How Does Shakespeare Use Humor In A Midsummer Night's Dream

In the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream, William Shakespeare uses the characters to show comedy. A few characters like Bottom, Lysander, and Demetrius get the audience to laugh by using comedic insults. Comedic insults are insults that one character says to, or about another character. The audience finds the insults funny because it can be related to dramatic irony, comedic relief, or it is a basic hilarious joke. It is generally used to engage the audience and lighten the mood. In Act III Scene i Bottom has just reappeared from the forest with an ass head. All the other mechanicals run away because they are afraid of Bottom’s new appearance. Snout the mechanical stays behind to ask Bottom about what happened. Bottom replies with, “What do you

Bottom’s reaction was caused by dramatic irony and when he insulted Snout by calling him an asshead it made the audience laugh. The audience thought this was funny because Bottom literally had an asshead. This element of comedy is also used in Act I, Scene i between Demetrius and Lysander. Egeus, Hermia’s father, does not want Lysander to marry Hermia. Lysander is upset that Egeus wants Hermia to marry Demetrius. With this evidence in mind Lysander insults Demetrius by saying, “ You have her father’s love, Demetrius;/ Let me have Hermia’s: do you marry him,” (1.1.95-96). Lysander was mad that Egeus wanted Demetrius over him; so he said how about you let me marry Hermia and you can marry Egeus since he loves you so much. This is a comedic insult because he is insulting him by saying that instead of marrying Hermia, he should just marry her father instead. Lysander believes he is the best person for Hermia, not Demetrius. This is funny to the audience because who wants to marry their crush’s dad? With the help of this element of comedy the theme can be shown: Always fight for true