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What is A Midsummer Night's Dream?

Recently in ELA, I had the opportunity to read A Midsummer Night's Dream by none other than William Shakespeare himself. The play is most often seen as a comedy, and I really have no problems with that statement. It's funny, whimsical, and it fits the other requirements that most comedies do.

First off, there are two worlds: Athens, or the "normal world", and then the woods, where most of the action takes place (a comedy must have some sort of connection between these two places). A requirement of a comedy is that it has to end in a feast, a birth, a marriage, or some other sort of happy ending. A Midsummer Night's Dream differs from this slightly, where Puck causes a lot of trouble for the play's characters (albeit in a funny way), but promises the audience that he will restore amends, and besides, this was all a dream!

I think A Midsummer Night's Dream fits the bill of 'comedy' pretty well. Between this and The Merchant of Venice, it definitely sticks to the traditional comedy formula a bit more.

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