rounded / With coronet of fresh and fragrant flowers" (IV.i.50-51). This description of crowning Bottom's head with flowers is nearly identical to the description of how she treated the boy, as we see in Puck's earlier lines, "...[b]ut she perforce withholds the loved boy, / Crowns him with flowers, and makes him all her joy" (II.i.26-27). Hence, we see that treating ugly Bottom in the same way she treated the beautiful Indian boy is an ironic situation.

In dramatic irony, the reader or audience knows far more about a character's situation or the unfolding action than the character actually does. We see Shakespeare relaying his use of dramatic irony when we see the lovers awake feeling disoriented while half believing what they have experienced was a dream and half believing it was real. This is an example of dramatic irony because the audience knows that what happened during the night was a result of fairy magic and their belief that it was a dream is also a result of fairy magic. We especially see the lovers feeling disoriented when they question whether or not they are actually awake. Demetrius phrases it best in his lines:

Are you sure
That we are awake? It seems to me
That yet we sleep, we dream. (IV.i.195-197)

Since the two couples believe that they are still sleeping and that they dreamed the whole experience while the audience knows differently, this is a perfect example of dramatic irony.

Shakespeare actually uses irony in order to develop the humor throughout the play. Irony can actually be the most useful tool for developing humor within a comedy. We mainly see two types of irony being used in A Midsummer Night's Dream, dramatic and situational, and both elements are mainly developed through characterization and plot. The irony develops humor because the irony presents absolutely ridiculous situations that we recognize as funny.
Dramatic irony refers to moments in a story in which the reader/viewer knows more about the character's current situation than the character actually does. Good examples of dramatic irony are seen with respect to the lovers and developed through the plot concerning the lovers as well as characterization. None of the Athenian lovers have any clue that they have been enchanted by Puck and that the nightmare unfolding before them is all Puck's doing. In particular, Lysander is characterized as actually believing that his own reason has told him that Helena is the better woman for him than Hermia, as we see in his lines, "The will of man is by his reason sway'd, / And reason says you are the worthier maid" (II.ii.117-118). Hence, we see that Shakespeare developed dramatic irony through plot structure and characterization. Furthermore, since the lovers believe that their actions are their own doing, we see that the irony has been used to create a ridiculous plot line.
Situational irony is also developed through the plot. In situational irony, what happens in the plot is the exact opposite of what the reader/viewer is expecting to happen. Situational irony often overlaps with dramatic irony in A Midsummer Night's Dream. One example is that because the play starts out with two men pursuing Hermia, the audience would never really expect both men to begin pursuing Helena, the exact opposite woman. Again, since the situational irony creates an absurd situation, we can see how Shakespeare used situational irony to develop humor. Puck describes the humor of the absurd situation best when he declares, "[T]hose things do best please me / That befall preposterously," meaning "absurdly" (III.ii.121-122).

Throughout the play, Shakespeare uses all three types of irony.

Verbal irony occurs when words mean the opposite of what is intended. In the quote below, Bottom speaks with unintentional verbal irony. In the fairies' forest, his head has been turned into an ass's head, and his comrades respond with fear and wonder at the change. Bottom thinks their responses, which are real, are a joke ("knavery"). When he says they are trying to make an ass (fool) of him, the statement is ironic because he literally is an ass, at least from the neck up, as he speaks:

I see their knavery: this is to make an ass of me, to fright me if they could.

This brings us to a second type of irony: dramatic irony. This occurs when the audience knows what characters or a character in a play do not. In the scene above, we know that Bottom now has an ass's head, but he is oblivious to that fact. Later, in another instance of dramatic irony, we know as an audience what Helena and Hermia do not: that a love potion has caused both Lysander and Demetrius to fall in love with Helena. Helena, however, thinks it is a cruel and mocking joke they are playing on her, while Hermia thinks that Helena has been stealing Lysander from her as she sleeps.

Finally, situational irony occurs when events turn out the opposite from what we expect. All through the play, Shakespeare pokes fun at the idea that love is eternal and unchanging, showing it is as changeable as the shape of the moon: Titania falls in and out of love with Bottom, Demetrius falls out of love with Hermia and in love with Helena, and Lysander falls temporarily out of love with Hermia. Shakespeare spends the play showing the irony of how much weight we put on "true" love when it is, in fact, such an irrational and ever changing emotion.