Despite these comic elements, illogic events and behaviour, there are many serious issues within this play that need to be addressed.
Many of these “serious issues” actually result in cruelty towards some of the characters. A lot of the cruelty is found within the comedy. For example, the audience is expected to chortle at the two girls having a “scuffle” in the woods but the girls are both in a very horrible predicament. Both are confused and scared and laughing at them taking their frustrations out on each other is cruel.
Other cruel aspects include the fact that Hermia is not allowed to marry the man she dearly loves, Lysander. This is because her father wishes her to be the wife of Demetrius.
Athens is very much a male-dominated society. This provides the potential for a mass role reversal and an opportunity for comedy, an opportunity that Shakespeare makes the most of.
Hermia and Lysander are young and in love and are obsessed with each other. However, Lysander is certainly not what one would call “a gentleman”. Hermia’s father does not like Lysander. He does not think that Lysander is the right man for his daughter to marry. This is quite a serious issue, as some people may feel that it is wrong for the father to decide who his daughter marries. On the other hand, however, the father may be correct in thinking that Lysander would not treat his daughter the way he believes that she should be treated.
Aspects of Comedy
All this is changed through role reversal in the play. This is what is so comical. The play starts off by giving you the impression that a certain person may have a strong view on something, but that suddenly changes. As I have already explained above, Demetrius does not return Helena’s love. However, this changes and it is Helena who ends up running away from Demetrius. This is almost certainly seen as comical from the audience’s point of view.
All of the comic elements in this play occur in the nocturnal chaos of the woods, Bottom’s malapropism, the mass role reversal of the men chasing after the women (as opposed to the other way around). Then there are the comic events, for example the girls fighting, the funny characters which are the mechanicals and the way in which the characters act e.g. Bottom always trying to take the leading part in the play, although he doesn’t understand the play or his character.
The very first scene enters into the very controlled and very real world of Athens, ruled by the king, Theseus.
An exceedingly irate father, Egeus, approaches Theseus, who is to be wed to Hippolyta in four days time. Egeus is the father of Hermia. Egeus is annoyed at the fact that Hermia is in love with Lysander, and will not marry the man he wishes her to, Demetrius.
Theseus, upholding the very male-dominated law of Athens, informs Hermia that she has until his own wedding to obey her father’s wishes or either spends the rest of her life in a nunnery or risk death. This shows the power men have over the women, and that Theseus is unsympathetic to Hermia as an individual.
From these first few paragraphs, there is nothing comical occurring, only the serious fact that Hermia could be put to death because of love.
Despite this, there is a clear potential for the role-reversal to become imminent and thus, comedy. This happens when fleeing lovers Hermia and Lysander scramble from the well disciplined and well run Athens to enter into the very chaotic and the very unruly woods. In the woods, everything is very much different to what happens inside the walls of Athens.
For example, Athens is male dominated, and very much a serious and lawful society. While in the woods however, it is the women that dominate the men. For example, Demetrius and Lysander both end up chasing after Helena, Hermia’s friend, who happens to be in love with Demetrius.
The woods are a place that the fairies and seemingly non-existent creatures are in existence, and they are the reason for a lot of the comedy in the woods.
Other aspects that make the play comical are, for example, how love is misjudged. In the eyes of the audience, the characters’ feelings are fairly obvious. However, in the characters’ mind this is not the case. This may be seen as comical because the audience feel that because the characters are so involved in their own situation, this does not enable them to understand or appreciate what is going on around them. On the other hand the audience, being able to see the whole picture, are more aware of the whole scene. I believe this to be an important aspect relating to how serious situations can frequently be viewed as amusing.
The mishaps and the comedy begin when Oberon, the fairy king orders Puck, a fairy, to plant some ‘love juice’ on “a sweet Athenian youth”, so that the first person he sees when he is awoken, he will fall in love with. Oberon presumes that there is only one couple in the woods, Demetrius and Helena, but he does not realise that Hermia and Lysander are also present. Puck also assumes that Hermia and Lysander have fallen out as they are sleeping apart from each other.
When Puck plants the ‘love juice’ on the young Athenian man, he is assuming that the Athenian will see Helena when he wakes up.
The young man is awoken to see Helena. Unfortunately, the young man happens to be Lysander, and not Demetrius.
Lysander is now in love with love with Helena. Already, the reversal of the roles is underway, and the comedy is about to start.
After being rejected so many times before, Helena has very little self-confidence. So when Lysander reveals he is “truly” in love with her, she feels she is being mocked. She says: “You do advance your cunning more and more. When truth kills, O devilish-holy fray!” This is an example of comedy being cruel, the role reversal is amusing, but Helena is emotionally hurt and upset. The “joke” is made funnier by the fact that earlier in the play, we saw Helena pursuing Demetrius just as Lysander is following her now.
Meanwhile, Hermia has awoken in a real state of fear. She has just awoken from a nightmare that a snake was eating her heart out, and Lysander stood over her watching. On her awakening she finds Lysander has left. The funny characters in this play are the mechanicals, namely Bottom, Quince, Flute, Snout, Starveling and Snug. All of these characters are in the woods, practising the play they are to perform in front of the king at his wedding.
The scene with the rehearsal of the play, is when the audience first witnesses Bottom’s speech disability.
The title A Midsummer Nights Dream, I think, represents the dreamland that the characters are in when the ‘love juice’ is sprinkled on their eyes and the characters fall in love with the first person that they see. Again this can be seen as comical to the audience. I would like to think that the comical side of A Midsummer Nights Dream is also portraying informative aspects such as ensuring the audience know how certain characters feel at important moments during the play.
This shows there is a deep comparison to be made between different aspects, not necessarily in all cases, but certainly in the examples given in the previous paragraphs.
A further example of comical scenes from A Midsummer Nights Dream is when Demetrius is sprinkled with the ‘love juice’ and notices Helena. What happens at this point in the play is that Helena who previously worshipped Demetrius and had followed him everywhere trying to make him notice her, without success, now found the situation reversed, with Demetrius falling madly in love with her simply because of a sprinkle of love juice which took only a few seconds whilst her efforts had taken significantly longer. This causes confusion for Helena. She does not believe that Demetrius can change his mind so quickly. Therefore she ends up running away from Demetrius, so it is a complete role reversal.
As I mentioned earlier in my coursework, everybody does not always see the comical parts as comical. In this case, the audience found it funny. However, I really doubt it would be seen as funny in the real world.
What I believe Shakespeare is trying to get across is that humour can be found in certain situations but it isn’t always as humorous for the character in real life. By this I mean that in everyday life dramatic events are often very serious but in a drama production the message can often be more easily put across using humour and/or situations. In the book A Midsummer Nights Dream I think that Shakespeare puts the message across quite clearly and in a fairly simple format.
I found Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Nights Dream quite a serious story, with a few comical elements. These help the story along in an effective manner. The comedy helps portray some of the messages that the audience would like to be aware of. Comedy, I think, is the best way to get a message through to somebody, especially if we are referring to the younger generation, which we are in this case. If the child has something to laugh about, he or she will probably listen more attentively. I think this because it is a more creative way of portraying the situation. For example, if a child has done something wrong he or she will find it easier to discuss it if some humour is involved. It makes it more interesting.
In conclusion of my A Midsummer Nights Dream coursework, I would like to comment that having read other Shakespeare novels I personally found this to be the most interesting. I say this because as an individual who enjoys creativity and light-hearted situations, I was able to understand many of the serious points within the story as the humour held my attention throughout.
