...Why do people feel the need to control others? In the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare one of the main characters, Hermia is being treated unfairly by her father --Egeus-- and the “Athenian Law”. The Athenian law and Hermia’s father are both treating Hermia unfairly by taking away her right to marry who she loves, threatening to give her an ultimatum if she does not obey, and they are preventing her from maturing on her own. Any parent would want to let their child make their own mistakes, but still wants them to be happy and protected. The Athenian law and Egeus went at this problem the wrong way. Controlling who the daughters of their community marry is a bad idea and could never work. Hermia and her true love show this...
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...A Midsummer Night's Dream Genre Comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream is a classic example of Shakespearean comedy. What, you don't believe us? We'll prove it to you. We've got a checklist that details all the typical conventions and features of the genre so you can see for yourself: Light, humorous tone: Check. The play features fairy magic (like Oberon's love potion), silly pranks (like the transformation of a guy's head into that of a jackass), and the botched performance of a play-within-the-play by a bunch of wannabe actors. Need we say more? Clever dialogue and witty banter: Check. Shakespeare is a huge fan of punning and snappy wordplay, so naturally, his characters know how to get their witty repartee on. Shakespeare reserves some of the best dialogue for his warring lovers, especially Oberon and Titania, and even the "rude mechanicals" manage to wow us with their clever banter. Deception and disguise: Let's see…Hermia and Lysander try to sneak away from Athens to elope (behind Egeus's back). Also, Titania and the young lovers have no idea they've been drugged by Oberon and his magic love juice. So, check. Mistaken identity: Check. Sort of. In most of Shakespeare's other comedies, someone usually runs around in a disguise to mask his or her identity. (Sometimes, a lover is even tricked into sleeping with the wrong person by mistake.) This isn't necessarily the case in A Midsummer Night's Dream, unless we count the fact that the love juice causes Titania to fall head...
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...METATHEATRE in A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM Course : Approfondissement Shakespeare ; theatre, meta-theatre and pact of performance Professor : F. MARCH Student: Louize Zara Dierickx (Erasmus Belgium) Course : Approfondissement Shakespeare ; theatre, meta-theatre and pact of performance Professor : F. MARCH Student: Louize Zara Dierickx (Erasmus Belgium) INTRODUCTION During the Elizabethan era meta-theatre was often used in plays to obtain the interest and participation (imagination) from the audience. Also Shakespeare used a lot of metaphors and references to theatre in his plays. In this research paper we will study the use of meta-theatre in Shakespeare’s famous play A Midsummer Night’s Dream. First, the term ‘meta-theatre’ will be explained. Then, the period in which meta-theatre was an important aspect of theatre, also Shakespeare’s period, namely the Elizabethan Era, will be discussed. Finally, a number of specific scenes in the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream will be analysed. Midsummer night’s dream is a romantic comedy. The play has 2 levels: the human world, which takes place during the day, and the fairy world, which takes place at night. In the human world the story is about 4 young people, searching their way to true love, as well as about a theatre company, preparing a play for the coming wedding of the king and queen. At the fairy level, the fairy king and queen quarrel about their marriage. These two levels are combined by a love potion, which...
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...Antithesis in A Midsummer Night’s Dream In Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's, there are a lot of themes that are evident. Some of these themes included order, disorder, reality, dream, harmony, enmity, amity, harmony, and dissonance are just to name a few. Normally, none of these themes would even be present at the same time because of their contrasting nature and the fact that they are complete opposites. However, the fact that not only are these themes present at the same time, but they even interact with one another inside of the play to create events within the play is the epitome of antithesis. Shakespeare even includes character antitheses that intertwine with the themes. Furthermore, in A Midsummer Night's Dream the main overshadowing theme is the concept of antithesis because the fact that all of the themes present in the play have opposites that can be clearly be seen and the fact that Shakespeare places next to each other in contrasting beauty show antithesis. In this play, none of these themes would exist without their opposites. Initially, one of the examples of antithesis, and probably the most prevalent, in A Midsummer Night's Dream is the theme of disorder and its companion order. Disorder is a dominant theme in this play because it is seen on nearly every page and in many aspects of the play. In most cases, the disorder is cause by the fairies. These fairies are part of the dream world that actually controls the real world. One of the main fairies that...
