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critical analysis of a midsummer night dream
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A Midsummer Night’s Dream: by William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was born in April 1564. He had married at the age of eighteen to a twenty-six year old woman named Anne Hathaway in 1582. He had a daughter named Susanna and twins, Judith and Hamnet. Hamnet, his only son, died at age eleven. Shakespeare died in April 1616. Despite the fact that Shakespeare wrote some thirty-seven plays, owned part of his theatrical company, acted in plays, and retired a relatively wealthy man in the city of his birth, there is much we do not know about him (Jacobus, 167-169). One of the plays that Shakespeare wrote was A Midsummer Night’s Dream. A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1595-1596) is an early comedy and one of Shakespeare’s most beloved works. It is also one of his most imaginative plays, introducing us to the world of fairies and the realm of dreams. A Midsummer Night’s Dream has attracted many great directors in modern times, although in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the play was adapted essentially as a vehicle for presenting the world of the fairies. It even became an opera in 1692 (Jacobus 169-170). In the fairy world is where everything comes together.
In A Midsummer Night’s Dream Egeus who is Hermia’s father wants her to marry Demetrius. Hermia is in love with Lysander though and wants to marry him. Both Demetrius and Lysander are in love with Hermia and Helena is in love with Demetrius. Egeus wants Theseus the Duke of Athens to take Hermia far away and kill her because she refuses to marry Demetrius. Instead of killing Hermia, Theseus sent her far away and never to return.
Once in the woods Lysander, Hermia, Demetrius, and Helena run into Oberon the King of the fairies, Titania Queen of the fai...
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...gentle charm that could not be attached to an omnipotent figure, who must remain as unlovable as an unclimbable cliff. But most importantly, the fairy world represents an ideal because, as many have noted, it symbolizes, like the Homeric world, a union between man and nature (Hutton, 289-305).
Works Cited
Hutton, Virgil. "A Midsummer Night's Dream: Tragedy in Comic Disguise." (2001): 289-305.
Jacobus, Lee A. The Compact Bedford Introduction To Drama. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2009.
Kott, Jan. "Shakespeare Our Contemporary." Kehler, Dorothea. A Midsummer Night's Dream Critical Essays. New York & London: Garland Inc., 1998.
Montrose, Louis A. "A Kingdom of Shadows." Kehler, Dorothea. A Midsummer Night's Dream Critical Essays. New York/London: Garland Inc., 1998.
Ormerod, David. "A Midsummer Night's Dream: The Monster in the Labyrinth." (2002): 39-53.
Hermia , Lysander , Helena and Demetrius represent young love in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream . They are potrayed as foolish and fickle , acting like children and requiring a parental figure to guide them . The parental figures are Hermia’s father , Egeus , and figuratively Theseus , the mortal ruler , and Oberon , the mystical ruler.
The first scene of A Midsummer Night’s Dream introduces a tangled web of lovers. Hermia presents herself for judgement as she refuses to marry Lysander, the man of whom her father approves, as she is infatuated instead with Demetrius. Meanwhile her friend Helena is besotted by Demetrius, but he loves Hermia. The scene plays out like a soap opera with dramatic relationships galore, but Shakespeare establishes greater depth with the help of allusions. The most significant references in this scene appear when Hermia and Lysander speak privately for the first time. In their brief conversation, Hermia alludes to Cupid, Venus, and Dido. The first two are gods of love, and Dido is a queen who burned herself on a pyre after being abandoned by her lover. Shakespeare uses each of these mentions of mythology to make the point that the affair between Hermia and Lysander is no passing fancy. However, when Helena enters and converses with the star-crossed lovers she makes no mention of mythology as she discusses her unrequited love for Demetrius and resulting jealousy of Hermia. The absence of allusions in Helena’s speech accentuates the divide between herself and her friend. Barbara A. Mowat speaks eloquently on this concept in the Folger Library edition introduction. As Ms. M...
The four lovers run away to the woods outside of Athens. In the woods, a world of fairies dwell. The fairy king, Oberon, stumbles across Demetrius and Helena while Helena is begging Demetrius to love her. Since Oberon is having some problems with love on his own, he tries to help Helena with her unfortunate situation. He sends his jester, Puck, to use a flower that, if its juice is dropped onto someone who’s sleeping’s eyes, will make the person fall madly in love with the first person they lie their eyes on. “Take thou some of it, and seek through this grove; A sweet Athenian lady is in love with a disdainful youth; anoint his eyes; but do it when the next thing he espies may be the lady. Thou shalt know the man by the Athenian garments he hath on.”(64) Puck, following Oberon’s orders, finds Lysander and Hermia instead of Demetrius and Helena. Anointing Lysander’s eyes, he leaves, thinking he did his bidding. Helena finds Lysander sleeping, and, wi...
With that order, Lysander and Hermia come to make a rather rash decision. They decide to meet in the forest outside of the city of Ath...
