More handpicked essays just for you.
The use of magic and fairies in a midsummer night's dream
The use of magic and fairies in a midsummer night's dream
The use of magic and fairies in a midsummer night's dream
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Fairies and Their Purpose
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.
Robin is the most notable fairy in the play and is the servant of the fairy king, Oberon. Along with Oberon, Robin is the most comedic and protagonistic character in this play. He is responsible for the essential events that occur in the woods whether on purpose or just on accident. He recognizes himself as a protagonist. "Thou speakest aright. I am that merry wanderer of the night." He purposely turns Bottom into an ass just merely for his own enjoyment and to help Oberon receive the Indian boy. Oberon is Robin's driving force and reason for his actions. If Robin did not have the influence of Oberon and the orders from him he may not have been such a vital fairy in this play.
The fairy world shows us a lighter side of reality that today we do not see as often as we should. The fairy world is one of carefree enjoyment and fun times, unlike the human world which is wrought with death and destruction. The human world is one of horrible tragic events that occur all the time while in the fairy world one is known only to have a good time. The fairies are responsible for the comedic aspect of this play and without them it could not have been comedic. The fairies represent a realm of carefree and amazingly enjoyable freedom that the members of the human world want to have but cannot because of the structure and laws.
The fairies also show that their culture and society are not completely devoid of human qualities when Robin makes the mistake of placing the nectar on Lysander instead of Demetrius. The human actors in the play are a form of entertainment to their viewers in the human world, while the fairies are the entertainment of the woods and those who experience them. Humans are known for making mistakes all the time and the fact that Robin mistakes Lysander for Demetrius shows that he too suffers from error and is not infallible.
There are several events in the play which at one point or the other take a tragic turn which constantly undercut back into the play by speeches. What is set out in the play is a festive mood where people were engaged in activities of ‘Maying’ where people get together to sing and dance in the woods, activities that led to the maids’ belief that the pursuit if true love can be scored only through divination dreams (Barber 18). The fairy’s existence is conceptualized from the act of fusing pageantry together with popular games in a menacing way bring out their actual image of a relaxed
The simplicity, linearity and one dimensionality of fairytales have led to the belief in there allegorical nature, a conviction that fairytales mean something quite different from what stands in the text. As with most literary works there is deeper meaning in fairytales than just meets the eye. Little Red, the Wolf, and Grandmother are all one-dimensional characters. The illustrations are simple and sweet. No one character has more emphasis than the other and the focus is on the highly symbolic language, images.
The movie is centered around the life of Ella, the daughter of an affluent Merchant. Ella is portrayed as a compassionate, carefree individual who befriends all the animals on her estate. However, her life is turned upside down after the passing of her mother, and the consequential, remarriage of her father. Ella does not only gain a step mother through marriage but also, two step sisters. After the sudden passing of her father, Ella is forced to take upon all the domestic responsibilities of the household, and is treated with servitude by her step-mother and her step-sisters. However, Ella does not protest their requests as her mother’s last words to always be kind and have courage echoes her ears. During one cold night, Ella sleeps next to the open stove and is covered in cinders while she serves breakfast to her step mother and step sisters. They mockingly name her Cinderella. Distressed with circumstances at home, Ella rides her horse deep into the forest, and meets the Kingdom’s next heir, but mistakes him for an apprentice learning a trade. The Prince is mesmerized by Ella and protests that the Kingdom Ball’s invitation be extended to “all the maidens of the land”, in hopes of meeting Ella. Despite her step mother’s disapproval, Ella goes to the Ball with the help of her fairy god mother and her animal friends. The Prince is taken aback by her beauty, but Ella must return back home just after midnight when the fairy god mother’s spell would wear off. In the hurry, Ella leaves back her glass slipper, which leads to a Kingdome wide search for Ella. Towards the end of the movie, Ella and the Prince are united and they live happily ever
A fairytale is a fictional fantasy fable that passes through generations of children as source of interest to them. Though used for the intent of entertainment, fairytales often indirectly advocate a moral or message to readers (whom are usually children), in hopes that they will grow up to apply these ethics and lead a righteous life. This criteria, however, often originates from the occurrence of a magical transformation; it is this paranormality that introduces the characters of the story to a side of life far from what they have grown to know and learn to adapt to the dramatic amend in their life. This is evident in the characters in world-renowned tales such as The Little Mermaid, Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast.
The entire play is constructed around groups of opposites and doubles, leaving two opposing staging traditions to debate over the dramatic qualities of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, being either l...
