Contrasting Settings in A Midsummer Night's Dream
William Shakespeare's play, “A Midsummer Night's Dream” offers a
wonderful contrast in human mentality. Shakespeare provides insight into man's
conflict with the rational versus the emotional characteristics of our behavior
through his settings. The rational, logical side is represented by Athens, with
its flourishing government and society. The wilder emotional side is
represented by the fairy woods. Here things do not make sense, and mystical
magic takes the place of human logic. Every impulse may be acted upon without
a forethought to there outcome.
The city of Athens represents the epitome of civilized man. Ruled by
the laws of man and kept in check by society's own norms. The human struggle to
suppress its unrestrained and irrational tendencies, still being undertaken
today, discourages the ‘civilized' man from making rash and foolish actions.
Thus every action should have a sound and logical purpose, based on the social
norms.
In the play, Egeus, the father of Hermia, has thoughtfully chosen what
he considers an acceptable mate to wed his daughter. Egeus most likely based
his decision on economic, political, and social factors in his choosing of
Demetrius. He is making a reasonable decision based on Hermia's future in their
society. Unfortunately Hermia is smitten by Lysander and vice versa. Although
her father may have made his decision with every good intension, keeping with
the traditional customs of his day, and even perhaps taking into consideration
such things as attractiveness, he failed to foresee the desires of his daughter.
The young Lysander, who like most young men, cares little for the rules of
society, is willing to break tradition and flee Athens to obtain Hermia.
Therefore they must leave the rational Athens to enjoy their irrational love.
Theseus, the king of Athens, is the highest symbol of law and order in
his kingdom. After winning a war with another kingdom, he chooses to marry
their queen, Hippolyta. His decision may very well have been inspired by love,
but the political ramifications of their marriage is a more plausible rationale.
In fact Theseus' apparent love for Hippolyta seems almost as an added reward to
an already beneficial partnership. Whether any attraction was there or not
probably would not have made a difference. As king, Theseus must place the
kingdom before his own feelings. It simply comes with the position.
In short Athens represents the desire to suppress feelings and impulses
and to make decisions based on logic. Thus it does not give the power of raw
emotion the true respect it requires, for man is both emotional and rational.
Many consider Columbus a Hero, others believe he was selfish and self centered. Myint author of “Christopher Columbus: Hero or Villain?” and Ransby author of “Columbus and the Making of Historical Myth.”, are faced with the same dilemma. From a young age children are taught about Columbus and his greatness, but the books fail to document the atrocities committed in the process. Most of the books use biased language; little evidence and vague language is used to hail Columbus as a great hero. Myint provides a more objective stance, while Ransby condemns Columbus entirely. However, both suggest to consider Columbus a hero is a mistake.
After gaining more knowledge about Christopher Columbus and his voyage to the “New World,” I believe that Christopher Columbus is a villain. Although Christopher Columbus used his courage and great navigation skills to voyage to a place unknown to the western part of the world many native people suffered from his voyages to the west.
Christopher Columbus is well remembered today. The discoveries Columbus made are well appreciated and even though, Columbus is credited with discovering the New World, Columbus really didn’t accomplish any of his goals because he didn’t find any riches for Spain and he didn’t discover the New world nor was he the first to visit. However, he gave the people the opportunity of exploration on the American continent and just like everyone else Columbus had his ups and downs during his four voyages. During his last two years of life after his last voyage, Columbus recovered some of his riches and tried to recover his titles, but didn’t have any luck. Then in 1506, Columbus returned to Spain with nothing but sickness and died on May 20, 1506 due to illness. Christopher Columbus died believing he had discovered a shorter route to
In Shakespeare’s comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream one finds the typical use of love and nature that is evidence of Shakespeare’s youth and experimentation. He creates in this play another world, a fairy world where Puck is the ringleader and love is everywhere. Called "fancy’s child" by Milton, Shakespeare brings out his cheerful happiness in its most light-hearted manner in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
What types of dreams really impress you in your life? Would that be funny dreams, weird dreams, scary dreams, risque dreams, dramatic dreams, life-changing dreams, and even lucid dream stories. As a matter of fact, people’s dreams can be a kind of illusion because dreams skew their daily life into confusion—people cannot recognize reality and unreality easily. Similarly, love not only can be imagined, but also can make people get confused just like a dream.
