The Major Comedic Elements of A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Like most comedies, Shakespeare’s comedies also aimed to entertain the audience

and to conclude with a somewhat happy ending. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is no

exception to that rule. Also like most of his comedies, the main theme of this play is

marriage or the celebration of a marriage. Although marriage is the main theme of this

play, Shakespeare conveys many other themes though the lyrical expressions of the

work. These themes and many more will be explored throughout this paper in an attempt

to prove that A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a comedy.

Like most comedies of this time period, this play opens with the discussion of marriage. Hermia refuses to …show more content…

Mistaken identity is a big part of comedy because of the way that it adds to the story. When the “rude mechanicals” are setting up the play for Theseus’s wedding, Puck spots a man by the name of Nick Bottom. Puck transforms his head into a donkey’s head and when Titania is awakened by his singing, she instantly falls for him. While in this state of mind, Titania bumps into Oberon and she gives him the Indian boy without an argument. Now that he has what he wants, Oberon orders Puck to remove the donkey head from Mr. Bottom and he releases Titania from the “spell” that she was under. This action removes the spell from Lysander also, but remains on Demetrius. This was significant because it allowed Demetrius a chance to regain Helena’s affections.

Finally, with most of the natural order being restored, Theseus and Hippolyta arrive during an early morning hunt and they wake the four. Now that Demetrius is no longer in love with Hermia, they decide to have a group wedding. All of the characters who were charmed by this magical juice seem to write off the events of the previous night as a dream. In Athens, everyone watches the performance put on by the mechanicals despite it’s ridiculousness and everyone is pleased. When night falls, Oberon and Titania bless the house, and it’s occupants and the play ends with a soliloquy by Puck. The significance in the ending is that