A Midsummer Night's Dream Literary Analysis

“Beware of your stereotypes and prejudices, they can trap you in a box and make you miss what life has to offer you”─Med Yones. One has to see past the stereotypes in life, just as one should do for A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare. This literature masterpiece entails a quarrel of a pair of lovers caught entangled in a treacherous web of tainted love and magic. This comedy, viewed through the archetypal literary criticism lens─which focuses on the stereotypical aspects─, makes the audience wonder and push beyond the boundaries of the stereotypes with the tale. Combined with its other elements, A Midsummer Night's Dream is more entertaining and meaningful when viewed through the archetypal literary criticism lens; such as in Act 1: scene 1; Act 3: scene 2; and Act 5: scene 1 in both the printed text and the 1999 film versions.

Mandy Conway Mrs. Guynes English 12 16 March 2000 A Critical Analysis of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" William Shakespeare, born in 1594, is one of the greatest writers in literature. He dies in 1616 after completing many sonnets and plays. One of which is "A Midsummer Night's Dream." They say that this play is the most purely romantic of Shakespeare's comedies. The themes of the play are dreams and reality, love and magic. This extraordinary play is a play-with-in-a-play, which master writers only write successfully. Shakespeare proves here to be a master writer. Critics find it a task to explain the intricateness of the play, audiences find it very pleasing to read and watch. "A Midsummer Night's Dream" is a

“ Falling in love is like jumping off a really tall building , your brain tells you it is not a good idea , but your heart tells you , you can fly. And then you die.” In Midsummer Night’s Dream, there are lovers but love ruins a lot of relationships, like the ones in the story. Love messes up everything in life, cause you know it feels ok until something happens like cheating or falling in love with someone else. Love is a powerful force that can ruin relationships.

An important point that is learned is that love cannot be forced. Hermia’s father Egeus, strongly wanted Hermia to marry only Demetrius. He did not want Lysander and Hermia to be married even though they love each other. He believes only Demetrius is entitled to and her tries to force Hermia into marrying Demetrius.

In a Midsummer Night’s Dream, William Shakespeare clearly shows the negative approach women receive from society in the 16th and 17th centuries. Men have been seen as dominant and in charge and women had no power. Women were perceived as housewives who takes care of the household and children. In addition to this, A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of Shakespeare most popular works and it is widely recognized as a comedy play. Without a doubt, romance is a common theme in Shakespeare’s play, both comedies and tragedies. In a Midsummer Night’s Dream, Egeus forbids his daughter, Hermia, to marry Lysander the man she loves. He forces her to wed Demetrius but Hermia refuses. For this reason, Lysander and Hermia flee Athens where the Athenian law cannot affect them. The purpose of this essay is to demonstrate the relationship between two couples who face unfairness.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a play written by William Shakespeare. The play portrays many different types of comedy. Insult comedy is a genre where offensive things are said to someone to make the audience laugh. For example, in Act III, Scene 2, Lysander is insulting Hermia on her size. He says,

Hermia is supposed to marry Demetrius but she is in love with Lysander. If she does not marry to her father’s consent she can become a nun or get killed. This shows how twisted the law was

When I read A Midsummer Night’s Dream, one thing really stands out to me and that is the plot element of it. It isn’t an ordinary play, it has a reality essence included with fantasy and I believe it comes together beautifully. I feel as if the play is the perfect mix of reality vs fantasy. The play starts off with the duke of Athens (Theseus) preparing to marry the queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta. Within the first part of the play, Hermia is pretty much given the option of following her father orders, which is to marrying Demetrius or being executed. Because of this, Hermia and her true love (Lysander) makes plans to run away from home and get married on their own.

In the opening scene, Hermia refuses to follow her father’s orders to marry Demetrius and instead, demands to stay with Lysander. To act on the situation, Egeus appeals to the duke, Theseus, to force his daughter to marry Demetrius. Turning to Hermia, Theseus then tells her:

William Shakespeare was a playwright, poet, and actor during the Renaissance, and is considered today to be the English national poet and the greatest dramatist of all time. The Bard of Avon was not only influential during his time but still continues to inspire people today. Shakespeare's language, characters, and especially his essential themes are still relevant in the modern era. Shakespeare’s marriage with Anne Hathaway, possible love affairs, and ________________ have influenced the themes in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream has always been a popular Shakespearean play which have been performed to discuss various issues such as the idea of love and loss of individuality. Therefore, when I knew that The Ravished was an adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, I was thrilled to see how the play was interpreted by the director, actors, and those who were involved in this play. After watching The Ravished, I was mesmerized by several perspectives of this performance, but two areas that caught my attention the most was how different acting skills of actors synced the play together and the way modern pop music was incorporated into the whole play.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is an enchanting comedy that presents many dominant views widespread in the society of Shakespeare’s time. Ideas of love and romance are central to the play, and notions of gender and male-dominance prevalent at the time surface throughout the text. Modern audiences may find such notions confronting, whereas Jacobeans might find other elements of the play such as the rampant disorder, uncomfortable.

While A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Merchant of Venice have extremely different plots and storylines, there are some similarities that we can point to. In both plays, characters grapple with how to prioritize their friendships and their marriage relationships. One common theme that we can point to is the dominance of women by males. That being said, characters reacted very differently when the demands of the relationships come into conflict. When analyzing the two plays, it is crucial to take into consideration the culture of the era in which the plays were written. Shakespeare lived during the Elizabethan

The story of A Midsummer Night's Dream was mainly about love and its abnormal dealings. In the play, Shakespeare tried to show that love is unpredictable, unreasonable, and at times is blind. The theme of love was constantly used during the play and basically everything that was said and done was related to the concept of love and its unpredictable ness. Shakespeare made all of the characters interact their lives to be based on each other’s. At first, everything was very confusing, and the characters were faced with many different problems. In the end, however, they were still able to persevere and win their true love, the love they were searching for in the first place.

When contemplating Shakespeare’s, A Midsummer Night’s Dream there are numerous twists and turns associated with the play creating confusion regarding its intended underlying premise. There is, however, the recurring theme of love within this work that ranges from parental, sexual, platonic, and magical (Bevington, 2014). Moreover, throughout the scenes, numerous characters attempt to control love, but in conclusion, they fail to manipulate it as desired. Thus, as we discuss this play, there are countless emotions connected to the love proclaimed by lovers, parents, friends, and mystical beings (Pigg, 2017). Consequently, my view of this play is that while differing forces attempt to manipulate love based on their desires, love is stronger than any being or power and is uncontrollable.