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The Norton Shakespeare

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English

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ENG 450 Shakespeare

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Midsummer Night’s Dream

Introduction

In Norton Shakespeare’s Oxford Edition, “we are invited to join in the mockery of the inept

performers to distance ourselves from the mockers.” Shakespeare argues that we incline to laugh

at the mechanicals instead of laughing with them. This is because they have no idea about us as

the spectators. The mechanicals also tend to not know the difference between their own lives and

the play they are watching. They do not take the initiative to observe things from their own lives.

They assume that the play presents a totally different perspective of things from their own lives.

However, the play is no different from the way they live their own lives. This paper aims to craft

an argument that will prove the Norton Shakespeare’s argument.

Humor as represented in the Book

The characters watch a play that is similar to the way their own lives are turning out. The

Shakespeare play is envisioned to be humorous. It is crafted in a way that it is funny. This way the

audience will be motivated to watch it. From the book, we read about characters who are watching

the play. The characters find it humorous that they actually laugh at it. On the other hand, the

readers of the book find it funny that they are watching a funny play. They also, therefore, tend to

laugh at the characters too.

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Surname 2

In act 1, scene 1, a lot of events take place. It is in this scene that the two royalty characters

are planning a wedding. Theseus sends Philostrate, his director of entertainment, to ensure that the

Dukes are in a festive mood (Radford, Roisin Sinead, pg. 1). It is however expected that would be

in such a mood because their queen is getting married. It is also in this scene that, Egeus files a

complaint about his daughter being in love with Lysander. Egeus even to some extent believes that

he has bewitched his daughter. The characters find it funny in the way Egeus believes that

Lysander has bewitched his little girl.

According to Shakespeare, we laugh at the mechanicals rather than with them. We

represent us the readers of the book. From the scene, we are laughing at the characters who are

watching a funny play. However, it would make more sense that we should be laughing with them

about the funny play they are watching. The play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, initiates with the

Duke of Athens, Theseus planning a wedding with the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta. The

play takes place in the month of June. These two characters are planning their wedding only four

days away. The readers find this humorous as they can’t comprehend how they are supposed to

manage that. It is almost next to impossible to plan a normal wedding for such short period of time,

leave alone a royal wedding. We expect that wedding preparation should take more than four days

plan. This is because of all the requirements associated with it. The two, however, are determined

to make it work while we think it’s humorous to how they can manage that.

It is humorous how events turn out in the play. Egeus is determined to make Demetrius

marry his daughter. He even goes to Theseus to look for help in making this happen. Demetrius is

also in love with the daughter, Hermia. In fact, he is interested and wants to marry her. The father

wants the daughter to marry the man of his choice. The man turns out to love the daughter and

actually wants to marry her. Hermia, however, is in love with someone else. She is in love with

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Surname 1 Name Instructor Course Date Midsummer Night’s Dream Introduction In Norton Shakespeare’s Oxford Edition, “we are invited to join in the mockery of the inept performers to distance ourselves from the mockers.” Shakespeare argues that we incline to laugh at the mechanicals instead of laughing with them. This is because they have no idea about us as the spectators. The mechanicals also tend to not know the difference between their own lives and the play they are watching. They do not take the initiative to observe things from their own lives. They assume that the play presents a totally different perspective of things from their own lives. However, the play is no different from the way they live their own lives. This paper aims to craft an argument that will prove the Norton Shakespeare’s argument. Humor as represented in the Book The characters watch a play that is similar to the way their own lives are turning out. The Shakespeare play is envisioned to be humorous. It is crafted in a way that it is funny. This way the audience will be motivated to watch it. From the book, we read about characters who are watching the play. The characters find it humorous that they actually laugh at it. On the other hand, the readers of the book find it funny that they are watching a funny play. They also, therefore, tend to laugh at the characters too. Surname 2 In act 1, scene 1, a lot of events take place. It is in this scene that the two royalty characters are planni ...
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