so do Oberon and Titania. The four young lovers share their weddings with Hyppoleta and Theus, the counts of the land. It is at these wedding celebrations that the play Pyramus and Thisbe is chosen to be performed.
Pyramus and Thisbe is a romantic tragedy, or a tedious brief scene of young Pyramus and his love Thisbe,” the most regrettable comedy and most cruel death of Pyramus and Thisbe”, (Act I, Scene 2, Line 11) – terms that contradict.
All through the whole play they get lines wrong one of the first instances is where the prologue gets his punctuation mixed up.
"Our true intent is. All for your delight we are not here. That you should here repent you."
In this line Quince gets his punctuation wrong and puts full stops in the wrong place. It makes the sentence sound odd and the meaning completely changes. Done correctly it should read.
The audience then laughs at Quince (prologue) which doesn’t really add to the effect that this play is supposed to be a tragedy.
The script of Pyramus and Thisbe is funny in the way that the prologue makes excuses for the story and for the acting.”If we offend it is with our good will”(act 5 scene 1, line 108) this is the first line of the prologue making the play sound like its going to be offensive. I think that the prologue makes the audience wonder what is going to offend them, This makes the audience interested in what is going to happen. The next noticeable error that the mechanicals make is where Quince uses too much alliteration.
"Whereat with blade, with bloody blamefull blade
He bravely broached his boiling breast
...
His dagger drew and died"
The alliteration distracts the audience from the tragic plot adding to even more mistakes in Midsummer Night's Dream.
At the start of the play there is strong evidence that the play is not going to be a serious tragedy, This is funny because it is different and not what the audience would expect of a romantic tragedy.
Lion makes his excuses for his appearance in front of the ladies as he thought he would be so scary earlier on in the play. The women in the audience were touched by Lions speech and they found him very sweet and not scary at all. This is funny because lions are supposed to be scary and not sweet, I found it funny when Lion stood up and showed his face to make the speech because the whole point of wearing a costume is to pretend your not a human.
Once more we have humour and alliteration but this time from the audience "monstrous mouse". This then gives Theseus a chance to make a sarcastic remark after Demetrius says, "Well roared Lion." Theseus says, "Well moused, Lion." Which people laugh at, making it even more ridiculous and losing the plays tragic plot even more.
The script also is also written in nonsense and with puns such as when Pyramus says “I see a voice now will I to the chink to spy and I can hear my Thisbe’s face” (Act V Scene I Line 195)
This is a funny line because it doesn’t make sense because Pyramus has got his words mixed up; His line doesn’t make sense because one can’t hear a face or see a voice.
Pyramus then uses some more mixed up language "Sweet moon, I thank thee for thy sunny beams" and "thy gracious, golden, glittering gleams." Again more alliteration used adding to the already over-exaggerated effect. Using exaggerated alliteration is funny because it takes all seriousness out of the line and sounds like the actor is messing about.
Thisby's speech is another example of mixed up words -
"These lily lips
This cherry nose
These yellow cowslip cheeks
...His eyes were green as leeks"
Thisby’s speech is funny because if you imagined someone looking like she has described then they would look really funny.
If you were trying to describe someone beautiful or handsome who you loved then this isn't how you would go about it this again adds to the comedy for the audience.
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The acting of Pyramus and Thisbe emphasises the humour of the script. I have compared two film versions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream; productions by the BBC which starred Brian Glover as Bottom and Michael Hoffman’s, where Bottom was played by Kevin Klein. I preferred the Michael Hoffman film, because it was livelier and easier to understand and seemed more fun. Whereas the BBC version, was slow and had annoying background music. In the Michael Hoffman film, the guests at the wedding feast portray Thisbe as having a very high squeaky voice, which adds to the humour, which caused uncontrolled laughter. In the BBC version, Thisbe’s voice was not as comical, and therefore had less impact on the audience. The lion in the Hoffman film was played by a very timid and softly spoken character, which showed a greater contrast of roles than in the BBC version.in all three plays I thought that the costumes added to the humour because they were all a bit over exaggerated; for example Pyramus’ costume was huge suit of armour and a bright plume on his helmet.
In the RSC version when Pyramus died it wasn’t very realistic as once he had died he got straight back up again and started to explain to the audience that he wasn’t really dead just acting but even in his death scene it wasn’t very realistic as he used lots of alliteration now die die die die”. I found Pyramuses death scene in the RSC version funny because it was obvious that he wasn’t really dead and was just acting, seeming as he was an actor, on a stage and was being watched by an audience.
In the Hoffman version Pyramus’ death was amusing, because his sword was too long, and Bottom ‘overacted’ the death scene because of his love for the stage. In the BBC version Bottom also dragged out the death scene however it was done in a slow manner that lacked humour. The moon outshone the death scene here.
In the Hoffman version every time that Thisbe spoke, her high pitched voice made the audience laugh, This was funny because when a male speaks in a very high voice it always sound hilarious. When Thisbe found Pyramus dead, The actor his own voice and removed the wig, which had a great impact on the audience, leaving them stunned and with tears in their eyes. The actor used his own voice and took off his wig because the audience were all giggly and he wanted to show that this was a serious and sad part of the play that shouldn’t be laughed at. The BBC version did not show this same impact. It was the death scene that made the Hoffman version better because it was more interesting and a moving tragedy.
Pyramus and Thisbe succeeded as a moving tragedy because of the following reasons.
Their love is denied because they cannot meet but can only talk through a chink in a wall, therefore they can not marry. Pyramus believes that Thisbe is dead, because he discovers her shawl stained with blood, but is unaware that the blood is the lion’s blood. He then kills himself to be with his love for eternity. Thisbe then discovers Pyramus dead, and kills herself out of her love for him; the tragedy being that they both died out of love for each other, and through misunderstanding.
In conclusion, the story line of the play of Pyramus and Thisbe is a tragedy; however, the way that the play was performed allowed it to have comedy, through the script and the ‘amateur’ acting style. I feel that a tragedy was not a suitable entertainment for a wedding, however, the comedy made it more appropriate.