A Midsummer Night's Dream Analysis

Love is defined in many different ways. As shown in the play, comedy and conflict are two main factors of love. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, William Shakespeare breaks down the two main themes of the story, comedy in conflict, into smaller, more condensed themes to show how the uses of these themes define the nature of love through the actions and relationships of the Athenians, Rude Mechanicals, and Fairies.

The males in the story have dominance over all of the women. This is shown all though out the story. None of the women were granted the decision to choose their own husbands. In Athens, the males feel as if they own the women. When Egeus said, “scornful Lysander, true, he hath my love, and what is mine my love shall render him. And she

In the play, Shakespeare made it seem as if women were supposed to worship the men: “Your father should be as a god… you are but as a form in wax… figure it or disfigure it”(Shakespeare 2). He wants them to appear as if they were a god. Theseus also wants Hippolyta to view him in this same way. He wanted her to be wooed by him as he is for her. Theseus said, “Hippolyta, I wooed thee with my sword and with thy love, doing the injuries, but I will wed thee in another key, with pomp, with triumph, and with reveling “(Shakespeare 1). Hippolyta was still forced to be wedded to Theseus. She was raped and Theseus still got what he wanted. Though Hippolyta isn’t ready to get married, the decision is up to Theseus. In the plat, “Theseus and Hippolyta are lovers that reflect the wide discrepancy between those who master and those who are mastered by love”(Comtois 2). Another example of this is between Demetrius and Helena. Demetrius and Helena did have a past together, however now that is not the case. Demetrius wants to have nothing to do with Helena. Helena begs and pleads for his love like a dog begs and pleads for table food. While Demetrius is off searching for his true love, “He is like a magnet, he is the master the god cant cease to follow” to Hermia (Comtois

Though they lack the props, actors, and most of all talent, they still find a way to make the play happen. In the play within a play, Pyramus and Thisbe, Bottom plays the main character, Pyramus. This was not the case at first. In the beginning of the play, they were tying to figure out who would be what character in the play. Bottom has a true love for acting, which leads him to wanting to play all the characters in the play. Bottom saying, “Let me play the lion too”, proves how he really does have a true passion and love for acting (Shakespeare 10).

The other rude mechanicals also tried very hard to make the play better. Peter quince shows his love for theater while acting as the director of Pyrmus and Thisbe. He got every thing in order for the King and Queen to see. They tried very hard to please the king and his wife even though they weren’t that good at acting.

To make sure that they executed the play, for the props that they didn’t have they used something else in its place: “I, Wall, have done my part”. This is an example; they didn’t have a wall prop so one of the actors became the wall (Crowther