Midsummer Night's Dream

Love is a timeless topic which Shakespeare explores in depth in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream “. Shakespeare utilizes the format of a play within a play to communicate the complexities of love. Love is a force that characters cannot control. The play includes scenes of lovers searching for fulfillment in the arms of characters who are unavailable. The magic love potion wreaks havoc between actual lovers and it is clear just how negatively it is portrayed. The entire play revolves around the difficulties of maintaining love and how foolish and insecure the pursuit of love can make us. It also touches on the fickleness of love, that love can be

In the play, A Midsummer’s Night Dream begins with Theseus, Duke of Athens, preparing for his marriage to Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, with a four-day festival. Egeus, a citizen of Athens, goes to see Theseus with a complaint against his daughter: although Egeus has promised Hermia in marriage to Demetrius, who loves her, Lysander has won Hermia’s heart and refuses to obey her father and marry Demetrius. “Theseus speaks to Hermia, warning her to

After observing the senseless behavior of the Athenian lovers, Puck exclaims to Oberon, “Lord, what fools these mortals be” (III.ii.115)! This line, aimed at Lysander’s foolish behavior is meant to be humorous, but it also cleverly addresses the prominent theme of the story: that love is not under human control. Puck is clearly referring to the foolishness and exaggerated emotions of the four lovers in the play; however, Shakespeare also intends to target the audience members by emphasizing that humans in general have the tendency to do and say crazy things because of love’s powerful grasp on their emotions. Therefore, a character such as Puck, according to Robert Diyanni, “may remind us in some ways of ourselves; they may appeal to us because they differ from us” (Diyanni 1270). Although the Athenian lovers neglect to realize the extent of their ludicrous behavior, their unbalanced emotions are very noticeable to the fairies, who replace the audience’s role in this scene. Moreover, it signifies the contrast between both the human lovers, who become so entangled in a disarray of emotion, and the enchanting fairies, always playful and rascally in

Shakespeare’s usage of metaphor and simile in A Midsummer Night’s Dream is best understood as an attempt to provide some useful context for relationships and emotions, most often love and friendship, or the lack thereof. One example of such a usage is in Act 3, Scene 2 of the play. Here, the two Athenian couples wake up in the forest and fall under the effects of the flower, thus confusing the romantic relationships between them. Hermia comes to find her Lysander has fallen for Helena. Hermia suspects that the two have both conspired against her in some cruel joke, and begins lashing out against Helena. She says “We, Hermia, like two artificial gods, / Have with our needles created both one flower, / Both one sampler sitting on one cushion, / Both warbling of one song, both in one key; / As if our hands, our sides, voices, and minds, / Had been incorporate. So we grew together, / Like a double cherry, seeming parted; / But yet a union in partition / Two lovely berries moulded on one stem: / So, with two seeming bodies, but one heart; / Two of the first, like coats in heraldry, / Due but to one, and crowned with one crest.” (Shakespeare 2.3.206-13). Shakespeare writes this list of vibrant metaphors to establish the prior relationship between these two characters and to make it evident how affected Helena is by this unexpected turn of events, as well as to add a greater range of emotion to the comedy, thereby lending it more literary and popular appeal.

In the play, A Midsummer Night’s dream, Hermia, Egeus’s daughter is denied to wed her love Lysander, but has to comply with her father’s wishes and marry Demetrius. Infuriated, Hermia runs off with Lysander to his aunt’s house, sick of the Athenian law. As the lovers wander off into the forest, Helena, who is madly in love with Demetrius, tells him about the whereabouts of Hermia. In another part of the forest, Oberon, king of fairies meets Titania, the queen of fairies, arguing for a changeling child from India. When Titania refuses to give him up, Oberon plans revenge, by hiring Robin Goodfellow, also known as “Puck”, to retrieve a magical love flower, anointing her eyes and Demetrius’s, feeling bad for Helena after how Demetrius had treated her. Accidentally, Puck spreads it on Lysander’s eyes, creating major conflicts, later being resolved as the 4 lovers get married.

Despite magic and freedom there is also a hierarchy commitment, Puck serves to Oberon, Fairies serves to Titania. Oberon used the magic and deception to obtain desired. But he doesn’t like the results of misunderstood between lovers caused with magic, he orders Puck to prevent fight between Lysander and Demetrius “and all things shall be peace”.

