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Dramatic Personae of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Dramatic personae of A midsummer night's dream
Why is puck important in midsummer night's dream
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Passion in A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream may come off as a simple comedy but is a complex play with many interesting aspects. Passion, a significant characteristic, is often expressed through the play. Characters in the play show passion for different reasons; Puck passions for mischief, Helena for Demetrius’ love and Bottom for theatrics, are a few of the many examples. Passion shows much significance, being the most important characteristic in the play.
Puck is a mischievous sprite, involved with most magical events in the play. Often playing tricks for his own enjoyment or by his master, Oberon’s, commands, Puck is depicted as a young, deceptive character. When first discovered as Robin Goodfellow, a well known trickster, Puck proudly claims the identity, quickly mentioning his best schemes. Puck says “I am the merry wanderer of the night” (II.i.43). Puck professes his role as a trickster, smiling at the thought of his pranks. Pucks' primary introduction into the play, the scene depicts the start to his reign of chaos. After disrupting the fairy and human world, Puck gladly presents his work to Oberon. A major flaw is pointed out by Oberon: the flower juice was placed on the wrong person’s eyes. Choosing to blame the humans for his mistake, Puck says “Lord, what fools these mortals be!” (III.ii.115). Puck, deeming the Athenian couples in the play as fools, portrays irony to the audience. Having caused the trouble himself, Puck was to blame for the situation. When called on account of the dilemma, Puck acts in his defence, saying he put the potion on the eyes of an Athenian man and when told to resolve the problem, Puck sadly agrees, seeing the mischief as a very entertaining. (III...
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...ssary character for comical relief, changing the play from a fantasy into a comedy.
Many take passion as an insignificant trait but passion reveals the true nature of characters within a play as explicitly shown in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Puck’s passion for mischief, Helena’s for Demetrius’ love and Bottom’s for theatrics are testaments to the intense passions described in the play. Passion has a positive effect in the play, reflected in the actions, speech and thoughts of the actors. When lead by such emotions, each character is able to accomplish their desires, while giving a positive effect on the viewers. A Midsummer Night's Dream teaches that everybody has a passion for something and by using the passion as a guide, anything can be accomplished.
Work Cited
Shakespeare, William. A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Toronto: Harcourt Canada Ltd., 2000. Print
In Shakespeare’s Midsummer’s Night Dream he entices the reader using character development, imagery, and symbolism. These tools help make it a wonderful play for teens, teaching them what a well-written comedy looks like. As well as taking them into a story they won’t soon forget.
Every action made in A Midsummer Night’s Dream revolves around the idea of love. It is a concept which few people can understand because of the extremity a person can go through to go after their love. “Lovers and madmen have such seething brains, such shaping fantasies that apprehend more than cool reason ever comprehends.” Lovers see the world in a way which everyday people cannot comprehend. The idea of love leads to them making irrational choices which may seem
Is love controlled by human beings who love one another or is love controlled by a higher power? There are many people who believe that a higher power has control over love. An example of a higher power would be a cupid, a flying angel-type creature who is supposed to shoot arrows at people to make them fall in love. There are other people who reject the idea that a higher power controls love and that the people who experience love can control it. In the novel, "A Midsummer Night's Dream", by William Shakespeare, several examples of love's association with a higher power are presented. With the use of examples from the above novel, this essay will discuss the evidence that love is associated with a higher power. Examples like: Thesius arranging a marriage between himself and Hippolyta, Egeus choosing who Hermia should marry and the fairies who have the ability to control love in the Enchanted Forest.
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.
Wild contrasts, such as the implicit comparison between the rough, earthy craftsmen and the delicate, graceful fairies, dominate A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” (Jon Agera) I think the name "Puck," suits the fairy because he enjoys playing jokes and pranking humans. “In fact, “Pouk” was a typical medieval term for the devil. Sometimes Puck was pictured as a frightening creature with the head of an ass, or as a queer little figure, long and grotesque, or as a rough, hairy creature, or as the representation of the Greek god Pan.” (Dr.Ratan Bhattacharjee). Even though he may not be evil, he sure is mischievous. He reminds people that fairies aren’t just here for wishes and confetti dust. For some reason, he somewhat draws in some negative elements to Oberon and Titania’s seemingly nice and dreamy fairy realm. He summons spirits, who after a night of wreaking havoc, they return home to graves. Unlike Oberon, who honestly tries to create human happiness, Puck, on the other hand has a blast pranking and making them miserable. When he made both Lysander and Demetrius fall in love with Helena, Puck enjoyed the pleasure their confusion brought him. Even though he fixes the problem and restored the lovers as they were supposed to be for each other, he does so only because Oberon demanded. If it was up to him, the four Athenians would have lived
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...
