Midsummer Night's Dream, Bottom and his band of "rude mechanicals" fill the role of clowns.

Some other characteristics of the Elizabethan comedy present in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night Dream are the presence of plurality of characters and plots. Not content with getting one couple joined, Shakespeare gives us two principle couples and several subsidiary couples to be entertained with. The festival background is identifiable in this comedy because of the celebration of fertility that it ends with: The couples don't make their way to church watched over by calmer adults, as in As You Like It, they celebrate their love and fertility in the woods before returning to the city. Which brings up another Shakespearean comedic element relating to city and woods.

In the city, authority rules and propriety dictates behavior. The couples escape to the woods to revolt against heavy-handed authority and to embrace the governance of love and emotion. The objective, which can be seen in A Midsummer Night's Dream and even more clearly in As You Like It, is to strike an equilibrium, a balance, between the freedom the woods stand for and the formality and order the city stands for. Disguise and deception are integral parts of how the structure of the city is overturned and the liberty of the woods is brought forward and, ultimately, into balance with the other.

[For greater detail on Shakespeare's comedies, see Cambridge Press's The Genres of Shakespeare's Plays written by Susan Snyder.]

To me, this play is a fairly typical comedy of William Shakespeare.  It has many of the elements that Shakespeare tended to like to put in his comic plays.

This play has an original problem -- that Egeus will not let Hermia marry Lysander even though they are in love -- that causes the rest of the play to happen.  This is similar to how Bianca's problem (having to wait for her sister to get married first) sets up the whole play in "Taming of the Shrew."

Like other Shakespearean comedies, this one has many people changing identity.  We can see this in other plays such as "12th Night" or "Taming of the Shrew."  Finally, the play ends with a wedding and a feast, just as "Taming of the Shrew" does.

These are a few of the elements of this play that make it similar to other of Shakespeare's comedies.

What makes comedy, among other things, is contrast. This play is full of contrast. The Mechanicals/Clowns are contrasted with Nobles and Fairies. Another element of comedy is literalism. The Clowns take everything absolutely literally and all things to them are of equal seriousness. The fairies provide us with a way of seeing the mortals through their eyes and they find the behaviors of the mortals hilarious and therefore so do we.

It is important to remember that each character has intentions, desires, and a powerful reason to be wherever he or she is. These often conflicting intentions and the passions that accompany them create all the set-ups for great comedy. Every character represents an aspect of ourselves. We are intended to laugh at ourselves with compassionate recognition and pleasure.

One classic way to create comedy is through irony. Irony takes place when words, actions, or plot development contradict what is intended or expected to happen. Shakespeare uses many instances of both dramatic and situational irony in A Midsummer Night's Dream. Dramatic irony occurs when a reader or viewer knows more about a character's current situation than the character does. Situational irony occurs when what happens in a plot or situation is actually the opposite of what the reader/audience would expect. Often situational irony occurs due to accidents or reversals of circumstances.

Both dramatic and situational irony actually overlap each other in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Dramatic irony especially relates to how the audience perceives the four lovers' circumstances. Both Demetrius and Lysander suddenly leave off being in love with Hermia and fall in love with Helena, and they do not know why, even though the viewer does know. Likewise, another instance of dramatic irony is seen when Helena's response is to believe that both men are playing a huge joke on her and that Hermia is in on the joke. We see her reach the conclusion that Lysander is scorning her when she says, "Wherefore was I to this keen mockery born / When at your hands did I deserve this scorn?" (II.ii.125-126). We further see that she believes that even Demetrius is making fun of her when she says, "O spite! O hell! I see you all are bent / To set against me for your merriment" (III.ii.147-148). Finally, we see that Helena believes that even Hermia is in on the joke when Helena proclaims, "Lo, she is one of this confederacy!" (195). While Demetrius and Lysander do not know that they have both fallen for Helena due to a love potion, the audience does know; likewise, while Helena does not know that Demetrius and Lysander are actually being sincere due to the fact that they have been enchanted, the audience does know, showing us that both of these instances are perfect examples of dramatic irony. The characters' confusion certainly helps create the comedy in the play, especially because their confusion creates arguments amongst the four of them with many amusing lines. Puck describes it best when he says, "Shall we their fond pageant see? / Lord, what fools these mortals be! (115-116).

However, these instances of dramatic irony overlap with situational irony because it is purely by accident that both men leave off pursuing Hermia and begin pursuing Helena instead. Puck mistakes Lysander for Demetrius, making Lysander fall in love with Helena because she comes into view just as Lysander wakes up. Then, Oberon places the love potion on Demetrius's eyes, just as he had intended to do, making both men pursue Helena. The situational irony created by Puck's mistake also leads to arguments amongst the characters and humorous lines.

The Comedic of A Midsummer Night's Dream would refer to the elements of the play fit the structure of a classic Comedy.  These criteria were used by the ancient Greeks and Romans and adapted a bit by Shakespeare, but were definitely considered "rules" to follow in writing a play called a Comedy.  The structure of a Comedy in the classical sense doesn't have that much to do with whether the play is funny or not.

