ROLE OF PLAY-WITHIN-THE-PLAY IN MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE | MEG - 2 | British Drama
INTRODUCTION
THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT
A Midsummer Night’s Dream was written during the Elizabethan era, a time when theater was a popular form of entertainment. The play was first performed in 1595 or 1596, and it was likely written for a specific occasion, such as a wedding or a festival. The play-within-the-play structure was a common device in Elizabethan theater, and it was used in many other plays of the time.
For a long time it was accepted that A Midsummer Night's Dream was an "occasional" play, that is, it was written for a special occasion. Harold Brooks is among those who are convinced that it was performed for an important aristocratic wedding.
Many modem critics do not agree that A Midsummer Night's Dream was first performed for an aristocratic wedding because there is no record of such a wedding.
IN WHICH PLAYS PLAY-WITHIN-THE-PLAY IS USED?
The play-within-the-play was quite common in Elizabethan drama. Shakespeare used it inHamlet , The Taming of the Shrew, and A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Ben Jonson used it in Bartholomew Fair
John Webster in The Duchess of Malfi.
Playwrights used it to comment on the main action and theatre culture.
WHY PLAY-WITHIN-THE-PLAY WAS USED IN MID SUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM?
A play-within-the-play underlined the most important ideas of the main play. For most of A Midsummer Night's Dream, the couples are not happily in love. They either actually quarrel or are on the verge of quarreling. By making his fairies use magic, Shakespeare has all the right couples suddenly and contentedly in love.
The Mechanicals' play is both similar and different to this. Pyramus and Thisbe are in love and want to marry but their families have quarreled and will not permit it. At the end, they are separated forever by death. The story reminds one of Romeo and Juliet which some critics think Shakespeare parodied in the Mechanicals' play. The more likely explanation is that the Mechanicals' "lamentable comedy" dramatizes the tragic outcome of a parental injunction against love, which is how the Lysander- Hermia story may have ended, while comedy, lamentable or not, fits in with the marriage celebration.
Elizabethan dramatists often used the play-within-the-play to satirise aspects of theatre culture. Among Shakespeare's satiric targets in the Pyramus-Thisbe play are:
Bad plays and playwrights: The script of the Pyramus-Thisbe play is ridiculously brief; it is ad hoc, as if being made up on the spot; tragedy and comedy are jumbled together; it has a lot of action but no character development; its verse is poor (doggerel is evident in, e.g., V i 214-221). The playwright wants to show off his classical knowledge but his script shows his ignorance of classical literature (see, e.g., the classical names in V i 194-197). His knowledge of English is equally amusing ("Sweet moon, I thank thee for thy sunny beams" in V i 261). He thinks the audience will not understand the dramatic devices, so detailed comic explanations are included: the lantern is the horned moon, Snout is the wall, the lion introduces himself in a long speech and says the ladies must not be scared of him.
Bad actors: The Mechanicals mispronounce words; they repeat lines if they think the audience has not heard them the first time (see Vi 231-236); they deliver lines incomprehensibly out of nervousness (this is especially true of the Prologue); they converse with the audience.
Undisciplined audiences: Loud comments from the audience disturb the actors. Audience and actors begin a dialogue (V i 246-249; 335-341). Theseus sits through most of the play but begins to walk out before it ends. The players are desperate to keep their audience and suggest that they could perform a dance (Bergomask) instead of the Epilogue. All this was based on what actually happened in theatres.
The Result of the play-within-the-play trope:
Love does not follow rules
In "A Midsummer Night's Dream," Shakespeare talks a lot about love being a tricky and sometimes not very smart thing. He shows love as a kind of crazy force that can happen unexpectedly, without caring about things like money, social status, or politics. The main characters, Hermia, Lysander, Demetrius, and Helena, all have messed up love lives, showing how love can be unpredictable. Also, the story of Pyramus and Thisbe, which is an old tale from way back in 8 CE, is included to show that this idea about love is true across different times and cultures. This is a direct parody of the main plot of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which features several characters who are in love with each other and experience various obstacles to their love. Shakespeare basically wants us to see that love can be a bit wild and doesn't always follow the rules.
Comic Relief
The play within a play in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" serves a second important role by bringing comic relief to the original Elizabethan audience. The clumsy and funny performances by the amateur actors in Act V serve as a way to lighten the mood and provide a break from the intense interpersonal drama happening in other parts of the play. This use of comedic scenes was a common practice during Shakespeare's time and can be seen in many of his works, including serious plays like "Romeo and Juliet" and "Macbeth." Essentially, these humorous interludes were a standard part of Elizabethan theater to entertain and amuse the audience.
Dreamlike
In "A Midsummer Night's Dream," the frequent interruptions, such as the play within a play and the antics of the fairies, are intentionally crafted to enhance the dreamlike and otherworldly feel of the play. The fairies, with their meddling in the characters' affairs, contribute to the blurring of boundaries between reality and fantasy. Additionally, the repeated scenes of characters practicing and putting on a play that isn't directly linked to the main story serve to disrupt the smooth flow of the narrative. This intentional interruption creates a more disjointed and dreamier atmosphere throughout the play, aligning with the overall surreal tone that Shakespeare aims to achieve. The combination of these elements adds to the sense of the fantastical and contributes to the dreamlike quality of "A Midsummer Night's Dream."
QUOTES
One of the most famous examples of the play-within-the-play structure in A Midsummer Night’s Dream is the scene where the amateur actors are rehearsing their play.
Act 1 Scene 2 –
QUINCE - Marry, our play is “The most lamentable comedy and most cruel death of Pyramus and Thisbe.”
BOTTOM - Let me play the lion too. I will roar that I will do any man’s heart good to hear me. I will roar that I will make the Duke say “Let him roar again. Let him roar again!”
BOTTOM - If I do it, let the audience look to their eyes. I will move storms; I will condole in some measure. To the rest. —Yet my chief humor is for a tyrant. I could play Ercles rarely, or a part to tear a cat in, to make all split
Critics:
Critics have had varying opinions on the role of the play-within-the-play structure in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Some critics have argued that the play-within-the-play serves as a commentary on the nature of theater itself, highlighting the artificiality and absurdity of the theatrical experience. Other critics have argued that the play-within-the-play is simply a device for comic relief, and that it has no deeper significance.
Comparing with other works:
The play-within-the-play structure is a common device in literature, and it has been used in many other works besides A Midsummer Night’s Dream. For example, Shakespeare himself used the play-within-the-play structure in several other plays, including Hamlet and The Taming of the Shrew.
Other examples of the play-within-the-play structure can be found in works such as Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and Luigi Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Author.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, the play-within-a-play structure in A Midsummer Night’s Dream serves as a multifaceted tool for reiterating principal themes, engaging with the nature of art, and exploring the complexities of love and performance. Through this device, Shakespeare enriches the narrative, providing layers of meaning and inviting the audience to reflect on the profound and the lighthearted aspects of the human experience.
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