How does the ‘play within the play’ enhance your enjoyment of the rest of A Midsummer Night’s Dream? If not, why not?

I would argue that A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of Shakespeare’s greatest comedies. Comedy is in abundance in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, especially in ‘the play within the play’. ‘The play within the play’ is a key characteristic in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and deserves a thorough analysis as it holds a tight link to the main plot of this play. This part of the play takes up most of act V and allows a cheerful and comical ending to the play. ‘The play within the play’ adds deeper meaning and understanding to the play as an entirety and it mirrors certain aspects of the play as a whole.

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The play within the play also makes the audience aware of the different outcomes that could have came out of the lovers scenario. As regards ‘The play within the play’, Pyramus and Thisby were two lovers whose parents condemned their wedding and the two young lovers died under tragic circumstances. Yet in the main plot of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the young couples don’t come to any harm and all is restored and they wed at the end of the play. The addition of a tragic ending within a Shakespearian comedy is captivating and gives the reader a lot to think about whilst reading the play.

The last main theme that I will talk about that I find apparent in both A Midsummer Night’s Dream and the underlying play within that play is Love and how love is blind.

In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare plays with the themes of love, defiance and romantic confusion, to forge an overall meaning for his work. His play within a play, expands on his themes and portrays the relationship between the audience and the performers on stage. The interjected play underscores Shakespeare’s larger aim of exhibiting the necessity of love, maintaining a loving relationship even when up against the prospect of death and the fact that ‘the course of true love never did run smooth’. The final outcome of the romance plot in A Midsummers Night’s Dream is one of great triumph. In a land where marriage is seldom a matter of love,