UP AND DOWN, UP AND DOWN: DUPING IN A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

Abstract

Elizabethan audience had a taste for wit and an interest in discovering the artistry behind the invention and the execution of the joke. Duping is a dramatic device which satisfied this relish for the display of wit in the Elizabethan comedies. This paper argues that Shakespeare uses duping as a narrative technique in A Midsummer Night’s Dream to give the play its dramatic, structural and thematic unity. The paper discusses how Shakespeare’s comedies unlike traditional comedies of the time do not focus on the correction of human folly but rather offer a commentary on the human nature and turn toward the self. Shakespeare's humour is kind, and even when he uses a dupe storyline, he usually downplays the careless anger that he knows is at the root of the desire to mock. The dupe is not exploited like in other Elizabethan comedies. The dupe in Shakespeare offers a site for questioning and commenting on human behaviour. Shakespearean comedies become more than just crude mockery and laughter. They offer an insight about the human nature and help us come to terms with our own self.