Forbidden Desire in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream
In his play A Midsummer Night's Dream, William Shakespeare explores the conflict of forbidden desire, as revealed through the experience of four young lovers dwelling in ancient Greece. Hermia and Lysander are two of these lovers, and their desire to marry one another is prohibited by Hermia's father Egeus, and enforced by the governor of Athenian law-King Theseus. Hermia is informed that she may only agree to one of three undesirable choices: marry Demetrius unwillingly, submit to an austere, celibate life as a nun, or face certain execution. Confronted with these dreadful options, Hermia agrees to flee from Athens towards the remote house of Lysanders' widowed aunt, in the wood of Greece. While wandering in this nearby wood, Hermia and Lysander lose their way in the silent, moonlit night, and drift into sleep. Here-away from the prohibitions of rational Greek civilization-Shakespeare plunges his audience into the psychological realm of his characters, by developing the dream-filled, darkened wilderness of Greece as a medium offering access to the unconscious realm of his characters. In the ensuing forest scenes, Shakespeare blends fiction with fantasy, and ultimately allows his characters to confront the boundaries of consciousness and unconsciousness, thus resolving the conflict of socially repressed desire.
The departure of Hermia and Lysander from the city of Athens to the wood intentionally coincides with the first appearance of fantasy in the play. In Act 2, Scene 1, Robin Goodfellow (also known as Puck the mischievous spirit), and a fairy, enter into the plot outside the perimeter of Athens; with the entrance of these otherworldly figures, Shakespeare is ...
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...er Night's Dream is comedic in nature, it provides serious insight into the importance of fantasy and desire to humanity-especially amidst certain intellectual thought in advancing civilization. A Midsummer Night's Dream demonstrates that fantasy is inseparably interconnected with desire, existent both within the imagination, and within the unconscious.
Works Cited
Shakespeare, William. "A Midsummer Night's Dream." The Norton Shakespeare.Ed. Stephen Greenblatt. W.W. Norton and Co: New York, 1997. 1.1, 65-67. 2.2, 155. 4.1, 167. 5.1, 1-8.
Freud, Sigmund. "The Interpretation of Dreams." Literary Theory: An Anthology. Julie Rivkin, and Michael Ryan, eds. Blackwell: Malden, Massachussets. 2000. 148
Freud, Sigmund. "The Uncanny." Literary Theory: An Anthology. Julie Rivkin, and Michael Ryan, eds. Blackwell: Malden, Massachussets. 2000. 166.
Almost ten years in the past, Bill Clinton’s story in the White House is all but written in stone. No matter the accomplishments the administration accomplished in its time, Clinton’s extramarital affair and subsequent impeachment will pervade, if not dominate, the president’s legacy. The major facts stand mostly undisputed: the president engaged in sexual activity with Monica Lewinsky and maneuvered to keep the affair secret, culminating in explicit lies to a grand jury. Republican opponents of the president had unreserved political motivations to remove the president from office. Revisiting this scandal with these facts would be both fatiguing and evasive of the underlying issues at stake. To truly gauge the justness of Clinton’s impeachment, one must look at the original intent of impeachment as well as its history with regard to other presidents. Furthermore, analyzing the investigation itself requires understanding specific motives and laws that both Democrats and Republicans took advantage of. Here we examine the ethics of the impeachment of former President Bill Clinton with regard to original Constitutional intent, historical precedent, and the political climate during his administration.
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.
Some of the most prominent themes in A Midsummer Night’s Dream are the omnipresence of love and desire and the tendencies of characters to manifest their defining traits. Helena and Hermia are two perfect examples of this. Hermia is the lover, and Helena the desirer, and both thrive off of their obsessions. In fact, both women are so tied to these traits that when they are taken away, their characters deflate and fall static.