Julie Taymor’s fondness for staged films is widely known, and the filmmaker makes now her third incursion in Shakespearean territory with the comedy “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, which was captured in the sequence of her own off-Broadway production play. After the huge visibility obtained with the Broadway's “The Lion King” in 1997, her cinematic career began strongly and confident two years later with the gloomy “Titus”, starring Anthony Hopkins as the title character. After “Frida”, a quaint biopic about the surrealist Mexican painter Frida Kahlo, and “Across the Universe”, a lame musical inspired on the music of The Beatles, she returns to Shakespeare with the “The Tempest”, her weakest film so far. “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, despite extended

The Riverside Shakespeare’s section on A Midsummer Night’s Dream, probably one of the best-known works of Shakespeare himself, goes further still to enhance one’s own understanding of even a time-honored tale such as this. The introduction, despite containing no visuals, is still largely effective in its comprehensive presentation of such a wide range of fascinating topics. These include the progression of Shakespeare’s own comic form, the madcap and complex interweaving of different story threads contained therein, and even some deeper level thematic analysis. This arguably provides just enough for beginners to build a foundational understanding themselves, while those who are perhaps more experienced may reconsider some of their own thoughts

In the play “Mid-summer night’s dream” you are faced with many absurd ideas and actions. In this poem you are faced with the decision of if you believe that Shakespeare meant for this play to be a work or reality, or a work of the realm unknown. You have to decide if he meant all of these things literally as a dream or if it was all an illusion of the mind. Although the beginning of the story is very realistic, just as the couples enter these woods they are faced with the ideas of illusion, and a fictional world they never imagined existed. In the poem it seems as if Shakespeare had this perfect idea of a dream world the couples would encounter. The reality of this story is love, and all of its disasters. The battle between who is in love and

Love, before we can talk about it we must define it; then we can dissect it and reference it. Love is defined in the dictionary as an intense feeling of deep affection. Throughout several of Shakespeare’s plays he speaks about love. It is a common theme throughout Shakespeare’s plays, both comedies and tragedies, and we can see that Shakespeare is infatuated with love. Shakespeare and I, though poles apart, raised in different times, places, and even of different genders have one thing in common; we both seem to be hopeless romantics. In Shakespeare’s plays love seems like a very obtainable reality, love conquers all if you believe in it and fight for it. This seems to go against societal structure in a time where marriages were arranged

Love does not run smoothly for the lovers in the romantic comedy, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” written between the years 1590–1596 by the prominent, English playwright; William Shakespeare. The play revolves around four lovers that each faces incessant complications for love. Demetrius, Hermia, and Lysander are trapped in a triangle of love in which Demetrius and Lysander both love Hermia, but Hermia’s heart only belongs to Lysander. Helena is not involved in the love triangle, but loves Demetrius, which—traditional to any love predicament—does not love her back. To Demetrius’ avail, Hermia’s father [Egeus] tries to coerce Hermia to marry his choice [Demetrius] or yield to the law of Athens and face the sanction of death or (suggested by

Shakespeare has many subplots that are included in the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream, he identifies the workers in creating a play in Act one called Pyramus and Thisbe for the Dukes wedding Shakespeare added this subplot because I think it enhances the audience’s understanding to become more aware of the theme and characters. I sense it makes people connect more to what is happening in the play as well it reveals more depth of what is occurring in each scene. I think subplots are important In this play because it allows readers to question how the plot is formed, as well to understand the structure that situates Shakespeare and the different inventive process of his work, it makes the play more interesting and is a different way to

8. STYLE: (A Midsummer Night's Dream), In A Midsummer Night's Dream, there are three styles: iambic pentameter, rhymed verse, and catalectic Trochaic Tetrameter that make William Shakespeare unique in his writing style. I didn't know about anything first and last styles until I got help from my older sister. She told me that iambic pentameter consists of five iambs per time. The iamb is every second syllable of each word. The lines in the play don’t have regular rhythms so it is called unrhymed iambic pentameter. This is a fancy way to talk to separate upper class characters from the commoners and their differences in talking have humorous effect. The specific example of this is at Act one Scene one line

To begin, Hermia and Lysander’s romance, as detailed in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, is true, as this love is both gradual and exceedingly organic. Unlike Helena and Demetrius’s fake and fallacious love, the romantic passion between Hermia and Lysander is genuine. It was not the fairy king, Oberon, who made them fall deeply in love with each other, as is the case with the former pair of paramours. Instead, Hermia and Lysander fell in love naturally, and in a gradual fashion. This proves their love to be true, as a person cannot fall in love with another in a brief period of time. Love is piecemeal, and takes numerous hours, if not years, for two people to become paramours. This is not true of the romance between Helena and Demetrius, as the two fell in love in a single instant. Demetrius was bewitched by Oberon’s magical elixir, and that is the only reason why the youth dotes on Helena. Before he was given the potion by the fairy king, Demetrius utterly detested Helena and loathed her. In truth, Demetrius did not even wish to see the girl, and was said to become sick merely upon seeing Helena. Therefore, it was only because of Oberon’s involvement that those two people fell in love. Thus, their love is not true, and is entirely fictitious and fraudulent. In addition, the love between Hermia and Lysander relied on no involvement from Oberon to form. The fairy king’s influence played no part in making them fall in love. While it is true that Lysander was given

When you walk into the theatre you are instantly swept away to another place. A place without fear. A place without any doubt. A place without burden. Whether you are in the audience for the first time or your fiftieth time. Whether you are performing for the first time or the fiftieth time. You will always experience the same emotions and connections as the people around you.