Of all of William Shakespeare’s plays, A Midsummer Night’s Dream is considered one of the most comical and brilliant. However, Shakespeare chose to end it with an apology to the original audience from the trickster fairy Puck. Considering that the play’s debut was before an upper crust wedding reception, with the notable attendance of Queen Elizabeth I, there may be several reasons for Shakespeare to consider incorporating an apology into his play. One of the main reasons for Puck’s apology concerns the mockery of virginity and chastity at the very beginning of the play. When Hermia requests Theseus, “… that I may know/The worst that may befall me…/If I refuse to wed Demetrius” (Act 1, Sc. 1, l. 62-64), Theseus replies, “Either to die… …show more content…
Likewise, Titania is very persistent in her argument with Oberon, as shown when he asks, “Am I not thy lord?” (Act 2, Sc. 1, l. 63) to which she confidently replies, “Then I must be thy lady” (Act 2, Sc. 1, l.64). However, Titania is driven to a weak position later in the play when Oberon squeezes the “love in idleness” potion on her eyes. While Titania’s confident remarks would have annoyed the male members of the audience, her weakness and the ease with which she was manipulated would have definitely offended the female members. Similarly, Helena is personified as a very weak person due to Demetrius, as is mentioned by Lysander and acknowledged by Theseus that …show more content…
1, l. 203-210), she is speaking in behalf of all women, peasant and aristocratic alike. Thus, Shakespeare would have garnered the ire of all the women in the audience, including the Queen, for through Helena’s line he is implying that all women can beg no higher place in a man’s love than to be used as his dog. Hence, it can be established that the strong female characters would have annoyed the male members of the audience, as the overwhelming feminine weaknesses of Hermia, Helena, and Titania would have seemed very offensive and insulting towards the female members of the audience, especially the Queen, as Titania was also a
...n he tried to intimidate her earlier and that she would be so bold to his face. The criticism faced by the characters in the plays demonstrate the idea that women are inferior to men and should not speak out for themselves.
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
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.
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...
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.
During the Elizabethan era women had a status of subordination towards men. They had a role to marry and oblige to their husband’s wishes. Shakespearean literature, especially illustrates how a woman is psychologically and physically lesser to their male counterpart. The play, Othello, uses that aspect in many different ways. From a Feminist lens others are able to vividly examine how women were subjected to blatant inferiority. Being displayed as tools for men to abuse, women were characterized as possessions and submissive; only during the last portion of the play did the power of women take heed.
In order to accurately describe the role of women in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, one must first explore the female characters in the text. Shakespeare's works had few females because women were not allowed to act in London in the late 1500s and early 1600s. Disregarding the standards imposed on women of his time, Shakespeare created many female characters that were strong-willed, intelligent, and daring. Hermia of A Midsummer Night's Dream is one such character. She disobeys her father, her king, and the Athenian law so that she might marry the love of her life. She discards all the luxuries of her familiar and comfortable existence for the uncertainties of a distant land in exchange for the freedom to love Lysander. The only complaint against Hermia by feminist critics stems from her willingness to defy one set of confinements derived and maintained by men-her father, the king, and the male authors of Athenian law-to become the subordinate of yet another man. However, even though she rebels away from the limitations she ultimately runs towards, she is much more indep...
... featured one last time in the epilogue to this scene, where he tells the audience that if they do not enjoy the play, they should think of it as nothing more than a dream. If the audience does enjoy the play, they should give Puck "their hands," or applaud. Thus Puck is cleaning up for more than the fairies problems in the last soliloquy, as he cleans up for the entire play as well. Both of the fools were necessary in this play. Puck's tricks and loyalty makes Oberon's goals and the happiness of the lovers possible. Bottom's foolishness provides for comedy for both the characters in the play and the audience, and it’s his transformation which enables Oberon to obtain the boy from Titania. Puck, Oberon's fool, and Bottom, the fool of the play, both provide comedy and some-what intelligent observations, which make them an important part of A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Shakespeare has written some of the most outstanding pieces of literature throughout history that have lasted through out the ages. But, critics often criticize Shakespeare as being sexist towards women in his work. He often portrays them as weak minded, evil, or as sexual objects. Ophelia, Queen Gertrude, Lady Macbeth, and Juliet Capulet are just a few female heroines that are accused of being feeble or heinous. Shakespeare's Othello represents Desdemona, Emilia, and Bianca as weak characters that do not become triumphant by the end of the play.