In every given business, the name itself portrays different meanings. This serves as the reference point and sometimes the basis of customers on what to expect within the company. Since personality affects product image (Langmeyer & Shank, 1994), the presence of brand helps in the realization of this concept. Traditionally, brand is a symbolic manifestation of all the information connected with a company, product, or service (Nilson, 2003; Olin, 2003). A brand is typically composed of a name, logo, and other visual elements such as images, colors, and icons (Gillooley & Varley, 2001; Laforet & Saunders, 1994)). It is believed that a brand puts an impression to the consumer on what to expect to the product or service being offered (Mere, 1995). In other application, brand may be referred as trademark, which is legally appropriate term. The brand is the most powerful weapon in the market (LePla & Parker, 1999). Brands possess personality in which people associate their experience. Oftentimes, they are related to the core values the company executes.
Similar to other works by Shakespeare, such as The Taming of the Shrew, A Midsummer Night’s Dream embellishes the pressures that arise between genders dealing with complicated family and romantic situations. The plot includes a duke who is going to marry a woman he conquered in battle, the king and queen of the fairies embroiled in a fight so fierce that it unbalances the natural world, and a daughter fighting with her father for her right to marry the man she chooses. The girl’s father selects Demetrius to marry his daughter, but she is in love with another man, Lysander, who loves her in return, and her friend Helena is in love Demetrius, but he wants nothing to do with her. Considering the fact that males were dominant during that era, whereas, men chased women, and women remained submissive, Shakespeare dallies with those traditional roles and there are several possible reasons why. Perhaps he made women a stronger force in his plays because he wanted to give his audience a break fr...
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
Love is a powerful emotion, capable of turning reasonable people into fools. Out of love, ridiculous emotions arise, like jealousy and desperation. Love can shield us from the truth, narrowing a perspective to solely what the lover wants to see. Though beautiful and inspiring when requited, a love unreturned can be devastating and maddening. In his play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, William Shakespeare comically explores the flaws and suffering of lovers. Four young Athenians: Demetrius, Lysander, Hermia, and Helena, are confronted by love’s challenge, one that becomes increasingly difficult with the interference of the fairy world. Through specific word choice and word order, a struggle between lovers is revealed throughout the play. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare uses descriptive diction to emphasize the impact love has on reality and one’s own rationality, and how society’s desperate pursuit to find love can turn even strong individuals into fools.
Shakespeare creates a situation in which two pairs of young lovers, Lysander and Hermia, are forced to elope from the oppressive authority of their Elders, here we see Lysander asking Hermia to flee to the woods, “there gentle Hermia may I marry thee; and to that place the sharp Athenian law cannot pursue us” Freedom is not permitted in Athens, therefore the two lovers plan to escape into the woods. Hermia has two options given from her oppressive father, ‘either to die the death, or to abjure for ever in society of men’. She disobeys his commands. Shakespeare uses images to reflect Athens, and to magnify and to solidify Lysander and Hermia’s love for each other, which is strong and cannot be broken, without the use of magic. ‘Withering on a virgin thorn, grows, lives, and dies in single blessedness’.
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.
Considered to be the greatest playwright to ever have lived, William Shakespeare’s works continue to fascinate and entrance audiences around the world. Imbued with imagery, his comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream is perhaps one of his more fantastic but none the less intricate plays. Presiding over the proceedings, the moon is the uniting feature of the play. With its multi-layered symbolism it is the thread that connects the different characters and weaves the tale together.
Shakespeare, William. A Midsummer Night's Dream. The Norton Shakespeare: Greenblatt, Stephen, editor. New York: W W Norton & Company, 1997.
Love plays a very significant role in this Shakespearian comedy, as it is the driving force of the play: Hermia and Lysander’s forbidden love and their choice to flee Athens is what sets the plot into motion. Love is also what drives many of the characters, and through readers’ perspectives, their actions may seem strange, even comical to us: from Helena pursuing Demetrius and risking her reputation, to fairy queen Titania falling in love with Bottom. However, all these things are done out of love. In conclusion, A Midsummer Night’s Dream displays the blindness of love and how it greatly contradicts with reason.
Shakespeare, William. A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Ed. Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine. New York: Washington Square Press, 2004.
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The title of the play A Midsummer Night's Dream can have many interpretations. I will give you my thoughts on the relationship of the title to the different situations that take place in the play. These interpretations give insight and overall meaning to the thematic nature of Shakespeare's work. Although I am only going to describe three interpretations of the title, there are many other meanings to the title. The first interpretation of the title of the play that came 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.