A Midsummer's Night Dream Insult Comedy Essay

In the play A Midsummer’s Night Dream, elements of insult comedy can be found as Shakespeare incorporates to better improve the humor. Insult comedy is a form of comedy that is intended to offend or mock a person or group of people in order to create a humorous tension. Shakespeare utilizes this very well as a way to push plot such as Helena loving Demetrius and Demetrius hating Helena as well as describing the terrible acting of the Mechanicals. Insults help form character opinions and thoughts making them more defined as the play progresses becoming very important for plot and character development. Insults become an effective tool for Shakespeare as a way to improve comedy and plot for his play.

Shakespeare uses insult comedy between

the relationship of Helena and Demetrius. The young couple are not both in love with each other but instead Helena loves Demetrius and Demetrius hates Helena making for very interesting interactions between the two.

Helena usually begs for love while Demetrius tells her off with insults and burns. While Helena is following Demetrius through the woods in hopes to find Hermia, he says to Helena “Tempt not too much the hatred of my spirit;/ For I am sick when I look on thee”(2.1.215-216). This is insult comedy because Demetrius said he gets sick every time he looks at Helena because she is ugly. The insult also helps show the hatred Demetrius has for Helena. Shakespeare put this insult in to show the situation between the lovers and why Oberon has the love potion place on Demetrius’s eyes. This insult also shows what kind of person Demetrius is, at least to Helena he is very harsh causing her much strife. Demetrius is shown as overly hateful to Helena which is comical considering how much Helena loves him making them polar opposites with their emotions. This is also comical because of the full turn around Demetrius has when the love potion is placed on him causing him to love Helena and insult Hermia. While Demetrius does love Helena he despises Hermia’s lover Lysander as much as he despises Helena. After Demetrius’s tromping through the woods he finally finds Hermia, his love, but is bombarded with questions of the whereabouts of

Lysander by Hermia. After Hermia asks Demetrius if he had killed Lysander he responds with “I had rather give his carcass to my hounds”(3.2.64). This is an insult because he has given Lysander the title of being nothing better than food for his dogs. He has also insulted Hermia as well because Demetrius knows she loves Lysander and is desperately searching for him. This insult is incorporated into the shaping of Demetrius’s character in the plot as being bitter and mean while also serving as a shocking form of comedy to the audience. Demetrius openly hates Lysander for taking Hermia that he insults him for it. Demetrius while being very good at insult is not the only character to use this form of comedy within the play. Philostrate, Theseus’s advisor for the marriage, insults the mechanicals when Theseus decides to view their play over the other plays available. Philostrate responds by saying
“It is not for you: I have heard it over,
And it is nothing, nothing in the world;
Unless you can find sport in their intents,
Extremely stretched and conned with cruel pain”(5.1.82-85).
Philostrate refers as the play being painful to watch and undesirable making it fit for an insult and to fit under comedy. The insult is saying how obviously bad the mechanicals are at what they do but this is the first time it has been outright said in the play. Shakespeare also incorporated this as a warning to Theseus and everybody else preparing to watch the play that it is going to be something awful. The mechanicals, as Philostrate said, are and will be silly and dumb for anybody viewing the play. Shakespeare used this insult for plot as much as he did for a comical purpose.