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...
although she is really a woman a woman, In Act 2 Scene 2 she says to
In Shakespeare’s time, women had very limited rights. They were expected to be submissive to any man no matter the relationship. Women were supposed to do domestic services while the higher-class women were taken to nunneries to like. They were not allowed in any decision-making. If a husband said no, that was the end of the conversation. Women were required to respect their husband’s word and consider it law.
William Shakespeare, born in 1594, is one of the greatest writers in literature. He dies in 1616 after completing many sonnets and plays. One of which is "A Midsummer Night’s Dream." They say that this play is the most purely romantic of Shakespeare’s comedies. The themes of the play are dreams and reality, love and magic. This extraordinary play is a play-with-in-a-play, which master writers only write successfully. Shakespeare proves here to be a master writer. Critics find it a task to explain the intricateness of the play, audiences find it very pleasing to read and watch. "A Midsummer Night’s Dream" is a comedy combining elements of love, fairies, magic, and dreams. This play is a comedy about five couples who suffer through love’s strange games and the evil behind the devious tricks. This play begins as Theseus, the Duke, is preparing to marry Hippolyta. He woos her with his sword. Hermia is in love with Lysander. Egeus, Hermia’s father, forbids the relationship with Lysander and orders her to marry Demetrius. Demetrius loves Hermia, but she does not love him. On the other hand, Helena is in love with Demetrius. To settle the confusion, Theseus decides that Hermia must marry Demetrius or become a nun. In retaliation to her father’s command, Hermia and Lysander run away together. Amidst all the problems in the human world, Titania and Oberon, the fairy queen and king, continually argue about their various relationships that they have taken part in. (Scott 336) Titania leaves Oberon as a result of the arguments. Oberon is hurt and wants revenge on Titania. So he tells Puck, Oberon’s servant, to put a magic flower juice on her eyelids while she is sleeping. This potion causes the victim to desperately in love with the first creature that they see. Oberon’s plan is carried out, but the potion is also placed on Lysander’s eyes. Lysander awakes to see Helena, who is aimlessly walking through the woods, and instantly falls in love with her. She thinks that he is making fun of her being in love with Demetrius, so she leaves and Lysander follows. This leaves Hermia to wake up alone. Puck now has journeyed to the area where several actors are rehearsing. He uses his magic to turn one of them into a donkey, in hopes that Titania will awake to see it.
Shakespeare's presentation and portrayal of his female characters in The Merchant of Venice and Henry V follows a typical pattern that is present in all of the Shakespearean plays that I have read so far. When looking closely at the fate of his female characters, this pattern becomes even more evident for it repeats itself no matter how different the plays are. For instance, Henry V and The Merchant of Venice are different in every respect. The female characters not only come from different backgrounds, they also have very different personalities. However, as different as these plays and their characters are, the female characters end up suffering the same fate. It doesn't seem to matter whether they are born into a life of peasantry, nobility, or come from royalty, for they ultimately will end up being no better than a piece of land, or cattle, or some possession that a man can own and do with as he pleases. Scholars have been debating for centuries now as to whether Shakespeare's women reflect his society's attitudes or that of his own.
The play Othello by William Shakespeare is a tragedy which only includes three female characters: Desdemona, Emilia, and Bianca. Given that the play is written in Elizabethan time, the female is presented as being men’s possession and submissive. Interestingly, the female group is also seen to have power. By presenting woman in such a manner, Shakespeare may want to convey the idea of pursuing an egalitarian society.