...of time. Even today they are used in education, personal leisure and of course entertainment, as they were always meant for. Today, plays like A Midsummer Night’s Dream, have been made into movies. But how well do the actors portray the timeless characters in Shakespeare’s world? Can modern day actors do Shakespearean characters justice in their portrayal? In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Puck is one of the most significant characters. In the 1999 film adaptation the character of Puck is played by actor, Stanley Tucci. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Puck, also known as Robin Goodfellow is the mischievous sprite who serves Oberon, the Fairy King. He spends his days playing annoying tricks on people or helps them out with their chores. In the play, Puck brags about when he has been a nuisance to women in the village, “Sometimes for three-foot stool mistaketh me/Then slip I from her bum. Down topple she” (Shakespeare 2.1 52-53 857) more than anything else, Puck enjoys a good practical joke. After he changes Bottom’s head into the head of an ass, he delightedly proclaims, "My mistress with a monster is in love" (Shakespeare 3.2 6 870). Puck can be considered the heart and soul of the play because of his playful spirit, enthusiasm and disposition to prank anyone. His sense of humor and the tricks he plays infuse A Midsummer Night's Dream with a whimsical and disheveled quality that forms the majority of the play's amusing atmosphere. In the film, Stanley Tucci portrays the character...
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...What can two random components like love and a potion have in common? According to Shakespeare’s play “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, pouring a love potion on two separate love interest did not make for a good night. Thankfully, George Lucas’s storyline explained Shakespeare’s play in the animated movie ‘Strange Magic’. While there are some differences, the similarities between “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and ‘Strange Magic’ are salient. While the plots are similar, each work stands alone due to their differences. “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is one of Shakespeare’s play comedies. The play begins with Theseus who is preparing the city for his marriage to Hippolyta with a festival. Theseus is named the Duke of Athens, which makes him have the highest title Meanwhile, Egeus enters followed by Hermia, Lysander, and Demetrius. Hermia is Egeus’ daughter and she is in love with...
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...Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream it is evident, through the actions of Oberon and Lysander, that love can be both strong and fragile. In the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the actions of Oberon allows the reader to question the strength of the love between the Fairy King and Titania. Oberon is portrayed to have two personalities. Though he can be caring, loving, and benevolent. Oberon is...
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...Trickster Plays a major role in some figures represented in this course. Midsummer Night's Dream & Hotel Emibago. What is the Trickster? What image does Shakespeare give him? Shakespears "A Midsummer Night's Dream", was written at a highly liminal moment in European History, the end of the Renaissance and the unfolding of the Reformation. Shakespeare attributes a power to images through which humans can be incited to act, in particular fall in love, and assigns a decisive role in the manipulation of such images to the trickster figure of folk tales and myths. Throughout this essay I will be discussing the figure of the Trickster, what he is and the image which Shakespeare portrays to us. The Trickster is traditionally known as a person who cheats or decieves people. Typically makes up for physical weakness with a cunning and subversive humour. In relation MSND, Puck, AKA Robin Goodfellow, AKA The Trickster, is a mischievous fairy who delights in playing pranks on mortals. He is the closest thing to a protagonist and is responsible for many of the complications throughout the play. EG. The 2 lovers and Bottoms head. In the tricksters jokes there is always something out of place. This is because the Tricksters entertainment is never "good clear fun": someone always pays for it. The jokes are too strong, rude and even cruel: they make fun of already frail people and those undergoing tasks. The one thing he cannot stand is genuine involvement and...
