Humor helps

Essay by EssaySwap ContributorHigh School, 12th grade February 2008

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A Midsummer Night's Dream ~ Humour Helps ~ Humour is often the key to any good performance. In the Shakespearean play, A Midsummer Night's Dream the playwright - William Shakespeare - utilises humour as a tool to both enlighten the viewer and to create an interesting play.

One very humorous character, in this play, is the weaver - Nick Bottom. One funny line - that was used when an actual ass-head had been placed on him - is when Bottom speaks of his friends' "…knavery…" as to try to make "…an ass of…" him (III, i, 110). Here Bottom has no idea that he has an actual ass-head on his shoulders. Another display of Bottom's humorous disposition is when Bottom admits that he can "…gleek upon occasion" (III, i, 136). Thereby demonstrating that he can take jokes as well as give them. Yet another instance where Bottom furthers his humour - this time through ignorance - when he proclaims "What do you see? You see an ass-head of your own do you?" (III, i, 107 - 108).

Here - in his ignorance of the ass-head on him - he insults his friend in a very humorous manner. Bottom is a very humorous character utilised to his full potential in this play.

A second, possibly even more humorous character in this play, is the fairy - Puck. One farcical example of Puck's sense of jocularity is when the fairy and Puck are discussing Puck's ludicrous pranks: "…sometime for a three-foot stool mistaketh me; then slip I from her and down topples she…" (II, i, 52-53). Here Puck explains one of his many witty pranks. Another demonstration of Puck's facetiousness is when he shows his relationship with Oberon: "I [Puck] jest to Oberon and make him smile…(II, i, 44). In this instance,