midsummer night
MIDSUMMER NIGHTS SHAKESPEARE PLAY
Midsummer Night’s Shakespeare Play
Question One
There are several theories to explain comedy and humor. One of the theories is referred to as the relief theory. It states that laughter is one of the homeostatic mechanisms which reduces psychological tension from individuals. According to the relief theory, joy and laughter result in the production of nervous energy. Humor reveals suppressed desires and primarily overcomes sociocultural barriers. Superiority theory can also help in explaining humor. This approach traces back to Aristotle and Plato, who highlighted that people laugh at others' misfortunes since they assert superiority on other people's shortcomings. People laugh at ugly or inferior individuals because they experience joy when they feel superior to others. Therefore, the superiority feeling is based on deviation from the norm or inadequacies within the society. The third theory of comedy is known as the incongruity theory. Incongruity theory states that humor arises when there is a deviation between an idea in a situation and the real outcome.
Shakespeare's comedy had various and unique characteristics. One of the elements of his comical plays is the use of puns or play of words. One example of a pun in the comedy is when Lysander mentions to Hermia that "For lying so, Hermia, I do not lie" (Shakespeare, 2005, p.47). In this example, the audience can understand how Shakespeare could play around with words since the word lie has different meanings in the sentence. A lie could simply not tell the truth, or it could also mean lying down. Some of the play of words illustrate Shakespeare's wit and facetiousness. For instance, Lysander said to Demetrius, "You have her father's love. Do you marry him?" (Shakespeare, 2005, p.98). The humor may mean that Demetrius was attractive in fellow men's eyes, which plays a critical role in making the play sound comical. The funniest thing about Shakespeare's jokes is that they seem unclean and obscene. However, the author intended to give a particular message while the audience got the wrong message.
Misconceptions or mistaken identity is another characteristic of Shakespeare's comedy. In the play, some characters are mistaken or impersonate to be someone else. The readers can understand that characters get involved in gender mix-ups due to circumstances. Still, humor arises when they realize how they had been deceived—some of the characters impersonated to be women to take advantage of the situation and bypass societal restrictions. Shakespeare shows how disguising a character's gender can turn comical and serves the purpose of the story.
Question Two
Shakespeare uses doubling to create delight in the play. Several play pairs include Theseus and Hippolyta, Lysander and Hermia, Oberon, and Titania, while the final couple is Demetrius and Helena. However, Shakespeare assigns all the couples some contrasting traits in the play. Notably, Oberon and Titania represent the royalty couple in the play. Titan is a fairy queen, while Oberon is a fairy king. Throughout the play, the two lovers argue over a young boy Titania wanted to keep as hers while Oberon wanted to include him on his private page. Oberon and Titania keep fighting in their relationship and decides to keep it open. When Oberon asks Titania to spend some time with him, she reminds him of other affairs. She states that "But I know/ When thou hast stolen away from fairyland. And in the shape of Corin sat all day…"(Shakespeare, 2005, p.114). On the other hand, Theseus and Hippolyta had a forced relationship. Theseus conquered the Amazons and took their queen (Hippolyta) as his wife. Their relationship illustrates the gender roles in society. Theseus defeated the female-dominated society and captured their queen, who shows that society expects men to be superior to women.
Lysander and Hermia have the most related relationship in the play. Noteworthy, Lysander used songs and trinkets to woo Hermia to love him. Demetrius and Helena could not get on the same page in their relationship. Helena loved Demetrius, but he wished that she was dead. Afterward, Demetrius loves her, but Helena thought it was a joke.
Hermia and Helena are richly drawn throughout the play due to their role. Shakespeare uses these women to illustrate the difficulties of teenage love. However, these young ladies are more distinguishable than their lovers (Lysander and Demetrius) (Shakespeare, 2005, p.69). In the play, Hermia goes under problems since her father wants her to marry a different man against her wish. Helena's character shows the excesses and capriciousness of love since she makes a fool of herself by pursuing Demetrius.
Question Three
Like in many of Shakespeare's play, there is always a character who seems to be a fool, but makes vivid and insightful views that others may not make. For instance, the king Lear has such a fool, so is a touchstone; Bottom in the Midsummer Night dream is a different kind of fool, a truly foolish character. Shakespeare uses Bottom's unique character of a fool point of view to makes the play flow and creates comedy out of him. Shakespeare presents Bottom's unwitty character to create an idiot in the play. Bottom expresses confidence about wrong things and taking a role to explain it to others as if they are the ones who lack information or do not understand something. However, his idiocy is usually appealingly innocent. However, it does not look through Shakespeare is acting maliciously by developing a working-class character who is also a bona fide twit. Instead, Bottom is an essential character in the play for opening a sort of self-deprecating doors to wonder about theatre's reality and artistry.
Whereas Bottom's humor is mostly roguish and elusive, Shakespeare uses Bottom to create a comedy, which is hilariously overt since Bottom was overconfident and dominates the fellow actors because of his extra-ordinary belief and perceptions of his abilities. He thinks as the individual who is perfect for playing in every part. He is still illustrated as a terrible actor who often makes rhetorical and grammatical errors in his speech. However, his humor comes from the fact that he is entirely unaware of his ridiculousness. And the foolish self-importance reaches the peak when his head is transformed to that of an ass. Shakespeare's use of Bottom's fool character makes the play more exciting and creates comedy to readers because of Bottom's unwitty nature. Like Bottom, Shakespeare uses Robin Goodfellow as a somewhat mischievous character who play the pranks on mortals and create humor. He reveals this when talking to the puck, who says puck is a spirit responsible for people getting lost and women missing. In his response, he says, "thou speaks aright; / I am that merry wanderer of the night." His magical fancy, the fun-loving comic, and a lovely evocative speech create an enjoyable atmosphere of the play. Just for the sake of enjoyment, he transforms Bottom's head into that of an ass.
Question Four
As directed by "Michael Hoffman's Adaptation of a Midsummer Night's Dream" watching the film has merits and demerits. One of the key advantages is that watching the film enables the audience to connect with emotions that may not be easy when reading. Also, there is a bond between actors in film, viewers, and a connection among the audience. There is a brief magical that happens when the audience and actors in film share space. The film also transforms the play from an ancient Athens to an imaginary Italian village, referred to as Monte Athena, at the beginning of the 19th century. The film connects with the audience well. While there are a few advantages, there several disadvantages to watching this film.
First, the film director appears to have removed some of the theatre's mystic and enthusiasm, creating a dull movie loaded with Victorian devices. To some extent, then the type of drama filmed manage to disband Bottom's carefree excitement. Whereas in the original drama by Shakespeare, Bottom is self-assured and a good-hearted clown, in the film, Hoffman illustrates Bottom as an awkward and quickly disenchanted character. Also, the interpretation of the fair demesne refutes the virtuous funniness of the play. Instead of the free-spirited mistresses of the lifespan depicted in the text, the film's pixies seem petty, sniveling, and irritable party animals. Its evidence through the puck, which is altered from an adolescent fascinator into a crass. Equally, Titania seems to have lost the psychological complexity in this film. In essence, the film makes drama lose its magic, mystery, and the mayhem depicted in the original Shakespeare's text. The film has many inconsistencies expressed through disparities of the acting styles. These performance styles do not add up, with some characters playing an almost opposite role in the original text.