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...problems; however, the truth of the matter is that empathy alone is not enough. This reality is demonstrated through various forms of literature. To begin with, in Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Mrs. Henry Lafayette Dubose battles with a terminal illness and morphine addiction. Regardless of the amount of compassion the other characters may show towards her, it is not enough to save her life. Likewise, in Elie Wiesel’s memoir, Night, Mrs. Schächter suffers from terrifying hallucinations which cause her to scream relentlessly about fire and flames. Even if the other individuals on the train try to empathize with her, they are unable to help her in the state that she is in. Finally, in William Shakespeare’s play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Robin Goodfellow makes an error that causes a series of mixed up events. However, mere empathy alone could not have prevented it from occurring. Even if the characters in these three texts were to possess a highly developed sense of empathy, some of the problems they encounter are inevitable. First of all, in To Kill a Mockingbird, Mrs. Dubose is diagnosed with an illness and given only a few months to live. Among her last deeds, she decided that she did not want to die under the influence of her morphine addiction. However, overcoming an addiction is not a pleasant process and the children, Jeremy Atticus Finch and Jean Louise Finch were often on the receiving end of this hostility. One day, as the children passed by her house, Mrs. Dubose...
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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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...Love can transform one's life. Weather its valuable or atrocious. When we often fall in infatuation we are blind to the world around us. In the play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare four couples fell in love. But not necessarily all unwise. All of the main characters are in or desire to be in a romantic relationship. Lysander and Hermia are the two lovers that can not be together. Demetrius and Helena are acquaintances but, Demetrius can not stand Helena. He is in love with Hermia, who does not feel the same. The story turned around right about when Lysander and Hermia decide to go away in the woods to Lysander's aunt's house. That is when there preposterous destiny began. In the play there is an fairy couple. The couple...
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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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...Characters The Athenians Theseus – Duke of Athens Hippolyta – Queen of the Amazons, betrothed to Theseus Philostrate – Master of the Revels Egeus – father of Hermia, wants her to marry Demetrius Hermia – in love with Lysander Helena – in love with Demetrius Lysander – in love with Hermia Demetrius – in love with Hermia at first but later loves Helena The Fairies Oberon – Titania's husband and King of the Fairies Titania – Oberon's wife and Queen of the Fairies Robin Goodfellow/Puck – servant to Oberon Peaseblossom – fairy servant to Titania Cobweb – fairy servant to Titania Moth – fairy servant to Titania Mustardseed – fairy servant to Titania First Fairy, Second Fairy The Mechanicals (An acting troupe) Peter Quince – carpenter, leads the troupe and plays Prologue Nick Bottom – weaver, plays Pyramus Francis Flute – bellows-mender, plays Thisbe Robin Starveling – tailor, plays Moonshine Tom Snout – tinker, plays Wall Snug – joiner, plays Lion Play Summary A Midsummer Night's Dream opens with Theseus and Hippolyta planning their wedding, which takes place in four days. Theseus is upset because time is moving so slowly, but Hippolyta assures him the four days will quickly pass. Their relationship has not always been so loving. Theseus won Hippolyta during a battle. While they discuss their relationship, Egeus enters with his daughter, Hermia, and her two suitors, Lysander and Demetrius. Hermia is in love with Lysander, but her father wants her to marry...
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...Bloom’s Classic Critical Views W i l l ia m Sha k e Sp e a r e Bloom's Classic Critical Views alfred, lord Tennyson Benjamin Franklin The Brontës Charles Dickens edgar allan poe Geoffrey Chaucer George eliot George Gordon, lord Byron henry David Thoreau herman melville Jane austen John Donne and the metaphysical poets John milton Jonathan Swift mark Twain mary Shelley Nathaniel hawthorne Oscar Wilde percy Shelley ralph Waldo emerson robert Browning Samuel Taylor Coleridge Stephen Crane Walt Whitman William Blake William Shakespeare William Wordsworth Bloom’s Classic Critical Views W i l l ia m Sha k e Sp e a r e Edited and with an Introduction by Sterling professor of the humanities Yale University harold Bloom Bloom’s Classic Critical Views: William Shakespeare Copyright © 2010 Infobase Publishing Introduction © 2010 by Harold Bloom All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. For more information contact: Bloom’s Literary Criticism An imprint of Infobase Publishing 132 West 31st Street New York NY 10001 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data William Shakespeare / edited and with an introduction by Harold Bloom : Neil Heims, volume editor. p. cm. — (Bloom’s classic critical views) Includes bibliographical references...
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