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...Olivia Smith Pd 4 MSND A In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, mistaken identities cause an uproar of emotional mix-ups. The background of the play is a simple love "square" involving four people.: Hermia loves Lysander and Lysander loves Hermia, but Demetrious also loves her, and Helena loves Demetrious. Hermia and Demetrious are engaged to marry against Hermia's will. They all end up running off into the wood on a magic spring evening when fairies turn everything upside down. While they are asleep, Puck squeezes the juice from a magic flower that makes whomever's eye it enters to fall in love with the first person they see. He puts it onto Lysander's eye, thinking he was Demetrius. This begins the game of mistaken identities, because Helena is the first person Lysander sees, which causes him to fall in love with her instead of Hermia. So now, Lysander loves Helena, Helena loves Demetrius, Demetrius loves Hermia and Hermia loves Lysander. The confusion increases. Every encounter the couples have gets more confusing and exasperating. Then Puck realizes his mistake and puts the flower juice on Demetrius' eyes, making him fall in love with Helena as well. Helena, whose love towards Demetrius has been in vain, thinks that Lysander and Demetrius are mocking her, because they are both, suddenly, mysteriously in love with her. Her exasperation is ironic, because now she has too much love instead of too little. Her anger and verbal abuse of the lovers and of Hermia, whom she suspects...
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...‘As men prove their weakness, they demonstrate their power.’ The male characters in a midsummer night’s dream are depicted as ones, who are given authority; however the female characters in the play aren’t submissive to them and they seem to have very little power over them. Oberon has power through aristocracy and his marriage with Tatiana who is queen of the fairies. He is initially at odds with his wife, because she refuses to relinquish control of a young Indian prince whom he wants for a knight. Oberon’s desire for revenge on Tatiana leads him to send Puck to obtain the love-potion flower that creates so much of the play’s confusion and farce. We also know that Oberon and Titania have been clashing a lot and that their big "brawls" have been very destructive. Titania tells us that the fights have been so violent that they've disrupted the seasons and the weather, which has caused devastating winds, rain, and flooding. As a result, crops have been ruined and there's been a shortage of food for humans. As Titania admits, "this progeny of evils comes from our debate, from our dissension" (2.1.3). This shows that Oberon is equally as powerful as Titania, normally women were dominated by their husbands as a woman belongs to their father until they’re married ultimately becoming their husbands possession. Furthermore, the fact Titania is reluctant to gain control of an Indian prince and questions Oberon’s choices is an example of her independence rather than to follow him without...
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...Anyone in love knows that it can strike at any moment. Love can tangle around hearts and cause people to do unimaginable things. For instance, marry one another on a whim, continue to stay in an abusive relationship, or in extreme cases commit suicide. People do not choose to fall in love; it can affect anyone at any time. In a moment someone may realize they love a boss, a former lover, or even someone who only suddenly appears attractive. William Shakespeare, in his Elizabethan era romantic comedy, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, uses the motif of the magic flower to reveal how love can hit suddenly and consume everything. People can easily fall in love. Shakespeare uses the motif of the magic flower to show how even Titania, queen of the fairies, can fall in love with an ass in an instant. “What angel wakes me from my flow’ry bed?” (Shakespeare III.i.131) She does not choose to fall in love with Bottom; love chooses her. Shakespeare shows how people cannot control their love. People simply become immersed in their love and begin to forget everything else. Even Helena wonders at how Demetrius falls in love with Hermia. “O, teach me how you look and with what art // You sway the motion of Demetrius’s heart” (I.i.196-197). She loves Demetrius so much, but he does not love her. Shakespeare shows that if Demetrius could choose who to love,...
