Midsummer Nights Dream Essays (992 words) - Operas,

Midsummer Night's Dream Does Shakespeare make any serious points in ?A midsummer night's dream', or is it just a comedy? Shakespeare's play, ?A midsummer night's dream' is a comedy which also deals with some serious issues. The play was written in Shakespearean times as a comedy. The play was written to entertain two very different groups of people. The upper class, and the lower class citizens, Two different levels of theater had to be written to entertain them both. An entertaining and comical part, for both groups, would have been the use of fairies and mystical magic in the play. In those days most grown adults were very superstitious and believed in such things. The fairies and magic brought comedy to the play because, although the people were superstitious, they also knew the spirit characters in the play were fanciful and fictional. Shakespeare used these characters to bring mischief to the story which caused many of the comical incidents that happened through the play. The most mischievous and there for the most comical and entertaining spirit was Oberon's servant Puck. Puck was quick tongued and meddling. He was also quite famous for being so. Puck created a great deal of trouble when, trying to follow Oberon's orders, he mistakes Lysander for Demetrius. It is comical that this simple mistake, which was hardly his fault, causes such a mess of all the relationships in the play. "What hast thou done? Thou hast mistaken quite. And laid the love juice on some true love's sight." Oberon An event in the play, which was written as comedy appealing to the lower class, was the happenings which lead the fairy queen, Titania, to fall in love with a man that has been enchanted and looks all the world like an ass. Oberon drops love potion into Titania's eyes which makes her fall for a man that Puck has prepared. "My mistress with a monster is in love" "When in that moment it came to pass, Titania waked and straightway loved an ass" Act 3, scene 2. The scene where the fairy queen takes the ass to bed is most entertaining to the lower class because they were a little less educated and most of the clever humor went straight over their heads. It was also comical because the ass was so ugly and the queen was so beautiful, and as everyone knows, only the charming, handsome men get the beautiful women. "My Oberon! What visions have I seen! Methought I was enamoured of an ass!" Titania. The man didn't realize that the queen was charmed, and was vain enough to believe all the wonderful things she said about him. This was funny because everyone always like to have a laugh at people who think so highly of themselves. In the play there are a group of actors that greatly contribute to the comedy of this play. We laugh at things that appear hopeless. And these poor town's folk come actors, are just that. One of the actors is shy, the other is a man trying to play a woman and another is a hopeless over actor who wants to steal the spot light. They all make fools of them selves in order to impress Theseus and his court at his wedding banquet. The over simplicity of their production makes to be very entertaining. Despite the humor in ?A midsummer night's dream', Shakespeare also deals with many serious issues in this play. One of these is that love is blind. This is evident in many of the relationships between the characters in the play. Both Hermia and Helena fall in love blindly, that is that they fall in love with the least logical person. Hermia is in love with Lysander despite the fact that her father would rather her die than to marry him. It would be most logical for her to love Demetrius and live happily ever after, but that is rarely the way love goes. Helena fell in love with Demetruis who was so in love with Hermia, he barely even noticed that Helena existed. If it wasn't for the magical happening in the forest that night, it would have been unlikely that these characters would have ended up as happy as they did. "hings base and vile, holding no quantity, Love can transpose to form and dignity. Love looks not with the eyes but with the mind; And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind." Helena, Act 1, scene 1 A instance in Shakespeare's play where the theme ?love