Lizzie on MND 5.1

MND 5.1 (Lizzie Britner)

Since most of the action in the play takes place in the first three Acts and the resolution comes in Act IV, Act V is really meant to serve as comic relief. And most of that comic relief comes from the horribly performed play by the rude mechanicals. The play they choose to perform, The Most Lamentable Comedy and Most Cruel Death of Pyramus and Thisbe, is comical because of its heavy irony. The definition of irony is when something happens in the opposite way of what is expected, usually resulting in amusement. To be more specific, dramatic irony occurs when the full meaning or significance of a character’s words is known to the audience or reader, but not to the character themselves.

The play the rude mechanicals perform is ironic in it of itself because it features a lot of misunderstandings and false identity, which is exactly what occurred to the four lovers in the overall play. But one of the specific parts of the rude mechanicals play that I found ironic was the number of times they make reference to an ass, specifically directed at Bottom. In lines 151-153, Theseus says “I wonder if the lion be to speak” and Demetrius responds by saying “No wonder, my lord; one lion may when many asses do,” Demetrius is referring to all of the actors as asses because of how poorly they are performing the play. In our times, they’re acting like what we would call dumbasses. But Demetrius’s specific choice of word makes the scene really ironic because Bottom was literally transformed to have an ass’ head earlier in the play. This irony continues in lines 299-300 when Theseus says “With the help of a surgeon he might yet recover, and yet prove an ass.” Again, I thought this was really ironic since Bottom was actually an ass prior to this performance. The irony of the play within the play adds to the overall theme of A Midsummer Night’s Dream by demonstrating how unaware all the characters were of the other plot lines that were taking place at the same time. It adds to the comic confusion that is featured throughout the entire play.

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/655600