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Shakespeare’s comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream juxtaposes the patriarchal world of justice, rule, and order, contextualized as Theseus’ Athens, with the youthful, rebellious universe of Oberon’s woods. In the last lines of the play, Robin Goodfellow (Puck), one of several maliciously-inclined forest fairies, attempts to reconcile these opposites by suggesting to a potentially offended audience that the “immoral” events having occurred in these woods would simply have taken part in a dream. In contrast to the other characters of the play who either emblematize each side of the binary (fairies as the “woods” and older humans as “Athens”), or assert both extremes at different periods in time (young Athenians), Puck embodies the liminal space …show more content…
in between these oppositions. He acts, in this sense, as a mediator between the two. As such, his resolution is meant to underline an essential aspect of comedy: the light-hearted, all-forgiving, happy ending. Robin Goodfellow reconstitutes the “Athenian” without fully dismissing the “woods” since, although a dream may be fictitious in nature, the memory of it happening would nonetheless remain imprinted in the audience’s mind. Puck’s moral standpoint throughout the play is ambiguous. In his book “Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human” literary scholar Harold Bloom writes that Puck “is an ambivalent figure, a mischief maker at best” (151). On one hand, Puck’s trickery and misbehaviour calls to mind a dishonest, untrustworthy character. Puck, invisible to humans, taunts Demetrius by claiming that his voice is Lysander’s, “Come, recreant; come, though / child / I’ll whip thee with a rod: he is defiled” (3.2.408-410). This instance portrays Puck abusing his mystical powers to manipulate human characters; the audience, naturally, would distrust the character after having witnessed the aforementioned scene. However, this malicious intent is overturned once the audience learns that Puck’s trickery is in fact used to benefit these human characters and bring order to their antics, “I’ll apply / To your eye, / Gentle lover, remedy. / When thou wakest, / Thou takest / True delight / In the sight / Of thy former lady’s eye: (3.2.450-462) As such, Puck fluctuates between order and lawlessness, honesty and deception, Theseus’ Athens and Oberon’s Woods. Although one could argue that Puck belongs to either side of this binary, his apology at the end of the play suggests rather that he belongs to neither.
Throughout A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Puck exhibits manipulative tendencies towards the human characters: he deceives them yet, then again, brings them back to their “Athenian” senses (as displayed in the previous paragraph). In his epilogue, he treats the audience in much the same way. First, he wishes to gain their trust, “If we shadows have offended / Think but this, and all is mended” (5.1.430-431), and then proceeds to deceive them into thinking that “[they] had slumber’d here / While these visions did appear.” (5.1.432-433). Just as he reconciles the worlds of Athens and the Woods by reinstating “That every man should take his own” (3.2.459), Puck reassures the audience into making them believe that what they had witnessed in the woods was but a dream—without, of course, dismissing the idea of it happening altogether. In this manner, his ability not only to influence the human characters of the play, “On whose eyes I might approve / This flower’s force in stirring love” (2.2.68-69), but also to address the audience directly, “Give me your hands, if we be friends / And Robin shall restore amends” (5.1.444-445) further reinforces the notion that his character embodies the ambivalence in-between these contrasting worlds. He is not confined to these boundaries, but rather, makes use of
them. Why, then, would Shakespeare choose the play’s most ambivalent personality to resolute A Midsummer Night’s Dream if not to spur confusion? As Aristotle defined it in his Poetics, “comedy is [...] an imitation of characters of a lower type,—not, however, in the full sense of the word bad, the Ludicrous being merely a subdivision of the ugly” (21). Puck is, after all, a jester, not a demon, “I am the merry wanderer of the night. / I jest to Oberon and make him smile” (2.1.44-45). Considering this, his epilogue is understood not as a sinister plotting to deceive the audience, but as a catalyst for Shakespeare to assert the comedic essence of his play. Furthermore, just as the lovers are restored, in true comedic fashion, to their “intended” partners, “The man shall have his mare again, and all shall / be well” (3.2.463-464), Puck redirects the audience’s response from the Woods to the lawful world of Athens, “And this weak and idle theme, / No more yielding but a dream” (5.1.434-435). By demanding the audience’s forgiveness for the play’s morally wrong undertakings, “If you pardon, we will mend” (5.1.437), Puck resolves A Midsummer Night’s Dream in the same way any true comedy should be, with a comforting return to the usual state of things.