In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare decides to have a few of the characters act out the story of Pyramus and Thisbe for four other personages. What is curious is that, rather than simply having them quickly act out the short skit, Shakespeare has the characters from A Midsummer Night’s Dream who are watching comment on the playlet as it is being presented by Bottom and his friends, in turn affecting the way it is demonstrated by influencing the ‘characters’. Shakespeare has the audience (Theseus, Demetrius, Hippolyta, and Lysander) bring attention to and complement the moon, wall, and lion, despite the fact that Pyramus and Thisbe are supposed to be the main focus and play the most important roles. Additionally, he has both the comments and the acting de-romanticize Pyramus and Thisbe, who are known for their tragic yet romantic story of love and death. These elements make a mockery of the so-called ‘romantic’ tale of Pyramus and Thisbe, in a way de-romanticizing it by
A Midsummer’s Night Dream, written by William Shakespeare, is a complicated love story that involves four teenagers. Hermia and Lysander are so in love; however, Hermia’s dad wants her to marry Demetrius. Helena is chasing after Demetrius, who treats her like a dog. The speaker is none other than the love-struck Helena. Her speech is not directed to anybody because Helena was alone, yet she still wants to make it clear how deeply in love she is with Demetrius. Shakespeare uses many literary devices to further explain and state that Helena loves Demetrius.
Columbus started his life in Genoa Italy 1451, with his dad Domenico Colombo being a middle class wool weaver , and his mum was Susanna Fontanarossa. He grew up in a Christian household, but it was thought that he may have converted to Jewish later in life. As well, it was thought that he definitely thought he was well educated and knew several languages as an adult and had a good amount of knowledge about classical literature. Continuing on, his career as a seaman began in the Portuguese merchant marine and was on his first voyage when he was just 14. While working there in 1470, he went on trading trips to the Aegean Sea, northern Europe and even possibly Iceland. Plus, already he had survived his first shipwreck of the cape of St Vincent (in southwest Portugal). Nine years later, he met Felipa perestrello e moniz had had a son one year later, who would become the leader of Hispanola, in Haiti. After that he was trading along gold coasts in west Africa, but sadly Felipa died in 1485. Following the death of Felipa, he then moved to spain and immediately embarked on his journey to explore a way to move west to get to the gold and treasures lying in the east. He was first turned down by king john ii, but only in 1492 did he finally get support from King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. The deciding factor for this, was Juan Perez of La Rabida, since he had been the queens confessor and helped entice the audience Columbus needed . The lust for ...
In the play “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, by William Shakespeare the contrast between both setting and character are well explained throughout the play. This play is mostly about four young Athenians whose lives become a total disaster because of the fairies in the forest, strange situations in the city of Athens, Greece and mixtures of love potions. The main setting of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is in Athens, Greece. In Athens, the Duke Theseus plans his marriage with Hippolyta. In contrast, the forest is where all the drama happens between all the characters. The four main characters of this play are Hermia, Helena, Demetrius and Lysander.
What is the meaning of A Midsummer’s Night Dream? Well that depends, the works of William Shakespeare are very subjective and Shakespeare acknowledges that and lets us see that very clearly in the play. In A Mid Summers Night Dream he shows us very clearly that different people see the same thing differently.Throughout the play he makes numerous references to eyes and how people see themselves and others. That carries over to how we see the play and how two people can interrupt it very differently.
Do you like magical and fictional characters? One of the most Magical stories is A Midsummer Night’s Dream. This play is a contrast of the real world and a world inhabited by fairies and other magical sources and elements. This play takes place during Elizabethan time period. The Play was performed at The Globe Theatre. The play was written in 1590.
It is important to consider the meaning of home when analyzing The Seafarer. The narrator of this poem seems to feel a sense of belonging while traveling the sea despite the fact that he is obviously disillusioned with its hardships .The main character undergoes a transformation in what he considers home and this dramatically affects his life and lifestyle. Towards the end of The Seafarer the poet forces us to consider our mortality, and seems to push the notion that life is just a journey and that we will not truly be at home until we are with God.
The Seafarer, The Wanderer, and The Wife’s Lament all contains faith verses fate. The three poems are very similar and very different. The three poems ranging from a lonely man, to a lost soldier, to a wife’s bedrail. The medieval poems show hurt, confusion, and loneliness.
Oprah Winfrey once said, “The best thing about dreams is that fleeting moment, when you are between asleep and awake, when you don't know the difference between reality and fantasy, when for just that one moment you feel with your entire soul that the dream is reality, and it really happened.” But, what actually is a dream and what do dreams really have to do with one’s everyday life? In essence, a dream is a series of mental images and emotions occurring during slumber. Dreams can also deal with one’s personal aspirations, goals, ambitions, and even one’s emotions, such as love and hardship. However, dreams can also give rise to uneasy and terrible emotions; these dreams are essentially known as nightmares. 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.
William Shakespeare successfully used two contrasting places to emphasize the meaning of the story. The meaning of the story is that the course of love never runs smooth, but you if you really love somebody you will find your way to them. Using contrasting places represents opposing forces or point of views, allows the reader to get a better idea of what the theme of the story is. In William Shakespeare’s, A Midsummer Night’s Dream the two contrasting places used were the City of Athens and a enchanted Forest located on the outskirts of the city. In the City of Athens there are laws, organization, everything is governed well. In the Forest there are no laws, nothing is organized, or governed. The Forest stands chaos and the hardships of love in the story, and the city stands for laws and strict living. The Forest shows us what nature or self-government can offer compared to the harsh laws of living in this case Athens.