There is drama caused between the young lovers initially, when Hermia loves Lysander, Lysander loves Hermia, Demetrius loves Hermia, Helena loves Demetrius, but no one loves Helena. Through this short, complicated ‘love story’, arguments and fights occur. The fairy world then comes into contact with the world of the young lovers. Mischievous Puck causes further complications when he uses magic to anoint a young Athenian male’s eyes, who is in fact the wrong Athenian that Oberon assigned Puck. Puck misuses magic when he plays a silly prank on Bottom, who is one of the Mechanicals, by giving Bottom a head of an ass.
The funniest part of this play seems to be when Puck, the trickster, keeps mixing up the people who he is assigned to put the love juice on. Even when he did put the love juice into the right people's eyes, they still fell in love with the wrong people sometimes. The first example of this mistake of Puck's is where he puts the love juice in Lysander's eyes, mistaking him for Demetrius. Oberon tells Puck to put the love juice in the eyes of an Athenian man, Demetrius, and to make sure that the first thing he sees after this is the woman whom he hates, but who loves him so much, Helena. Puck ends up finding Lysander and Hermia, lovers, sleeping on the forest floor. He puts the love juice in Lysander's eyes and leaves. Then along come Helena and Demetrius to this spot. They are still arguing and Demetrius leaves her with the sleeping Lysander and Hermia. Helena notices them there and tries to wake Lysander. Lysander wakes and the first thing he sees is Helena. "And run through fire for thy sweat sake. Transparent Helena! Nature shows art, That through thy bosom makes me see thy heart."(2.2.103). This is what Demetrius says to Helena when he sees her. He has fallen in love with her. This is where the comedy of this love mix up begins. Now Helena is confused and thinks that Lysander is playing a trick on her so she runs away. This is a most particularly funny part of the play and these mix ups with whom loves who seem to be the funniest pieces of the play.
A Misummer Night’s Dream is a comedy play written by William Shakespeare. In this play there are multiple themes however the most evident theme is love. Why is love an evident theme? It is an evident theme because the play commences with two Greek mythology characters─ the Duke of Athens, Theseus and Amazon queen Hippolita planning their marriage. However as Theseus plans his marriage he has to help Egeus persuade his daughter Hermia to marry Demetrius. Unfortunately both the Duke and Egeus failed to persuade Hermia into marrying Demetrius so the fairies (another set of characters. The fairies in this play consisted of goddess of chastity and Queen of fairies, Titania and King of fairies Oberon and his assistance Robin Goodfellow) decide to resolve this issue by involving a “western flower” whose juice “ will make…man or woman madly dote upon the next live creature it sees…” Through each and every action of the characters Shakespeare implies that love is makes us crazy, but it moves the world. Love is something that needs to be felt with the heart and once someone feel it, their life can change forever.
In Grimm’s version, magical wise women are invited to a great feast and bestowed gifts to Briar-Rose. Anne Sexton decided to retell this fairy tale by using magical fairies instead of magical wise women. When children are watching modern fairy tales today like, Disney’s Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Tinkerbell, some of the main characters are fairies. In real
Fairies are beings that take a resemblance to humans. Usually, they are described as shorter versions of humans with extraordinary abilities. These abilities always seem to affect humans in many different ways. Whether this was for good or ill will depended on how the humans acted towards fairies and their customs. If someone, even accidentally,
The fairy tales that we have become so familiar with are embedded with love, imagination and enchantment. In truth, these are just common archetypes; originally fairy tales had a much darker backdrop. They were once symbols of sexualisation and brutality as not everything ended happily ever after. Deriving from promiscuous and overlooked on goings from the 19th century (such as molestation), these ideas were later suppressed when they became children’s tales. John Updike described traditional fairy tales as ‘The pornography of their day’, hence they contained elements of wish-fulfilment and gratification such as rape, pleasure and attainment. This is true to a certain extent but they also consisted of violence, mutiny and injustice. An exploration
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.
There were both male and female fairies, some good and others evil. Evil female fairies were usually associated with female sexuality and abused their magical powers by doing harm (Rose 107-9).
As we enter the forest we see a similar class system, with the other fairies serving under king Oberon, and queen Tatiania. Just as the artisans work for the nobles, putting on a play for their amusement, the lower fairies such as Puck, Peaseblossom, and Cobweb. The fairies speak in their own verse, tetrameter. “Captain of our fairy band, Helena is here at hand.” – MND (3.2.11). Shakespeare also uses the fairies to show a much darker message in a lighter tone. The idea of social mobility is explored when we see Tatiania, the fairy queen, falling for Bottom. Obviously, the delicate fairy queen is dramatically unsuited to the clumsy, monstrous craftsman. By depicting the scene as ridiculous, Shakespeare mocks the very notion of social class mobility. Concealed by the comedic effect of the fairy queen falling in love with one of the artisans is a much deeper and darker note. The only way to move through the social class is by entering the realm of the forest, where the world is only loosely governed by the ruling
Fairies and the remaining fairies of the play, Puck does not seem to fit in as