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...Modern vs Contemporary perspective on “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” At first glance, none of the characters in Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” seem to react out of the ordinary. Although the setting does seem a lot more favorable for men, a modern reader gets used to it quite quickly, since this is often the case in literature. However, when thinking and reading like a contemporary reader, the play appears in a whole new light. There are women in the play, which take the situation in their own hands and are making their own choices. A contemporary reader would have seen this agency that the women do possess much differently than we do today. Hermia is the prime example for a woman in the play with a lot of agency. Very shortly into the play, the standing of the women in society is clearly established. Theseus says: “What say you, Hermia? Be advised, fair maid. To you your father should be as a god, One that composed your beauties, yea, and one To whom you are but a form in wax By him imprinted, and within his power To leave the figure or disfigure it.” [1.1 46 – 1.1 51] Hermia is not enabled, by the men around her to make her own choices. She should clearly have no agency; the paternal law doesn’t allow her to. At the time, this was the way of the world and most societies at the time had some variation of this law. A reader back then would’ve thus just nodded in agreement and continued reading. Modern readers, however, don’t agree with this law. We’ve been...
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...No Fear Shakespeare – A Midsummer Night’s Dream (by SparkNotes) Original Text -1- Modern Text Act 1, Scene 1 Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, and PHILOSTRATE, with others THESEUS and HIPPOLYTA enter withPHILOSTRATE and others. THESEUS Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour Draws on apace. Four happy days bring in Another moon. But oh, methinks how slow This old moon wanes! She lingers my desires, 5 Like to a stepdame or a dowager Long withering out a young man’s revenue. THESEUS Our wedding day is almost here, my beautiful Hippolyta. We’ll be getting married in four days, on the day of the new moon. But it seems to me that the days are passing too slowly—the old moon is taking too long to fade away! That old, slow moon is keeping me from getting what I want, just like an old widow makes her stepson wait to get his inheritance. HIPPOLYTA Four days will quickly steep themselves in night. Four nights will quickly dream away the time. And then the moon, like to a silver bow 10 New bent in heaven, shall behold the night Of our solemnities. HIPPOLYTA No, you’ll see, four days will quickly turn into four nights. And since we dream at night, time passes quickly then. Finally the new moon, curved like a silver bow in the sky, will look down on our wedding celebration. THESEUS Go, Philostrate, Stir up the Athenian youth to merriments. Awake the pert and nimble spirit of mirth. Turn melancholy forth to funerals. 15 The pale companion...
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...2015 The similarities and differences of Hermia, Lysander, Demetrius, and Helena relationships Relationships are hard. Many people go about life with hopes of one day finding true love. Then there are others who are compelled to love a person although the person they love does not share the same love interest. In some cultures relationships are arrange amongst parents while other cultures leave love to the free will of the individuals in love. In Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream the readers are introduce to two couples who share some of these similarities and quite a few differences. While many people misinterpret lust as love, love is an act of free will because love cannot be forced, in order for love to prosper there has to be a mutual affection between two people, and thus concluding that love is more powerful force than lust. The play A Midsummer Night’s Dream takes place in Athens under an Athenian society. In Athenian culture, the law of a father holds that a father has control to choose his daughter’s perspective suitor. This portrays in the start of the play with Egeus and his daughter Hermia. Egeus files a complaint against his daughter Hermia with the king of Athens, Theseus. Full of vexation come I, with complaint/ Against my child, my daughter Hermia. I beg the ancient privilege of Athens: / As she is mine, I may dispose of her, / Which shall be either to this gentleman/ Or to her death, according to our law (1.1.21-22, 41-43)...
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...They all presumptuously belittle the imaginative capacity of their audience, assuming that their viewers will not be able to distinguish between a real lion and a stage lion or the fact that the “moon” is merely being played by a man. Bottom says, “a lion among ladies is a most dreadful thing. For there is not a more fearful wildfowl than your lion living”, which incorrectly implies that Snug’s acting is so impressive the ladies in the audience will be scared of his lion (Act 3, Scene 1, lines 28-30). Furthermore, Snout then says, “Therefore another prologue must tell he is not a lion” (lines 32-33). All of these prologues are completely unnecessary, and any audience of A Midsummer Night’s Dream does not have to wait for the players to be humbled; the foolishness of these actors is in itself a punishment. The actors make themselves look ridiculous, completely missing the fact that theater naturally hinges on imagination, and their audience automatically proves their capacity for imaginative leaps by even momentarily accepting lowly workers as lovers or nobility. This is an example of Shakespeare’s use of simple conflict and resolution to prove a point. Clearly, the audience’s imagination directly contradicts the players’ pride; once again, the power of imagination makes the arrogant look...
