Wednesday, April 1, 2015

In A Midsummer Night's Dream, how does Shakespeare use the mechanicals' play to comment on performing a tragedy?Please describe two ways...

It is tricky to answer this question completely, since
most of the comment and comedy of the play about Pyramus and Thisbe needs to be
developed by the actors performing the mechanicals who perform the play within a
play.


Here are some
observations:


  • Bottom is the classic theatrical
    diva.  He wants to play every part and direct all the other performers to boot.  From
    the background we have about in him in rehearsals, it can be assumed that he will
    overact all his lines when performing before Theseus, becoming the classic stage hog,
    milking all tragic moments.  This goes double for his suicide, which the text indicates
    is an event he plays over and over -- dramatic
    overkill!

  • Flute is a young man who must play the girl. 
    This actor does not want to play the girl, and maybe must be reminded (even during the
    performance?) to keep his voice high and girlie.

  • The
    story goes so fast that all the outlandish dramatic elements look absurd.  Thisbe goes
    to "Ninny's" tomb and is randomly scared away by a lion, runs off, dropping her scarf,
    which is then ripped up and dropped by the lion, and finally found by Pyramus who
    recognizes it and assumes that Thisbe is dead.  This is the sort of outlandish string of
    coincidences found in many tragedies -- Romeo and Juliet being a
    good example.

  • The company of mechancials decides to add
    elements to the play for effect:  a Wall and Moonshine.  These additions point to the
    kinds of elements that Shakespeare left to the imagination.  So, by having the
    mechancials decide to present them, he demonstrates how absurd it can be to actually
    represent these things on stage.

I'm sure that
more ways could be brought out, but these are a good start.  If you'd like to hone in on
only two examples from the above that relate directly to staging a tragedy, they are
Bottom/Pyramus' overkill on the death scene and the outlandish string of coincidences
that bring about the tragic demise of the lovers.

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