Exerting the type of power that is influenced by malicious intentions can cause one to make decisions that are not beneficial to others. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is written within a time period and setting that favors men instead of woman. In other words, men have all the authority to control the events that occur in their own lives as well as the lives of others whom are considered insignificant. The plot displays the catalysts that ignite many characters’ desire for control that is misused by higher status people. Shakespeare’s use of characterization demonstrates how the wanting of control causes the characters to act irrationally through the misuse of power. Shakespeare’s use of setting, plot and characterization causes the ordeals that the characters ultimately face. In turn, the deceitful choices of a few individuals with status impacts whether the lives of lower status people are enhanced.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of Shakespeare’s most popular and frequently performed comical plays (Berardinelli). The play transformed into a cinematic production by Michael Hoffman has not changed in its basic plot and dialogue, but the setting and some character traits have. The play setting has been gracefully moved from 16th century Greece to 19th century Tuscany (Berardinelli). The addition of bicycles to the play affects the characters in that they no longer have to chase each other around the woods, but can take chase in a more efficient fashion. As far as characters are concerned, Demetrius is no longer the smug and somewhat rude character we find in act 1, scene 1 (Shakespeare pg. 6, line 91), but rather a seemingly indifferent gentleman placed in an unfortunate circumstance set to delay his wedding to Hermia. Perhaps the most noticeable change in the character set from stage to film occurs in the characters of Puck and Nick Bottom.
The use and misuse of magic has an important role in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. As a reoccurring theme, Puck’s use of magic creates humor, conflict and balance in the play.
William Shakespeare’s writings are famous for containing timeless, universal themes. A particular theme that is explored frequently in his writings is the relationship between men and women. A Midsummer Night’s Dream contains a multitude of couplings, which are often attributed to the fairies in the play. Each of these pairings has positive and negative aspects, however, some relationships are more ideal than others. From A Midsummer Night’s Dream the optimal pairings are Lysander and Hermia, Demetrius and Helena, and Oberon and Titania; while the less desirable pairings are Theseus and Hippolyta, Hermia and Demetrius, Lysander and Helena, and Titania and Bottom. Throughout A Midsummer
In William Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer’s Night Dream” two worlds are contrasted throughout the play. The Athenian state is governed by order, law, and reason; the forest or Fairy world lies within the realm of the imagination where anything is possible. While both worlds run parallel in the play, their inhabitants are influenced by one another. Their rulers, Theseus and Oberon, play critical roles in the events of the story. Theseus acts compassionately with a sense of duty, order and respect; his initial rulings for Hermia provide the exposition for the comedy (May 75). Oberon acts compassionately as well, but acts on a whim and resorts to trickery if it suits his desires; his actions direct the complication in the plot (May 75). Their personalities are characterized by how they attempt to help the young lovers, how and why they make decisions and how they interact with their loved ones and subjects. The rulers’ similarities govern the reasons behind their actions; their differences contribute to the success of the story.
Order and disorder is a favorite theme of Shakespeare. In A Midsummer Night's Dream the apparently anarchic tendencies of the young lovers, of the mechanicals-as-actors, and of Puck are restrained by the "sharp Athenian law" and the law of the Palace Wood, by Theseus and Oberon, and their respective consorts. This tension within the world of the play is matched in its construction: in performance it can at times seem riotous and out of control, and yet the structure of the play shows a clear interest in symmetry and patterning.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, by William Shakespeare, is a play that illustrates a good picture of woman’s lack of freedom. It is a story of several couples, among which there is a fairy king, Oberon, who proves his sovereignty over the queen of the fairies, Titania. The two have an ongoing conflict about who should keep the Indian boy, whose mother had recently died. Titania doesn’t want to give him up because she and the boy’s mother knew each other very good; whereas Oberon has no relations to the boy, but really wants him as a servant. Ultimately, Oberon wins the boy by using a trick of his on Titania, revealing her weakness. Shakespeare uses Oberon to show this power of man over woman and to expose woman’s unheard, meaningless, and feeble opinions through Titania. In several scenes throughout the play, the female character, Titania, struggles to do as she desires; however, Oberon takes things under his control and helps to portray the female as weaker than the male.
