From primordial beginnings is how living things all began. As the earth began to transform with time, so did the organisms upon it, starting from simple, and building upon themselves, as time went on. Each change was the branch-off into another direction, and each branch grew on its own with the common goal of wanting remain. In a like manner was the evolution of the the fairy tale, and in Jack Zipes’s paper The Cultural Evolution of Storytelling and Fairy Tales: Human Communication and Memetics, Zipes explores the origins of fairy tales, and how they evolved to be what they are today. Through linking biology and literature, Zipes created a set of criteria derived from historical analyses of literature to clarify what a fairy tale is and is …show more content…
Adrian’s work is a hybrid of postmodern literature and the classical work A Midsummer Night's Dream. Using the characters, and a similar plot to the original, he plays with unreliability, and shifting the ordinary . Greeted by both fairies and oncology workers, the reader is taken into an unreal, unsugarcoated word, and no one is seen as completely righteous or immoral. However; one thing is clear, and that is the unreliability throughout it all- the good news, the bad news, and the inability to call it what it is. Towards the ending of the piece, the reader picks up a message from the story, something that will attach itself to the reader because it is no longer a story. It resonates with them, and becomes something they continue to recall upon facing injustices of the same kind (20). This unreliability and cynicism is the backbone of postmodern literature. Although keeping the aspects of the original Shakespearean play,, the involvement of the hospital shows the sharper edges of our everyday life, those that are other forms of literature previous to it seem to evade. If one were to read a piece which gathered inspiration from A Midsummer Night's Dream during another movement of writing, it would have been conveyed to fit the relevant time. The fluxity of a fairy tale’s genre is directly dependant to how and when it has evolved, and “A …show more content…
Aiming to portray this paradigm shift which parents with a child who has cancer go through, Adrian uses fairies to emphasize the unrealisticness and change that occurs. Although living in the same world, breathing the same air, and having the same heartbeat as an average person, their paradigm is one that is completely different from the one we reside in. Like the fairies, they want to go to any extreme to guarantee their child’s battle to be successful. Their entire life becomes a set of trials and obstacles that they take with their child in order to help them fight. A fairy in the hospital, is no different than a parent in a hospital, the sparkle and the allure of their life goes out. No longer can they help their child by studying with them for a test, or putting a band aid on their knee; all control is given to an unfamiliar, and seemingly robotic medical team. When all of one's thoughts are on their child, and how to assure their battle is successful, thoughts become irrational, and scattered. “A Tiny Feast”’s counterworld to ours is the world of the hectic, irrational, and hopeful minds of parents in a hospital, and within this counterworld, it’s still able to get its message
Color, for writers through the ages, has been a telling element. A Midsummer Night’s Dream should be no exception to this element. The characters of the story tell a tale of magic; complete with fairies, potions, and a donkey’s head. Each of these effects brings enchantment to the story, charm that can not necessarily be employed naturally on a Middle English stage. The play, itself, talks on the magic that is A Midsummer Night’s Dream,
Exerting the type of power that is influenced by malicious intentions can cause one to make decisions that are not beneficial to others. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is written within a time period and setting that favors men instead of woman. In other words, men have all the authority to control the events that occur in their own lives as well as the lives of others whom are considered insignificant. The plot displays the catalysts that ignite many characters’ desire for control that is misused by higher status people. Shakespeare’s use of characterization demonstrates how the wanting of control causes the characters to act irrationally through the misuse of power. Shakespeare’s use of setting, plot and characterization causes the ordeals that the characters ultimately face. In turn, the deceitful choices of a few individuals with status impacts whether the lives of lower status people are enhanced.
Katelyn Matroni Professor Torrence English 102 February 12th, 2014. Meaning of Life According to Bruno Bettelheim, in Introduction: The Struggle for Meaning taken from The Uses of Enchantment, the use of fairy tales in a children’s life allows them to deal with their fears in a symbolic way. In order for a story to hold a child’s attention, it must “help him to develop his intellect and to clarify his emotions”(263). The use of fairy tales in Burn Your Maps, by Robyn Joy Leff, portrays the subtle but important influence of fairy tales on a child.
Fairies, mortals, magic, love, and hate all intertwine to make A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare a very enchanting tale, that takes the reader on a truly dream-like adventure. The action takes place in Athens, Greece in ancient times, but has the atmosphere of a land of fantasy and illusion which could be anywhere. The mischievousness and the emotions exhibited by characters in the play, along with their attempts to double-cross destiny, not only make the tale entertaining, but also help solidify one of the play’s major themes; that true love and it’s cleverly disguised counterparts can drive beings to do seemingly irrational things.
