Shakespeare's comedies A Midsummers Night's Dream and Much Ado About Nothing have many parallels while Measure for Measure is a problem play with a completely different tone. Comparing and contrasting these three plays provides insights into the views of Shakespeare concerning comedy.
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a festive comedy. The play takes place in June and this is a bewitched time. In the spring the custom is to celebrate the return of fertility to the earth. During this time the young people spend the night in the woods to celebrate. Shakespeare uses the greenworld pattern in this play. The play begins in the city, moves out to the country and then back to the city. Being in the country makes things better because there is tranquility, freedom and people can become uncivilized versus when they are in the city and have to follow customs and laws and behave rationally.
Comedies contain blocking figures and in this play it is Egeus. If he was not in the way, Hermia could marry Lysander. Since he is causing problems in his daughters life by trying to make her marry Demetrius, this begins the journey into the woods. Egeus threatened Hermia with death if she were to marry Lysander so she thinks the only way they can be together is to run away.
One strange element is why Egeus was so set on Hermia marrying Demetrius. Lysander came from as good a family as Demetrius. Both were well possessed with property and money so Egeus's power is made to seem senseless.
The play moves into the woods which is haunted by fairies who are there to bless the wedding of Theseus and Hippolyta. The quarreling between Oberon and Titania over the changeling boy leads to the king wanting to embarrass Titania with the love juice by making her fall in love with a monster. The first person she sees is Bottom and she falls violently in love with him.
Oberon is making a spectacle of Titania and Bottom. It is ridiculous that she is in love with him because he is from such a lower class than her, he is human and she is a fairy, and he has the head of an ass. She is also a queen and he is an uneducated working man and a match like this would never happen. Bottom has such a problem with language.
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...
This gratitude towards God is also shown in the final moments of his life. Beowulf thanks God for the life he was allowed to lead, and for all the battles that he won because of the grace of God. “For this, this Gold, these jewels, I thank/ Our Father in Heaven, Ruler of the Earth/ for all of this that his grace has given me”(109). This humble attitude is a great asset for a leade...
Confronted by the "sharp" law of Athens, and not wishing to obey it, Lysander thinks of escape. But he has no idea that the wood, which he sees merely as a rendezvous before he and Hermia fly to his aunt, has its own law and ruler. As Theseus is compromised by his own law, so is Oberon. Theseus wishes to overrule Egeus, but knows that his own authority derives from the law, that this cannot be set aside when it does not suit the ruler's wishes. He does discover a merciful provision of the law which Egeus has overlooked (for Hermia to choose "the livery of a nun") but hopes to persuade Demetrius to relinquish his claim, insisting that Hermia take time before choosing her fate. The lovers' difficulties are made clear by the law of Athens, but arise from their own passions: thus, when they enter the woods, they take their problems with them. Oberon is compromised because his quarrel with Titania has caused him and her to neglect their duties: Oberon, who should rule firmly over the entire fairy kingdom cannot rule in his own domestic arrangements. We see how each ruler, in turn, resolves this problem, without further breaking of his law.
The poem Beowulf, translated by Seamus Heaney, is largely based around the monstrousness of Grendel and his mother. It was a difficult task for Heaney to translate the poem into Modern English while maintaining the beauty of the language and capturing the horror of the monsters. He utilises devices such as structure, literary devices and characterisation to emphasise the fear apparent in the text. Though Heaney’s writing is effective, it is impossible to use the incidents in the poem that relate to events which took place centuries ago to instil fear into the story. Though many of the issues in Beowulf are no longer relevant, Heaney is still able to capture the monstrousness of Grendel and his mother.
First, Shakespeare uses the motif of the seasons early on in the play to solidify the connection between love gone awry and chaos. The initial romantic conflict is established when Egeus brings his daughter, Hermia, to Theseus to try and force her into marrying Demetrius, the man of his choice. Hermia has no interest in Demetrius because she is madly in love with Lysander. Unfortunately for her, Theseus sides with Egeus and threatens to enforce Athenian law if she does not obey him. Obviously, this situation is awful for Hermia; she is being kept from her true love. Her options are dismal: she has the choice of disobeying Egeus, betraying Lysander, or living a lonely life as a nun. Either way, she loses. The situation seems completely hopeless. Shakespeare illustrates this hopelessness by connecting Hermia’s grim future with the winter. When Theseus describes Hermia’s potential future, he calls her a “withering” rose and a “barren sister,” destined to a life of “chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon” (Shakespeare 1.1.75). Essentially, Hermia will be trapped in an endless winter. This unnatural seasonal change will become a reality if she becomes a nun and remains celibate. For a young woman who is passionately in love with a young man...
