A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Wasps And The Frogs

Aristophanes (c.447-c.380 BC) was an ancient Athenian playwright and his plays are the extant example of Attic Old Comedy. He wrote during the Golden Age of Athens (c. 5th Century BC), a period of political hegemony, and survived the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC) among other events that shaped the social and political messages behind his plays. Regarded by many as the Father of Comedy, Aristophanes used a range of humor devices in his plays, such as Wasps (422 BC), Frogs (405 BC), to provide socio-political satire, literary criticism and entertainment. He reflected the meaning of Athenian identity and citizenship, as well as the decline of the Golden Age toward the end of the 4th century BC.

His comedic plays have significantly
Across all texts humour devices have been a tool for commanding the audience’s attention and to communicate similar messages through social commentary. The texts concern the universal themes of restoration to old values, the role of the poet and the nature of entertainment.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the Wasps and the Frogs are comedic plays which express serious messages of Shakespeare and Aristophanes through the use of humour devices such as mockery. Mocking is the ridicule of others for comedic effect. Aristophanes’ influence on Shakespeare is revealed through their use of the same humour device, mockery. Mockery is used in the Wasps, the Frogs and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Shakespeare uses mockery when Puck tells Oberon “Lord, what fools these mortals be!” Through Puck, Shakespeare comments on, not only the young Athenians, but on humanity in general in saying that humans, such as Lysander, are capable of committing strange actions and saying strange things because of what they perceive as love. This is supported through the actions of Lysander and Hermia’s elopement, Demetrius’ act of stalking Hermia and Helena’s act of stalking him. They foolishly do not pay heed to social
By mocking mortals in general, and in mocking specific individuals in the Athenian audience, the playwrights broke the fourth wall and this enabled them to add a realistic dimension to their heavily fantastical plays. By humorously breaking the fourth wall, the audience is deliberately made aware that they are watching the play. This is a technique of metafiction and its purpose is to capture the audience’s attention and remind them of their serious messages in a humorous manner. Mockery is a tool for Aristophanes and Shakespeare to portray the root of problems faced in society. The blame falls on both the humans and the fairies in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The lovers attempt to run away from their problems and dishonour tradition and society’s expectations of them. Puck and the fairies meddle with human affairs and use love potions on them. In the Wasps their moral values are lost as drunkenness, gambling and homosexuality are mocked as hedonistic behaviour in the Wasps when the slaves ask the audience to guess Philocleon’s addiction. Both generations are at fault in the Wasps, in the same sense that in the Frogs, everyone is at fault for letting Athens deteriorate. In the Wasps, Aristophanes admires the older generation of Marathon Men yet acknowledges that, had they been