In our relatively brief study of this Shakespearean comedy, we discussed a number of elements of the play that made the scenes and characters humorous and we even experimented with writing and staging our own versions of the play in order to grasp the humor in this comedy. Now that you've finished reading the play, what do you think the purpose of the Mechanical's play at the end of A Midsummer Night's Dream is? We're reading a play and then in the final act, the actors in the play we're reading decide to put on a play of their own...that seems weird, or does it? Explore some possible explanations for why a play within a play might add to the humor of the comedy, might shed some light on certain characters, might bring the actions of the entire play to a close, etc.
Instructions: The purpose of this blog is to extend the type of conversation we have in class to a written forum. You should feel free to explore your ideas, take risks and even dare to offer an interpretation that might be wrong. The point here is to articulate your thinking through written conversation just as we articulate our thinking through spoken conversation in class. You should submit your blog post no later than 10 pm on Wednesday evening. Since this is supposed to be a written conversation, you should read the contributions of your classmates as well as composing your own thoughtful post. Your post should be 5 to 7 sentences long and offer observations and insights regarding the prompt above. You are welcome to respond to, agree or disagree with the comments of others. Have fun!
Well, if there is ever a play within a play, it is usually a satire of the play itself. Or at least, that has been what I have observed. As for MSND, it seems like the "inner-play" could be a satire of traditional tragedies rather than the play itself. This idea is reinforced by the fact that Demetrius, Theseus, Hippolyta, and Lysander comment on the play while it is happening. Satire as a whole is a great way to bring comedy, because it takes something the audience is familiar with and can relate to and it takes it to the extreme. It exaggerates the strange/funny elements of a genre, and that is almost always funny. I personally did not see a part of the "inner-play" that hinted towards the play as a whole or any of its characters. But if anyone feels as if they did, feel free to chip in!
ReplyDeleteI agree that the "inner play" Pyramus and Thisbe is used to enhance the comedy of Midsummer Night's Dream. However, I did observe similar themes and a correlation in plot lines between MSND and Pyramus and Thisbe. Both plays deal with the challenges of love. In addition, Thisbe is excessively dramatic in her display of emotion in the inner play, just as the four lovers are also excessively dramatic as they fall in and out of love with such passion so quickly.
DeleteI also agree with Amir's post. Any time I have seen a play within a play in my experiences, it has had a goal of a humorous outcome. The play was comical when the mechanicals messed up their lines and the main characters were commenting on it. Any time people screw up something that is supposed to be serious, it is funny. For example, everyone loves seeing people screw up on tv. If I saw someone trip unintentionally on live tv, I would be laughing for 10 minutes. I also think that Pyramus and Thisbe had some connections to the entire Midsummers Night Dream play, because both plays were stories about struggling with love.
DeleteThere is definitely a funny aspect of having people perform a play inside of another play. Yes, it is also humorous to have a connection with the characters in MSND because they are showing some of the same feelings towards the "inner-play" that we are towards the real play. Although, there are many instances where the characters can bring their own connection to the viewers by just the single layer of the play. I think it shows a more developed character when the humor is inside the real play then when a character plays another character. However, the discussion could go either way. Nice topic Amir.
DeleteAlthough I do agree with Amir about the humor aspect of this “play inside of a play”, at times I found it quite confusing. I don’t know if it was the difference in language or the fact that a separate play was being acted inside of a larger play, but for some reason, I found that I had to read things over and over in order to understand them, which was pretty hard and challenging at times. Although this may have been a struggle, I believe that the play inside of a play really helped bring connections between us as a modern audience and the ancient people living in Athens. It showed that even centuries ago, people still loved any time of entertainment, especially comedies. Although our forms of entertainment might be different, it still does form an easily accessible bridge between us as an audience reading this work eons after it was made, and the people of Athens in Shakespeare’s writing.
