Compare and comment on the different functions of the play-within-a-play in A Midsummer Night's Dream and hamlet?

Answer 1

Romeo and Juliet and Midsummer Night's Dream both were written by Shakespeare.

There is an odd parallelism between the two plays, which were written at about the same time and have many similarities in style, especially a lot of rhymed couplets.

In one sense, Dream is like a mirror of R&J. Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy, Dream is a comedy. The main plot of R&J is very like the plot of Pyramus and Thisbe, which is turned into a ridiculous farce by Quince and crew. Juliet's predicament of being ordered to marry a man when she loves another is also Hermia's. Juliet's solution is the tragic one; Hermia's is comic. Shakespeare doesn't often talk about fairies, but they are a big part of Dream and, son of a gun, there they are in a big long speech by Mercutio.

Day and night symbolism is most important in both plays. The key word in Dream is "moon" and in R&J it is "stars", both features of the night sky, but wholly contrasting ones. In Dream, reality is like the moon, the inconstant moon that nightly changes. Whatever is real, even the love of lovers for each other, can be changed by the fairies. A figurative jackass can become a literal one. But in R&J, reality is as constant as the northern star. The lovers are star-crossed, and those stars are not going to change, nor is there anything that they can do to change what is and what will be. The love of the lovers, far from being as fickle as the moon, will last forever, even into death.

Answer 2

The function of "Pyramis and Thysbe is to entertain at the wedding. The function of "The Mousetrap" is to force a confession from Claudius.