A Midsummer Night's Dream

A Midsummer Night's Dream, written by William Shakespeare, is a comedy. Through his arrogant characters, misunderstanding, misuse of words, and general self-righteousness, Shakespeare is able to weave a play in which the reader is drawn into fits of laughter and disbelief. Personally, i really enjoy this genre. It is able to convey an important message through laughter and light heartedness which I find to be the best way to prove a point without over stressing it. Comedy is an easy-easy-to-read type of genre which makes it fun to read and entertaining at the same time. It does not contain the dryness of some of the other genres. This play especially was filled with more than one source of comedy. Between the arrogance of Bottom, and the misunderstanding between the fairies, and the confusing love story between the two sets of lovers, this book is practically bursting with comedy. And as with many of the Shakespearean comedies, the ending is a happy one, with the young lovers marrying the person that they wanted, and basically living 'happily ever after'. Comedies are also a great place to insert morals, mostly because of the lightheartedness that is associated with them, the moral will not weigh them down. In this particular play, there seem to be two morals, one is demonstrated by Bottom, which is not to be full of yourself and come off as being, well excuse me, an ass (symbolized by the head of a donkey he ended up acquiring). The second moral seems to be to mind ones own business, because when you try to become involved in something that does not concern you, things can be taken out of context (represented by the mix up between the lovers and the drama that went with it).

An example of the comedy in the play can be seen in this passage:

SNUG
Have you the lion's part written? Pray you, if it be, give it me, for I am slow of study.

QUINCE
You may do it extempore, for it is nothing but roaring.

BOTTOM
Let me play the lion too. I will roar, that I will do any man's heart good to hear me. I will roar, that I will make the duke say, “Let him roar again. Let him roar again.”

QUINCE
An you should do it too terribly, you would fright the duchess and the ladies, that they would shriek. And that were enough to hang us all.

ALL
That would hang us, every mother's son.

BOTTOM
I grant you, friends, if you should fright the ladies out of their wits, they would have no more discretion but to hang us. But I will aggravate my voice so that I will roar you as gently as any sucking dove. I will roar you an 'twere any nightingale.

QUINCE
You can play no part but Pyramus. For Pyramus is a sweet-faced man, a proper man as one shall see in a summer's day, a most lovely, gentlemanlike man. Therefore you must needs play Pyramus.

BOTTOM
Well, I will undertake it. What beard were I best to play it in?

I found this scene to be one of the most comical in the play, while there is more to it than this one section, you are able to get the gist of Bottom's 'I am better than you' attitude. I found it extremely comical how he believed himself to be the best for so many parts, and how he could imagine himself being cheered on as he gave his preformance. Not only is he self-righteous and conceded in this excerpt, but he believes that the women will be scared of the loin's costume and roar. He sees women as these fragile beings who cannot determine on their own that the situation and costumes are fake, which is also comical because they are going to a play, so they would know very well that what they are witnessing is fake. My favorite line from this excerpt is said by Bottom, "Let me play the lion too. I will roar, that I will do any man's heart good to hear me. I will roar, that I will make the duke say, “Let him roar again. Let him roar again.” this just brings a smile to my face because it shows just how self-centered Bottom is. He must take the spotlight away from everyone else, and be the one that everyone is focused on at all times, which can be seen here as he steals the focus from Snug and places it on himself. He is also a drama queen, if I do say so myself, he believes that he is the best at everything, and he believes that he would be the best at every role, even being asked to act it out again because of his stellar performance. This section is so comical because everyone knows at least one person in their lives that acts as Bottom does and it is so easy to picture and imagine the frustration that the people around him feel because of his constant arrogance. Bottom also compares two things that are in no way similar to each other, like roaring as a dove or nightingale. These comparisons are just ridiculous and show how Bottom is willing to say anything, no matter how much intelligence it is lacking, in order to make himself sound better and persuade other people to idolize him.

This was one of my favorite Shakespeare plays that we read, mostly because I am a fan of comedy. This play was easy to read and understand (I have a tendency to get lost in some of his plays). This play leaves one with a happy lighthearted feeling, since everything worked out in the end. It also leaves one with a sense and a conscious thought/ determination to not act as Bottom, not to be a conceded person too involved with themselves to care about anyone else. I found myself laughing out loud and smiling to myself through out this whole play mainly because of the characters and all of the dilemmas and challenges that they faced along the way. This is one of the few plays by Shakespeare that you do not need acted out to get the full meaning and understanding of it. This is another reason why i liked it, it was easy to follow even though it contained so many characters. I am not a fan of Shakespeare, so I was surprised when i read this book and actually liked it, believe me, it was quite a shock. I would recommend this book to be read again, it is a easy read, yet it is fun, it has lots of things to analyze, and it is still Shakespeare (which i see as to be a good combination).