DeleteThe performance of the play Pyramus and Thisbe in Act 5 of Midsummer Night’s Dream adds to the humor of MSND. The mechanicals’ errors and lack of acting talent convert the tragic story line of Pyramus and Thisbe into a comedy. Because Pyramus and Thisbe is about the obstacles faced by lovers, which is also a theme of MSND, this transformation has the effect of making fun of the trials and tribulations of romance and love, which Shakespeare has done throughout MSND. Moreover, just as parents chuckle at mishaps during young children’s earnest performances of well known plays, so too the audience, knowing the plot of Pyramus and Thisbe, laugh at how the mechanicals mess up the story line. Today, even an audience unfamiliar with the plot of Pyramus and Thisbe would see the humor in the mechanicals’ amateur performance as slapstick comedy.
ReplyDeleteThe performance of Pyramus and Thisbe starts off by Quince reading the prologue. Quince reads, “If we offend, it is with our good will. “ Quince most likely accidentally mixed up his lines and ends up saying that the intention of the actors is to offend the audience with their good intentions. There is humor in the way Quince confused his lines and completely changed the meaning.
At the end of the play, Thisbe is so dramatic mourning Pyramus’s death and her own suicide that is actually comical. Thisbe says, “These lily lips,/ This cherry nose,/ These yellow cowslip cheeks/Are gone, are gone/Lovers make moan/His eyes were green as leeks…Thus Thisbe ends/A Adieu Adieu” Thisbe expresses her grief in an overly dramatic way that makes it seem more funny than serious. The superficial and silly nature of Thisbe’s comments make the audience want to laugh, not cry, for the death of the two lovers.
The performance at the end of MSND was humorous. The purpose of the Mechanical's Play was to accentuate the fact that this whole play was supposed to advertise a happy ending. What better way to show happiness than through laughter. Through the mishaps with their lines, the Mechanicals helped to make a tragic story of Pyramus and Thisbe into a joyous one due to their mistakes. A huge theme in this whole play was the difficulty in loving. This was showed through the Pyramus and Thisbe play performed by the Mechanicals and MSND. In MSND, it is showcased as Helena chases Demetrius and begs him to make her his dog if that is what it will take for him to love her. In Pyramus and Thisbe, this is shown when Pyramus kills himself and Thisbe follows his actions. Although this is a very serious topic, Shakespeare does an amazing job in which he keeps the humorous aspects of the play intact but still keeps the underlying theme of love's difficulty intact.
ReplyDeleteI feel that the play by the mechanicals is a satire and emphasis on the love story of the characters in MSND itself. The fact that the play about Pyramus and Thisbe is a tragedy really creates a huge contrast with the marriages of Demetrius, Helena, Lysander and Hermia, and therefore emphasizes the comical ending of MSND itself.
ReplyDeleteDespite the contrast in their endings, I find that the plot of Pyramus and Thisbe has some similarities with the play of MSND itself. For instance, the couple in the 'inner play' and Lysander and Hermia all couldn't be together for the same reason-- parents' objection. This contrast also strengthens the comic nature of MSND.
A play within a play might add to the humor of a comedy because the inside play is light, whimsical, and dramatic. It also contains certain elements that are funny, like Thisby being played by a man in a high voice. I think the elements of the play are what adds humor to the comedy, not necessarily the way the play is acted out. I do think that the inner play helps to wrap up the play very well. This is because plays are not ended on "heavy notes"; there should be some form of lighthearted ending, in a comedy, that sends the audience on their merry way. That's what I've seen of successful comedies, anyway.
ReplyDeleteAs I tried to comment earlier, I believe that the fact that MSND had a play within itself was something that was intentionally made to add humor to the play. The two pairs of lovers acted in ways similar to that of the play, Pyramus and Thisbe, and added a sense of humorous failures. In "real life" the pairs of lovers had done something similar to what they saw towards the end as the mechanicals messed up on their play of Pyramus and Thisbe. The similarities between both plays are the facts that "tragic deaths" occurred, a fair share of love events took place, and mistakes were made, except that the mechanicals messed up the play themselves. (This was my second attempt at posting a comment and this time around my ideas were not as well organized as before, so please excuse me if I made no sense and messed up some of the things I wanted to say.)