Shakespeare’s comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream juxtaposes the patriarchal world of justice, rule, and order, contextualized as Theseus’ Athens, with the youthful, rebellious universe of Oberon’s woods. In the last lines of the play, Robin Goodfellow (Puck), one of several maliciously-inclined forest fairies, attempts to reconcile these opposites by suggesting to a potentially offended audience that the “immoral” events having occurred in these woods would simply have taken part in a dream. In contrast to the other characters of the play who either emblematize each side of the binary (fairies as the “woods” and older humans as “Athens”), or assert both extremes at different periods in time (young Athenians), Puck embodies the liminal space
Fairytales express the creative fantasies of the rural and less educated layers of common man (Cuban, 1984). They are characteristically full of magic, often involving upper class characters (Cuban, 1984). In short, Fairytales are organically grown with the creative material of a collective group. The Grimm Brother’s fairytale, The Frog Prince, is no exception. The Grimm Brothers’ fairytale is about a handsome prince trapped in the repulsive body of a frog, but who nevertheless overcomes and transcends this bewitched state through his wit, perseverance, and magic (Prince, 2009). Until the seventeenth century, it was the adult population that was interested in fairytales (Cuban, 2009). Their allocation to the nursery was a late development (Cuban, 2009). This allocation can be credited to the rejection of the irrational, and development of the ra...
In William Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer’s Night Dream” two worlds are contrasted throughout the play. The Athenian state is governed by order, law, and reason; the forest or Fairy world lies within the realm of the imagination where anything is possible. While both worlds run parallel in the play, their inhabitants are influenced by one another. Their rulers, Theseus and Oberon, play critical roles in the events of the story. Theseus acts compassionately with a sense of duty, order and respect; his initial rulings for Hermia provide the exposition for the comedy (May 75). Oberon acts compassionately as well, but acts on a whim and resorts to trickery if it suits his desires; his actions direct the complication in the plot (May 75). Their personalities are characterized by how they attempt to help the young lovers, how and why they make decisions and how they interact with their loved ones and subjects. The rulers’ similarities govern the reasons behind their actions; their differences contribute to the success of the story.
Paster, Gail Kerns &Skiles Howard. “Fairy Belief.” A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Texts and Contexts. Eds. Paster, Gail Kerns & Skiles Howard. Boston: Bedford, 1999. 307-310. Print.
In conclusion, in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare effectively uses the motifs of the seasons, the moon, and dreams to show that love, irrationality, and disobedience directly cause chaos. By calling to mind the seasons in unnatural order, describing the moon behaving strangely, and discussing the dualistic, irrational nature of dreams, Shakespeare effectively evokes a sense of chaos and disorder. Linking each of these motifs to the themes of love, irrationality, and disobedience allows Shakespeare to illustrate the disarray that is bound to result from any romance.
Throughout A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare, there are multiple analyses that one can follow in order to reach a conclusion about the overall meaning of the play. These conclusions are reached through analyzing the play’s setting, characterization, and tone. However, when one watches the production A Midsummer Night’s Dream directed by Michael Hoffman, a completely different approach is taken on these aspects, leading to a vastly different analysis of the work. Though there are many similarities between the original written play A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare and the on-screen production of the aforementioned play which was directed by Michael Hoffman, there are differences in setting and
In conclusion, the extent to which a specific fairy tale meets Zipes’ definition varies dependent upon its adaptability and acceptance by society. Some fairy tales are harder to manipulate and their plot is insufficient to reflect society’s values so not all fairy tales are institutionalised. Thus, the manipulation of Little Red Riding Hood throughout its history and its adaptability to a myriad of usage passes Zipes’ definition of ‘institutionalisation’.
Fairy Tale Text & Motif. Prod. Distribution Access. Distribution Access, 2001.Discovery Education. Web. 1 December 2001. .
In today’s society, the concept of dreaming and dreams, in general, has been featured in a variety of different mediums, such as literature, film and even music. While the mediums of film and music are both prime examples of this concept, the medium of literature, on the other hand, contains a much more diverse set of examples pertaining to dreams and dreaming. One key example is William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. While the portrayal of dreams, in general, plays a prominent role in Shakespeare’s play, the exploration of many aspects of nature, allows readers to believe that dreams are merely connected to somewhat unconventional occurrences.
Borey, Edward. "Classic Note on A Midsummer Night's Dream." Classic Notes by Gradesaver. 2001. 12 March 2001. <http://www.gradesaver.com/ClassicNotes/Titles/midsummernight>.
Zipes, Jack. Why Fairy Tales Stick: The Evolution and Relevance of a Genre. New York: Routledge, 2006. Print.