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...a potion, a potion that made him believe he is in love with the next person he saw after he woke up. Plus, after he awoke from the influence, and was in control again, he still loved Hermia. He did not just abandon her after he woke up. While there is genuine love in the play, on the other hand we also have infatuation, or in other words, fake love. Infatuation is an intense but shortlived passion or admiration for someone or something, which is clearly seen in the play with the use of the love potion. The love potion is made from the juice of a flower that was struck with one of Cupid’s misfired arrows, and is used quite a few times in the play. Lysander and Demetrius both fall for Helena instead of Hermia, which is all the doing of the love...
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...In A Midsummer's Night Dream, Shakespeare’s use of characterisation and symbolism helps develop the audience's understanding of the theme that love makes people act foolishly. Shakespeare exaggerates the selfish actions, beliefs, behaviours and thoughts of the characters when they are under the influence of love, and to further underline this theme, he also utilises the aesthetic device of symbolism to demonstrate how people in this state act recklessly and with blind indifference. All the characters are perceived as deeply preoccupied with their own feelings and intentions and all are very self-centred. Firstly, there is a love quadrant between Hermia, Helena, Demetrius and Lysander. They are all self-absorbed and all have different intentions...
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...Abstract This paper explores the role of a father and some of the many changes that have occurred from Shakespeare’s time and our current societies’ view of a father’s role. There have been many studies conducted over the years focused on what an important role a father plays in the healthy upbringing of a child. A father in the past was looked at as a man who literally owned a daughter and was someone who should not be disobeyed. Overtime the father was looked at as a person who helped mold a child emotionally and intellectually. Recent studies show that a father is more likely to play with a child than a mother. Almost anyone who looks back on their childhood who had a father or father figure would likely say they can remember how playful their father was. This paper will also look into the plays written by Shakespeare and the father – daughter relationships within them. A Father’s Role The need for a father has stayed the same, but the role of a father has changed since Shakespeare’s time to today’s society. There are many great quotes on the father-daughter relationships that some hold on to for inspiration. Some examples are, “There is no love like a father’s love for his daughter” and “A father’s job is not to teach his daughter to be a lady. It is to teach her how a lady should be treated.” Clearly these quotes did not come from Shakespeare’s time. In Shakespeare’s time a father looked at his daughter was looked at as a subject who was owned by their father...
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...laughter and Joy. Lamb, Charles and Mary. Like A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Merchant of Venice, it is built by means of two worlds: the world ruled by Duke Frederick and the world of the Forest of Arden. Lamb, Charles and Mary. The effect is not the "separate but equal" envelope structure of A Midsummer Night Dream, nor the interlocking and necessary alternation of The Merchant of Venice; instead, Frederick's world first seems dominant and then dissolves and disappears into the world of Arden. Lamb, Charles and Mary. Its life seems to be in the play not so much for itself as to help us understand and read its successor. There is a set of contrasts between the two worlds of this play, but the contrasts are describable not in terms of opposition of power, as in A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Merchant of Venice, but in terms of attitudes of the dominant characters, as in Much Ado About Nothing, and in terms of differences in the settings and of changes in behavior for those characters who are part of both worlds. Lamb, Charles and Mary. These contrasts are easy to describe because Shakespeare points the way clearly, making each world an extreme. Our approach will be to examine the qualities of Frederick's world, then to examine the qualities of Arden, and finally out of this contrast to see how the characters behave in each world. Lamb, Charles and Mary. We have seen power presented in A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Merchant of Venice. In the former, Theseus...
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