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ReplyDeleteNot only is the concept of a play within a play helpful by adding humor to AMND, but it gave Shakespeare and way to end the whole comedy with a happy ending. Throughout the play, Shakespeare builds up to Theseus and Hippolyta’s wedding. Since the play about Pyramus and Thisby is planned for the wedding night, once that is over, the plot is finished. All the excitement is over and all the problems have been solved. This is a good time to end the whole story, and clearly, Shakespeare knew that. The play about Pyramus was also a good way for readers and audiences to get to know the characters in AMND. The first scene that Bottom is in shows him receiving his role for the play for the wedding. He is overly enthusiastic, and audiences learn that he is a bit of a fool. Later, Theseus is shown making fun of the performance a lot. In that scene, he is less of a wise ruler than usual and is more of a spoiled, haughty prince.
ReplyDeleteA play within a play: that seems much like the movie "Singin' in the Rain", where there are many films within that one film. Clearly (, or at least hopefully) , a "play within a play" was not just created in order to confuse people. The play within "A Midsummer's Night Dream" offers information or advice to the readers. Rather than the actors and actresses in the real play telling the audience the purpose of the play, it is done in the play within MND. The play in MND is the way Shakespeare offered the lessons of MND to the readers/audience straightforwardly. There is much knowledge being tossed around in the play's ending. For example, Lysander states, “A good moral, my lord: it is not enough to speak, but to speak true (p 184)" following the prologue of the play (within MND). This moral is not only directed to Theseus, but to the audience as well. Theseus and Hippolyta constantly comment on the play, talking about what they think of it and why it is so bad. This play (in MND) in a way reflects the world that Theseus and Hippolyta live in, where anything is possible. The two lovers who are not able to be together are similar to Hermia and Lysander; the two are deeply in love, but Theseus doesn't allow them to be together. As Theseus watched the play, he didn't notice the resemblance of the two stories. He doesn't care that one of the two lovers ends up dying; he was blind to the idea of love when it came to his daughter. Even when the story of his daughter and Lysander was put in front of him, he didn't care: he hated the play and, therefore, hated the story of his own daughter. This play within MND helped show that all along, even throughout the whole time, Theseus never changed his mind about Hermia and Lysander; he had been, and still is, blind to love
ReplyDeleteI understand how the who idea of a play within an play is an interesting concept, but I don't think that it make the play better. I think that it makes the play more confusing. From what I understand the beginning of Act V scene 1 they are just practicing. They keep shouting out lines that sound like corrections, but I'm not sure if they are just part of the play. For example, "What are they that play it?" on page 98(on my iPad at least). They're also other examples such as "Let him approach"(p 100), or "He hath rid his prologue like a rough colt; he knows not the stop"(p 101). Gradually the corrections and off comments stop, but I'm not sure if the actors are getting better or is they finally perform. I am not sure if it my misreading of Shakespeare or if I just skipped a crucial line in the play. Overall, I think that the concept of a play within a play is more confusing then humorous since instead of allowing myself to follow the jokes, I spend the whole time trying to sort out what is happening.
ReplyDeleteMrs. Turner is a middle-aged woman. She is lightly skinned, just like Janie. When we meet Mrs. Turner in TEWWG, she very eagerly and even aggressively discusses race and promotes many racist ideas. Mrs. Turner and Janie are the only two people talked about in the book who have light skin. Mrs. Turner hates dark-skinned people; she's hates everything about them--how they look, what they wear, and the fact that they come into her husband's diner ticks her off. Mrs. Turner has a coffee-cream complexion. Perhaps she grew up denying that fact that she was black. She desperately wanted to be white, and there was a part inside of her adult-self that told her she was white, and that the dark-skinned folks were black; to her, there was no connection between her and them at all. She was probably raised by a mother-figure telling her that she was no different then the whites; this boosted her self-esteem and convinced her that she was equal to the whites. Mrs. Turner is an important character in this novel. As Janie grows up, she struggles with finding love. She has a dream, a reasonable dream on the horizon of finding that special someone. She believes that God is there to save her. Mrs. Turner, however, shows no dream. She shows a belief that she is white and stops at nothing to prove it to others. So while Janie has a real goal in life, Mrs. Turner just has denial. I believe that she was put into the novel so that the readers could pick up on her irrational and immature points. This, as a result, would define Janie's positive characteristics (such as... the fact that she has a real goal, she is friendly to dark-skinned people, etc.)
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