Essay: Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Literary Humour at Its Best

Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a hilarious example of when things don’t necessarily go the way they should. It is an amazing culmination of coincidence and stupidity at its best. Shakespeare’s brilliant use of language enables him to reach audiences throughout time and across the world, using dramatic irony, creative dialogue, and coincidences between characters to create humour and laughter for everyone. Dramatic irony gives the audience a sense that the character might be a bit slow, because we as the audience know more about the situation than the characters in the play. Shakespeare’s use of malapropisms and dialogue gives everyone in the play unique characteristics and creates contrast between them. Lastly, Shakespeare puts the characters into some interesting situations that we the audience probably find more amusing than the characters themselves.
First, Shakespeare uses dramatic irony to create humour in many different situations throughout A Midsummer Night’s Dream. For example, in Act 3 Scene 1, Bottom the weaver’s head was turned into a donkey’s head by Puck. Bottom was painfully unaware of this fact while everyone else, audience and other characters included was very aware of this fact. You can see Bottom’s confusion when he says, “What do you see? You see an ass head of your own, do you?” (Shakespeare 36). He also says, “I see their knavery. This is to make an ass of me, to fright me, if they could;…” (Shakespeare 36). Another example of dramatic irony is Puck and Oberon’s use of the love potion on other characters in the play. We know about this, and Puck and Oberon do, but the victims of the potion do not know about it. This created confusion and madness in some cases. For example, after being released from the potion’s effects, Titania said, “My Oberon, what visions have I seen! Methought I was enamour’d of an ass… How came these things to pass? O, how mine eyes do loathe his visage now!” (Shakespeare 60). Shakespeare’s use of dramatic irony spices up the story with ingenious and hilarious confusion.
Another way Shakespeare creates humour in his play is his creative dialogue. He gives each character unique characteristics with his dialogue. One example is Bottom’s signature malapropisms that can be very funny when you realize what he meant to say versus what he actually said. For instance, in Act 1 Scene 2, after Quince hands out the parts for his play, Bottom says, “We will meet, and there we may rehearse most obscenely and courageously.” (Shakespeare 13). Bottom might have meant “unseen” (to secretly rehearse), or “seemly,” which means, in this case, to rehearse perfectly. However, Bottom makes it seem like they are going to rehearse without wearing any clothes! This is just one example of how Bottom can turn a normal situation into something a bit more clever, or in this case, unfortunate. Contrast in two characters’ dialogue can also create humour, like the very big contrast between Titania and Bottom who supposedly were in love with each other. Titania is the fairy queen, and Shakespeare’s portrayal of her displays this by using polished and sophisticated vocabulary. In Act 2 Scene 1, Oberon approaches Titania, to which she says, “What, jealous Oberon? Fairies, skip hence. I have forsworn his bed and company.” (Shakespeare 16). This can roughly be translated to, “What, jealous Oberon? Fairies, go away. I have refused his company.” However, Shakepeare chose to use the more sophisticated vocabulary for Titania to give her character a regal voice. However, Shakespeare has chosen not to give Bottom the same vocabulary because it wouldn’t suit his character of a regular civilian from Athens. His vocabulary is very plain and it really shows the difference between the two characters when they talk with each other. It is quite entertaining to see Bottom interact with Titania with their different vocabularies and voices. Shakespeare can write specific dialogue for specific characters, giving them unique differences that can make the play very amusing.
A third way Shakespeare creates humour is by manipulating the circumstances and situations the characters end up in. One of the things Shakespeare uses to create these funny situations is Puck. In Act 2 Scene 2 of the play, Puck is the one that gives the love potion to Titania and the one that turned Bottom’s head into one of a donkey’s. Titania was just unfortunate enough to wake up to the site of Bottom (with the donkey head) singing. As he was the first living thing Titania saw, she “fell in love” and proclaimed, “Any thy fair virtue’s force perforce doth move me on the first view to say, to swear, I love thee.” (Shakespeare 38). Another way Shakespeare manipulated his story to make it more entertaining is his writing of the play in Act 5 Scene 1. He intentionally makes the play Bottom and his friends put on incredibly poorly executed so that even the characters in the play are stunned by how bad it is. It makes for great comedy, however, to see Philostrate try to deter Theseus from seeing the play, saying, “No, my noble lord, it is not for you. I have heard it over, and it is nothing, nothing in the world, unless you can find sport in their intents, extremely stretch’d, and conn’d with cruel pain, to do you service.” (Shakespeare 70). During the play, Hippolyta remarks, “This is the silliest stuff that ever I heard.” (Shakespeare 76). As the author, Shakespeare can freely manipulate the situations his characters end up in, and uses this to create silly and clever scenes that can make anyone laugh.
Shakespeare’s writing is incredibly humourous and memorable. He uses many literary devices, like dramatic irony, to enhance the story and make things more eventful and funny. His use of dialogue also adds humour to the play as a whole and can push the storyline along. Lastly, as the author, Shakespeare can create funny and entertaining situations to make his audience laugh even more. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is truly a comedic gem with all the right pieces to make someone laugh.