The Transition of Shakespeare's Comic Dramaturgy in A Midsummer Night's Dream

The Transition of Shakespeare's Comic Dramaturgy in A Midsummer Night's Dream

Shakespeare's dexterity at weaving the tapestry of the comedy consummates in the later romantic comedies. Much Ado About Nothing, As You like It and Twelfth night (1598-1600), written at his peak as a comic playwright. A Midsummer Night's Dream is between the two stages: the earlier comedies and the romantic comedies. It is significant that this comedy reveals Shakespeare's comic dramaturgy in transition Shakespeare shows a remarkable turning point in his craftsmanship since Love's Lobor's Lost Among the early four comedies, the comic form of The Two Gentlemen of Verona most significantly parallels that of this comedy, while Love's Lobor's Lost resembles this comedy in comic mood. All the early four comedies are, to different degree, concerned with the theme of love and marriage Nonetheless, A Midsummer Night's Dream has a closer relation with the later romantic comedies in the following respects: (1) a comic mode of two pairs of young lovers, (2) the dominance of the comic over the dark. (3) Elizabethan-style victory over obstacles, (4) a final ending in marriage. On the other hand, in this comedy Shakespeare shows his more mature adroitness at manipulating the comic elements. In contrast to that in the four early comedies, Shakespeare's verbal manipulation here shines through witty aphorisms, sarcasm, and quick inventiveness. More important, there is the interplay between the two comic elements and the organic unity between the romantic plot and the comic subplot Shakespeare portrays the sprightly verbal war among the young lovers through the comic device of transformation of personality, and he uses the comic rehearsal of the comic group as a means to unite the wedding of the three couples as well as the reconciliation between Oberon and Titania in the framework of the play. These traits are the proof that Shakespeare's comic dramaturgy in this comedy is in transition between the four early comedies and the later romantic comedies.