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.
Considered by most as one of William Shakespeare's greatest plays, A Midsummer Nights Dream reads like a fantastical, creative tale; however, its romantic lines contain a message of love, reality, and chance that are not usually present in works of such kind. All characters in the play are playful, careless and thoughtless, and Puck, one of the central characters in the play, is significant to the plot and meaning of A Midsummer Nights Dream, consequently becoming a representative of the above-mentioned themes.
In “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, one of Shakespeare’s many plays, masterful educational artisans have disputed over whether the main element of this book is based on love being an essence of mysticality, or if it is an altered state of the human mind. Contained within the deep, dark chasms of this story, Puck is the mischievous fairy in the story, and is the main “doer” of deeds in this play, and most of what he does is what makes him such a comical character. “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is unmistakably explaining to whoever reading it is that the book describes love as only a case of enchantment, or temporary mental alteration.
Reason and love in A Midsummer Night’s Dream Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is often read as a dramatization of the incompatibility of “reason and love” (III.i. 127. Yet many critics pay little attention to how Shakespeare manages to draw his audience into meditating on these notions independently (Burke 116). The play is as much about the conflict between passion and reason concerning love, as it is a warning against attempting to understand love rationally. Similarly, trying to understand the play by reason alone results in an impoverished reading of the play as a whole – it is much better suited to the kind of emotive, arbitrary understanding that is characteristic of dreams. Puck apologises directly to us, the audience, in case the play “offend[s]” us, but the primary offence we can take from it is to our rational capacity to understand the narrative, which takes place in a world of inverses and contrasts.
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.
“A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” by William Shakespeare is a play that offers an interesting insight into the conflicting emotions of the human psyche. Throughout the play Shakespeare uses his settings to provide us insight into human conflict; rational versus the irrational and more emotional characteristics we encounter. The logical, more rational side would be the palace, with its society and rules. The fun yet wild emotional side is represented by the woods, where human logic is overtaken by magical things that do not make sense and appear more dream like.
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.
“A Midsummer Night’s Dream” begins as many typical romantic stories. Two people are in love; in this case, Hermia and Lysander. But an obstacle stands in their way; in this case, Hermia’s father who wants Hermia to marry Demetrius. However, this is where this play begins to differ from all others. Shakespeare leads four crossed lovers, Hermia, Helena, Demetrius, and Lysander, through a winding path that somehow magically ends with everyone happily getting married. The pivotal aspect of this play is Shakespeare’s development of the different characters. In the drama enactment; a character’s appearance, personality, and character are used together to help unfold the story. Characters convey many different kinds of information through an art form called characterization. In the play, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” William Shakespeare does an exceptional job of describing each of the four young lovers. Each one of the characters was given personality, whether distinct or vague, that set them apart from the other characters in the play. Through the actions of the different antagonists, Shakespeare reveals to the audience the different and distinct aspects of each character, including each character’s physical appearances, personality, and specific traits. One aspect that causes the four characters to differ is their physical appearance. While the author Shakespeare makes the appearance of Lysander and Demetrius having virtually indistinguishable physical and monetary figures, he comparatively makes the appearances of Hermia and Helena quite distinguishable, their names being the only thing that is remotely being similar between the two of them. Hermia’s physical appearance is described as having “blessed and attractive eyes,” (ACT ...
In "A Midsummer Night's Dream," William Shakespeare explains the difficulties of the nature of love. Both false love and true love prevail in the end, leading the reader to come to the conclusion that all types of love can triumph. Hermia and Lysander represent the existence of a "true love", while Helena and Demertrius represent the opposite extreme. Shakespeare presents the idea that love is unpredictable and can cause great confusion. Love is something that cannot be explained, it can only be experienced. Shakespeare challenges us to develop our own idea of what love truly is.