When Hermia and Lysander are sleeping in the woods, Lysander suggests that “one turf shall serve as a pillow for us both, one heart, one bed, two bosoms, and one troth” (Act II Scene I). Hermia replies, “nay, good Lysander; for my sake, my dear, lie further off yet, do not lie so near” (Act II Scene I). Lysander then regards her wishes and sleeps away from Hermia. His ability to honor her despite his desires shows respect, a crucial quality in forming a healthy relationship, proving that Lysander and Hermia will have a lucrative
Shakespeare, William, and Russ McDonald. A Midsummer Night's Dream. New York, NY: Penguin, 2000. Print.
Theseus and Oberon are both compassionate and understanding towards the young lovers, Hermia and Lysander, and Helena and Demetrius. They are involved in a love triangle that encompasses matters of the law and love. Demetrius intends to marry Hermia, although, she shares a mutual love with Lysander; Helena loves Demetrius, although, he no longer loves her. Theseus, as the Duke of Athens, maintains the laws and standards of Athenian society. He acknowledges “the Ancient privilege of Athens” (I.1.41) that allows Egeus to “dispose of” (I.1.42) Hermia. This law permits Egeus to give his daughter to Demetrius or “to death, according to [the] law” (I.1.44). However, Theseus takes pity on Hermia and gives he...
Hermia, Demetrius,and Egeus are all important people in the majestic life of the one and only Lysander. This magical sequence of events takes part in one of William Shakespeare's best plays, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Lysander's role in this story is to love Hermia. Lysander shows that love is worth fighting for when brings the case to the Duke and has a duel with the other lover of Hermia, Demetrius.
Born on approximately April 23, 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, William Shakespeare is considered by many to have been the greatest writer the English language has ever known. His literary legacy included 37 plays, 154 sonnets, and five major poems. Among his many plays is the notable, Twelfth Night, a romantic comedy, placed in a festive atmosphere in which three couples are brought together happily.
The fairies and the fairy realm have many responsibilities in this play. The most important of which is that they are the cause of much of the conflict and comedy within this story. They represent mischievousness and pleasantry which gives the play most of its emotion and feeling. They relate to humans because they make mistakes but differ in the fact that they do not understand the human world.
Hunt, Maurice. “The voices of A Midsummer Night's Dream”. Texas Studies in Literature and Language 34. 2 (1992): 218-38. Web. Apr 2014.
In the first part of the play Egeus has asked the Duke of Athens, Theseus, to rule in favor of his parental rights to have his daughter Hermia marry the suitor he has chosen, Demetrius, or for her to be punished. Lysander, who is desperately in love with Hermia, pleads with Egeus and Theseus for the maiden’s hand, but Theseus’, who obviously believes that women do not have a choice in the matter of their own marriage, sides with Egeus, and tells Hermia she must either consent to marrying Demetrius, be killed, or enter a nunnery. In order to escape from the tragic dilemma facing Hermia, Lysander devises a plan for him and his love to meet the next evening and run-off to Lysander’s aunt’s home and be wed, and Hermia agrees to the plan. It is at this point in the story that the plot becomes intriguing, as the reader becomes somewhat emotionally “attached’’ to the young lovers and sympathetic of their plight. However, when the couple enters the forest, en route to Lysander’s aunt’s, it is other mischievous characters that take the story into a whole new realm of humorous entertainment...
However, the ideal relationships are not immune to experiencing unharmonious periods. Despite this, the ideal couples eventually found harmony which allowed them to experience a joyous ending. Lysander and Hermia have a harmonious relationship in that they display similar desires and mindsets. In the beginning, after declaring their love for one another Lysander and Hermia devise a plan to run away and elope (A Midsummer Night’s Dream 1.1.156-178). Even when they are not of the same mindset Hermia and Lysander find an amicable solution. After becoming lost in the forest, Lysander’s desire is for them to sleep together, Hermia refuses for fear of the disgrace that would be placed upon her if for some reason they did not become married. Even though Lysander is a reluctant he respects her wishes (A Midsummer Night’s Dream 2.1.47-67). On the other hand, the relationship between Oberon and Titania in spite of being plagued by dysfunction comes to a harmonious agreement. At the beginning Titania and Oberon are quarreling over the control of an Indian changeling boy (A Midsummer Night’s Dream 2.1.18-31). While under the influence of an enchantment that Oberon had placed on her Titania relinquishes the control of the changeling boy to Oberon (A Midsummer Night’s Dream 4.1.56-60). After the enchantment is removed from her Titania no longer has feelings of defiance toward Oberon (A Midsummer Night’s
Schanzer, Ernest. "_A Midsummer-Night's Dream." 26-31 in Kenneth Muir, ed. Shakespeare: The Comedies: A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1965.
Shakespeare, William. A Midsummer Night's Dream. Comp. Folger Shakespeare Library. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2009. Print.