A Midsummer Night’s Dream is in essence a comedy, drawing together many themes with satirical and romantic humor that still attract large audiences today; it therefore can be considered comic not only due to the literary devices Shakespeare uses but because it has filled audiences with mirth for over four hundred years.
In the extract Shakespeare carefully hints towards the social constraints which imprison the two 'lovers ' through the juxtaposition of class. The comic effect this produces is pronounced due to both characters not viewing this as a barrier, regardless of the late Tudor dynasty who viewed it with lofty contempt. Furthermore this would 've been highly satirical for the audience for example, 'I …show more content…
Thus by association we can derive that the vulgar attributes of the central joke in the extract would also contribute to the juxtaposition of class. Later too Bottom sings a song about a, 'cuckoo gray, ' bird and asks, 'who would give a bird the lie, though he cry "cuckoo" never so? ' and in other words Bottom is the 'cuckoo ' where no one tells him that he is 'assheaded ' when he himself believes he is not. A rather comic image is crafted by Shakespeare further on, 'thou on pressed flowers dost sleep, ' amusing the audience for two reasons; firstly the ridiculous illustration of a creature (ie. Bottom) with the head of an ass sleeping on a bed of flowers which incorporates ironic and satirical comedy and secondly Bottom 's somewhat serious blind acceptance, ‘I cry your worship 's mercy heartily: I beseech your worships name, ' in his ignorant state, can be considered comic to a very great extent indeed. Therein can be made a riper point, ‘I pray you, commend me to Mistress Squash, your mother, ' expresses Bottom 's urgency to make a good impression on his hapless servants by meeting their parents and hitherto making a display of adapting to King which is once again an exemplification of dramatic irony by Shakespeare causing a whimsical reaction from the audience as we know Bottom cannot be King, despite his sanguine ignorance. Shakespeare 's use of Bottom for comic effect in the extract is crucial therefore for the theme of naivety because
In the extract Shakespeare carefully hints towards the social constraints which imprison the two 'lovers ' through the juxtaposition of class. The comic effect this produces is pronounced due to both characters not viewing this as a barrier, regardless of the late Tudor dynasty who viewed it with lofty contempt. Furthermore this would 've been highly satirical for the audience for example, 'I …show more content…
Thus by association we can derive that the vulgar attributes of the central joke in the extract would also contribute to the juxtaposition of class. Later too Bottom sings a song about a, 'cuckoo gray, ' bird and asks, 'who would give a bird the lie, though he cry "cuckoo" never so? ' and in other words Bottom is the 'cuckoo ' where no one tells him that he is 'assheaded ' when he himself believes he is not. A rather comic image is crafted by Shakespeare further on, 'thou on pressed flowers dost sleep, ' amusing the audience for two reasons; firstly the ridiculous illustration of a creature (ie. Bottom) with the head of an ass sleeping on a bed of flowers which incorporates ironic and satirical comedy and secondly Bottom 's somewhat serious blind acceptance, ‘I cry your worship 's mercy heartily: I beseech your worships name, ' in his ignorant state, can be considered comic to a very great extent indeed. Therein can be made a riper point, ‘I pray you, commend me to Mistress Squash, your mother, ' expresses Bottom 's urgency to make a good impression on his hapless servants by meeting their parents and hitherto making a display of adapting to King which is once again an exemplification of dramatic irony by Shakespeare causing a whimsical reaction from the audience as we know Bottom cannot be King, despite his sanguine ignorance. Shakespeare 's use of Bottom for comic effect in the extract is crucial therefore for the theme of naivety because