A Midsummer Night's Dream Dramatic Analysis

In Act V, Scene I, of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Robin stated, “While these visions did appear . . . No more yielding but a dream” (Shakespeare 386-388). This relates to dramatic irony because of everything that happened in the story. There are three types of irony; verbal, situational, and dramatic. Verbal irony is when you say the opposite of what you mean.

Situational irony is when something happens that is the opposite of what you think would happen. Dramatic irony is when the audience knows more than the characters. There are a lot of examples in this play, but I chose three to talk about. The examples I chose are dramatic irony because with the situations happening, the audience knows why everything is happening, unlike the characters.

In

Act III, Scene I, Bottom said, ”Why do they run away? This is knavery of them to make me afeard” (Shakespeare 55-56). This told us that Bottom doesn’t know that his head is an ass’s head. Also in Act III, Scene I, Quince said, “O monstrous! O Strange! We are haunted. Pray, masters! Fly, masters! help! “ (Shakespeare 49-50). This showed that Quince and the others are scared and don’t know why his head is like that. This is dramatic irony because the audience knows why he is like this. Puck, a fairy, turned Bottom’s head into an ass’s head because Oberon, the fairy king, wanted his wife, Titania, to fall in love with something ugly. In my opinion, this is the best example of dramatic irony because it is exciting. This is also my favorite example.

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Another example of dramatic irony is when both, Lysander and Demetrius, fell in love with Helena. At first, Helena has been in love with Demetrius, but he was in love with Hermia.

Lysander was also in love with Hermia, and she loved him back. Helena has been always jealous of Hermia because she got all the guys (Shakespeare I.I. 226-243). Puck and Oberon

Helena also thought Demetrius was making fun of her. What the characters didn 't know was that the flower juice was put in their eyes. There were many times this happened in this play. This was the best part because Puck ended up fixing everything.

The last example of dramatic irony is when Titania fell in love with Bottom when he had the head of an ass 's head. Instead of Puck putting the juice in her eyes, Oberon does it. He does this because they are fighting over an Indian boy (Shakespeare II. I. 103-123). She won’t give the boy to Oberon. In Act II, Scene II, Oberon said to Titania, “What thou seest when thou dost wake, do it for thy true-love take,” (Shakespeare 16-17). As she wakes, Bottom was walking past and she fell in love with him. Bottom fell in love with her because she is beautiful. Titania thought Bottom was attractive because of the juice. Bottom thought he actually was attractive.

We know all of this is happening because of the juice. Oberon, Titania 's husband, started to feel guilty. He ended up putting the juice in her eyes again and stays with her for when she wakes up

(Shakespeare IV. I. 29-53). When she woke up, she fell in love with Oberon again