You ever dream of being a hero, that everyone knows your name or will hear great stories of you. Heroes are not always recognized , but someday somewhere someone will know your name. Well there was one particular hero that saved a kingdom that needed his help and that heroes name was Beowulf. Even tho Beowulf isn't perfect, he has three very good attributes about him which are bravery, strength/strong, and being selfless.
Parallels between Measure for Measure and The Merchant of Venice, As You Like It, and Twelfth Night
The two locations of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream are essential to the development of the plot; although their presentation relies wholly on the characters we meet there, their adventures and their descriptions of these places. The main Plot of A Midsummer Nights Dream is a complex jumble that involves two sets of couples (Hermia and Lysander, and Helena and Demetrius) whose romantic cross-purposes are complicated By their entrance into the play's fairyland woods where the King and Queen of the Fairies (Oberon and Titania) reside and the folk character of Puck or Robin Good fellow ( http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9000181/A-Midsummer-Nights-Dream>.. The incidents that take in the play and the film are really the key factor in the story, the play writer orders them in such a way that threes a hint of foreshadowing, yet he doesn't divulge enough in the incidents to let you know ...
Throughout human life, everyone makes many decisions, can be learn and help shapes personalities. The values of a human hold to be important in his life govern the choices he makes. Beowulf is a great example of this true that he is considered to be a great warrior, portrayed by his strength, courage and bravery. Beowulf faces three difficult conflicts with Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and the dragon that can contribute to a great warrior to an honorable hero, that conflicts change the perception of Beowulf as a person. This personality is a true personality of an ideal leader, because he is willing to make his followers what they need, with the great risk of sacrificing his own spirit.
Shakespeare, William. A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Ed. Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine. New York: Washington Square Press, 2004.
The relationship between Demetrius and Hermia is problematic, in that Demetrius is seeking the affections of Hermia, while she is in love with Lysander. However, Hermia’s father approves of Demetrius and tries to force her to marry him, but Hermia refuses because of her love for Lysander (A Midsummer Night’s Dream 1.1.22-82). Lysander points out the flaw in the situation through this comment, “You have her father 's love, Demetrius –/Let me have Hermia 's. Do you marry him,” (A Midsummer Night’s Dream 1.1.93-94). The second flawed relationship is between Lysander and Helena, as a result of an enchantment put on Lysander that made him fall in love with Helena. Helena does not want the affections of Lysander, but rather the love of Demetrius, and believes that Lysander is taunting her. In addition, this relationship creates tensions because Hermia is in love with Lysander (A Midsummer Night’s Dream 2.2.109-140). Both relationships are not desirable due to a lack of mutual admiration and the creation of non-peaceful and unsatisfying
He is aware that Cupid hit a certain flower petal with his arrow and that if the juice of the flower is squeezed in an individual’s eyelids while he or she is sleeping, then that person awakes, he or she will fall in love with the person he/she sees first. Oberon requests Puck to bring him the flower. His plan is that, when Titania is distracted with love feelings over any creature she sees, he can more easily persuade her to hand over the boy. In fact, his trick also creates a self-conflict within Titania since she falls in love with the man who, due to Puck’s trick, has a donkey 's head. Then, we observe that at this moment, the magic created conflict within the story line. Nevertheless, when Oberon has secured the boy, he applies the supernatural or magic, to restore Titania again and their quarrel comes to an end, the magic has successfully recovered the married couple’s
On the surface, the poem Beowulf seems to be a simple tale of a brave hero who triumphs over three monsters and who engages in several other battles in order to preserve what is just and right. A more thorough reading, however, reveals that the epic poem is filled with events that symbolize historical and social conditions that prevailed during the European reign of the Scandinavians in the seventh century to around the ninth century, following the Danish invasion of England (Sisson 1996).
The recognition given to work with light based therapies by the Nobel Prize committee was in part responsible for the global rise of heliotherapy. By this time heliotherapy had a large enough audience to warrant interest in New York State Journals. One physician, Dr. Grasso, in an article in the New York state Journal of Medicine in 1992 described the advent of Heliotherapy in the state 1920’s. He mentions the work of Dr. Rollier who “introduced it [heliotherapy] on a large scale and on a sound scientific basis”.(Grasso 19...