What distinguishes Shakespeare from other playwrights of his time is his versatility. A Midsummer Night’s dream is Shakespeare’s first comedy, and overall play, that dwells into the realm of fantasy. As plots intertwine, so do different types of humor that are related through a wide array of comedic devices. The bard is in complete control of these devices and uses them to their fullest potential.
The Athenian lovers’ plot is the "quintessential comedy of love" (Croce, 386) and subsequently, the evidence that makes the play a comedy of incident. According to Adolphus William Ward, A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one such play because, as with the comedies of incident, its main interest lies "not in the characters which their action develops, or in the manners which it furnishes opportunity …show more content…
Furthermore, A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a romantic, albeit in the widest sense of the term, comedy of incident, for it tackles a different kind of romance, one that is …show more content…
While insignificant to the amorous main plot, the six mechanicals are detrimental to maintaining the enjoyment of the play, for they encapsulate the biggest number of humorous techniques taken straight from the bard’s arsenal. Right off the bat the director of the play, Peter Quince, becomes the first mechanical to fall prey to Shakespeare’s aforementioned techniques, referring to the play-within-a-play as a “lamentable comedy”. Ironically, this statement will prove to be rather true, as the band’s underwhelming performance will turn out to be a somewhat lamentable comedy, “not because the audience will ‘lament’ the deaths of Pyramus and Thisbe, but because it is actually a ‘tragedy’ – and especially ‘lamentable’ in the sense that it fails to conform to that genre” (Cash,
The Athenian lovers’ plot is the "quintessential comedy of love" (Croce, 386) and subsequently, the evidence that makes the play a comedy of incident. According to Adolphus William Ward, A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one such play because, as with the comedies of incident, its main interest lies "not in the characters which their action develops, or in the manners which it furnishes opportunity …show more content…
Furthermore, A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a romantic, albeit in the widest sense of the term, comedy of incident, for it tackles a different kind of romance, one that is …show more content…
While insignificant to the amorous main plot, the six mechanicals are detrimental to maintaining the enjoyment of the play, for they encapsulate the biggest number of humorous techniques taken straight from the bard’s arsenal. Right off the bat the director of the play, Peter Quince, becomes the first mechanical to fall prey to Shakespeare’s aforementioned techniques, referring to the play-within-a-play as a “lamentable comedy”. Ironically, this statement will prove to be rather true, as the band’s underwhelming performance will turn out to be a somewhat lamentable comedy, “not because the audience will ‘lament’ the deaths of Pyramus and Thisbe, but because it is actually a ‘tragedy’ – and especially ‘lamentable’ in the sense that it fails to conform to that genre” (Cash,