A Midsummer Nights Dream as an Elizabethan Comedy Essay

A Midsummer Nights Dream as an Elizabethan Comedy A Midsummer Nights Dream could have turned out as a tragedy; it can be compared to Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet. Lysander and Hermia love each other but Egeus, Hermias father, wants her to marry Demetrius. This means they have to disobey Egeus and escape Athenian law to be able to marry. These are comparable characteristics of Romeo and Juliet, an Elizabethan tragedy. In Romeo and Juliet, Romeo, a Montague, falls in love with Juliet, a Capulet, but there families do not allow them to marry. The conditions are very similar in both plays but Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy whereas A Midsummer Nights Dream unfolds into a comedy. This is†¦show more content†¦Later in the play Puck, causing mischief, puts an ass head on Bottom, this makes the unlikely fling with Titania even more comical. The other working men, Peter Quince, a carpenter, Francis Flute, a bellows-mender, Tom Snout, a tinker, Robin Starveling, a tailor and Snug, a joiner, add to the humour of the play. Like Bottom, they all take the play very seriously but with no acting ability they end up looking ridiculous. Quince tries to use long words but uses them wrongly, Bottom, thou art translated, he is referring to when Bottom returns to the rehearsal with an ass head and must mean transformed. The rehearsal shows greatly their lack of acting abilities; they pronounce words from the script incorrectly, Thisbe, the flower ha odious savours sweet; Quince prompts Bottom, odorous!. Also, they do not know when they are supposed to speak, Flute says, Must I speak now?. Their choice of play is not appropriate as it is meant to be performed at a wedding and is the tragedy of two lovers that are forced to speak through a chink in a wall and commit suicide. Luckily the performance turns out to be rather comical and laughed upon by the nobles. The scene that Pyramus and Thisbe is performed in is probably the most comical scene of all. Their complete misunderstanding of acting and performance is clearly is clearly displayed, how they use an actors to play the parts of aShow MoreRelatedRole of Supernatural in Shakespeares a Midsummer Nights Dream1547 Words   |  7 PagesWitches Brew and Fairy Dreams: A Genre Study of Shakespeares Use of the Supernatural (Penn State University, English 444.2: Spring 1998) by Fred Coppersmith Near the end of the opening scene of Macbeth, Shakespeares three Weird Sisters proclaim in unison that fair is foul, and foul is fair, providing us, as readers, with perhaps the best understanding of the plays theme and the tragic downfall of its central character. That this revelation -- this pronouncement that all is not well in ScotlandRead MoreA Midsummer Nights Dream - Bottom and Puck. 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