Love and nature also play a huge part in the bizarre events that surround dreams and the concept of dreaming. While each of the four lovers dream of being with a particular significant other, bizarre circumstances, brought upon by Puck, allow for chaos and obvious confusion. But, probably one of the most bizarre situations within this production is the lines uttered by Puck at the completion of the production. These lines really relate to the concept of dreams because they make the audience question the outlandish events that had previously occurred or indeed, whether they had even occurred at all. Works Cited Shakespeare, William.
because it opened up a new world for me of magic. You can get trapped
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.
The forest in Midsummer Night's Dream represents imagination. Puck, a fairy servant and friend of Oberon, watches six Athenian men practice a play to be performed for Theseus' wedding in the forest. Puck turns Nick Bottom's head into that of an ass. The other players see Bottom and run away screaming. He follows them saying, "Sometime a horse I'll be, sometime a hound, a hog, a headless bear, sometime a fire, and neigh, and bark, and grunt, and roar, and burn, like horse, hound, hog, bear, fire, at every turn" (3.1.110-113). Puck chases the players, making them think a wild animal is chasing them. In our daily lives, people on often think in a logical and down to earth manner, but the mind wanders when a person is emotional, especially when feeling fear. Fear can cause a person mind to become unhinged. When the mind wanders, the imagination kicks in. One thing can become another--a harmless bush can become a crouching lion. Nearing the end of the play, Theseus and Hippolyta discuss how unrealistic the four lovers experience is. Theseus states, "I never may believe these antique fables, nor these fairy toys. The lunatic, the lover, and the poet are of imagination all compact" (5.1.2-3 and 5.1.7-8). Theseus does not believe in fairy tales, that what the four lovers said is not true. In his view, the lunatic, the lover, and the poet have wild imaginations. A lover's emotions can be out of control. When a person is emotional,...
Shakespeare made many plays one of my favorite ones is the”Midsummer night’s dream” that has one of my favorite quotes, “since lion vile hath here deflowered my darling”, by bottom. It had so many silly and unique characters that really helped the play move in its comedic grace. Yet the play had lots of characters categorized as royals, faires, and craftsmen that were so different yet similar. Their major similarities and differences we’re in their speech, love issues, and education.
In William Shakespeare’s book, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, magic is a powerful and useful tool for the characters that have the capability to use it. Some of the characters abuse the power of magic, while others are more responsible in how they use it. Oberon is one the characters that abuses the power of magic. Oberon’s magic has an immense impact on the plot of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. More specifically, Oberon’s magic affects his own life, the lives of other characters, and all the characters in the story experience his magic differently. We will see that even the person who has power to use the magic can become surprised by it. Magic, the ultimate supernatural power, is often unpredictable and inexplicable.
A very old Shakespeare’s play “A Midsummers Night Dream” believed to be written in 1590 and 1596 was a classical idea of fantasy. It portrays the journey of four young lovers and their interactions with fairies. They story takes place in a mythical city called Athens with an enchanted forest, where a fairy king misguides the star-crossed lovers and plays tricks on his fairy queen by transforming a poor actor into a half-donkey. This work focuses on human interactions with falling in love.
The first interpretation of the title of the play that comes to my mind was the magical dream-like night in the woods, when Robin Goodfellow and Oberon, the king of the fairies, used several kinds of love potions, and messed everything up. When the lovers awoke in the morning they thought all of the ridiculous things that had happened or been said the night before had just all been a dream. However, if Oberon had been more specific in his directions to Robin, "a sweet Athenian lady is in love with a disdainful youth. Anoint his eyes... thou shalt know the man by the Athenian garments he hath on," all of this could have been avoided and everything would have been fine (page 53). This gives insight to the thematic nature of the work by setting a magical like atmosphere for the lovers to be in.