The comic aspects of the play would be any events or bits of text that are meant to be funny.   For a play, some of the comic elements can be found by simply referring to the text, but much that is comic will be added by the actors playing the parts and can only be observed in watching the play performed live.

Some examples of the Comedic structure of A Midsummer Night's Dream are:

• It ends in at least one marriage.  This play, in fact, ends in three marriages.
• It contains pairs of lovers who are either in love when the play begins (Lysnader and Hermia, Theseus and Hippolyta), must "win" each other's love (Demetrius and Helena) or are engaged in a "battle of the sexes" (Titania and Oberon).
• It contains complications to the lover's being together.
• It contains some issues of appearance versus reality, and some practices of deception that complicate the play's plot.
• It involves the struggles of youth against their elders as well as the society of the world of Athens versus the society found in the woods.

Some examples of comic events in the play are:

• All of the Mechanicals, including the play within a play that they perform in Act V.  By the way, this comic play is meant to be a spoof of another classic play structure -- a Tragedy.
• The tricks played on both Bottom and the Lovers by Puck, and the mix-ups that ensue (especially the comic fight between the Lovers in Act III).
• Bottom himself.  This character is the main "clown" of the play, and is meant to spoof all the overly-dramatic,stage-hogging actors that Shakespeare knew.  Most everything that Bottom says and does is meant to be comic.

For more on these terms and A Midsummer Night's Dream, please follow the links below.

One serious element found in A Midsummer Night's Dream concerns the treatment of women. Literary critic Shirley Nelson Garner points out that all throughout the play, Shakespeare points out that the men dominate the women.

One instance we see of male domination is with respect to Demetrius's treatment of Helena. When Helena first chases after him into the woods in pursuit of Hermia and Lysander, Demetrius actually treats her rather abusively, and Helena accepts the abuse rather obediently. Garner points out that Helena's lines encouraging Demetrius's abuse always receive a laugh due to their absurdity, but the lines deal with the much more weighty issue of male dominance:

The more you beat me, I will fawn on you.
Use me but as your spaniel, spurn me, strike me,
Neglect me, lose me; only give me leave,
Unworthy as I am, to follow you. (II.i.207-211)

In addition, Demetrius's own lines delivered to Helena threaten her with phyiscal violence, even rape:

You do impeach your modesy too much
To leave the city and commit yourself
Into the hands of one that loves you not. (218-220)

In addition to Demetrius's treatment of Helena, we see male domination in Oberon's treatment of Titania. We even see Titania respond with obedience once Oberon has lifted love spell he has enchanted her with. Plus, we see the issue of male dominance portrayed in the fact that Helena and Hermia fall completely silent in the fifth act, immediately after their weddings. Garner points out that their silence helps to characterize them as accepting their new roles of being obedient, silent wives.

Hence, we see that while A Midsummer Night's Dream is a comedy, it is peppered with weightier social issues and injustices. 

The term "dark comedy" was coined by literary critics to classify Shakespeare's comedies that are considered problem plays, having both elements of comedy, but also dealing with darker subject mater, such as social problems. The problem plays also may not have completely satisfactory or fully happy endings. Instead, readers or viewers are left contemplating the deeper issues the play has raised. Dark comedies are recognized as satirical due to the fact that they examine and ridicule human folly.
A Midsummer Night's Dream is certainly satirical, and in that sense, can be recognized as a dark comedy. Puck expresses the satire found in the play best when he says his famous line, "Lord, what fools these mortals be!" (III.ii.116). The darker social issues, or human folly, that the play ridicules or exposes particularly are gender roles and male dominance. In fact, Shakespeare portrays some of the male heroes as being outright abusive. We especially see one instance of this in Demetrius's treatment of Helena. When Helena follows Demetrius into the woods in the second act, he outright threatens to abuse and rape her. We see him threatening her with physical violence in the lines, "Tempt not too much the hatred of my spirit; / For I am sick when I do look on thee" (II.ii.215-216). We further see him threatening her with rape in the lines:

You do impeach your modesty too much
To leave the city and commit yourself
into the hands of one that loves you not;
To trust the opportunity of night,
...
With the rich worth of your virginity. (218-223)

These references to her modesty and virginity in connection with the fact that they are alone in a deserted wood are clear threats of rape. Hence, Shakespeare is using Demetrius's treatment of Helena to mock human folly and to point out the social injustice of men's treatment of all women, making this a dark comedy.

Not only does Demetrius threaten Helena, Helena accepts his threats with gracious submissiveness and obedience. She even encourages him to abuse her in the lines, "I am your spaniel; and, Demetrius, / The more you beat me, I will fawn on you" (207-208). These lines of Helena's are farcical because they are humorous while also poking fun at abusive male/female relationships. The farce Shakespeare uses in the play makes it satirical, which also makes it a dark comedy. Also, while these lines of Helena's are funny, they are also very dark, showing us that not only is the play satirical, it also deals with the dark social injustice of abusive relationships. Since the play deals with dark material, we can say that it is a dark comedy.