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The analysis of Midsummer Night's Dream
Character analysis in midsummer night's dream
Male and female relationships in shakespeares time
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Will Weninger ENGL 350 Crazy, Stupid Love One of the of the most influential characters that we see in William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer’s Night Dream is that of Nick Bottom, a weaver who provides comic relief. We first meet Bottom when he is referred to as one of “The Mechanicals” and that he is putting on the play Pyramus and Thisbe for the entertainment at Theseus’s wedding. While the group is rehearsing for their play, King Oberon, to get back at his wife, has his assistant Puck transform Bottom’s head into that of an ass. And of course he makes sure that his wife Titania falls in love with Bottom. During this short period of love between the two characters, we see how Titania adores bottom and does numerous things for him, like let …show more content…
The relationship between Bottom and Titania summarizes that, and how would it by not having a divine fairy queen having sexual relations with a mortal, one with the head of an ass. I think that by having characters falling in and out of love with each other so quickly, and by then having the relationship of Bottom and Titania, Shakespeare is suggesting that love is something that gets in our way and makes our lives full of craziness. The play is full of relationships, and every single one of them is faced with a problem throughout the course of the play. If we look at all of the other characters in the play, it is easy to infer that Bottom and Titania indeed have sex, and why would Shakespeare not want the most outrageous relationship in the play to not do the same? So by looking at how love is the central theme in the story, I think that it is only fitting that the goofiest relationship that takes place were indeed to have …show more content…
I think that this is something that applied to the audience and made him and his writing so appealing. And of course the union of Bottom and Titania surly something that gave his audience many laughs and was just another way in which Shakespeare portrayed his characters and their crazy relationships. I think that since this question is debated heavily today, it is important to remember that it is likely that an audience around the time the play was released was more accustomed to sexual references than we are
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, by William Shakespeare, is a classic play that has been retold in many ways. The most recent version of this romantic comedy was done by Michael Hoffman in 1999. This portrayal follows very closely to the original play. Very few lines are taken out, and the characters stay very true to the assumed original idea. The one main difference in the original play and this movie is the depiction of the character Nick Bottom the weaver. The original play shows Bottom as the “…overconfident weaver…hilariously overt…has extraordinary belief in his own ability…totally unaware of his ridiculousness…” (Sparknotes.com). These types of characteristics would normally make readers see Bottom as a cocky, egotistical, center of attention, “ass”. In the play, this is the case. However, in the 1999 movie version, with Kevin Kline as Bottom, the audience gets a different idea of Bottom without changing his basic character traits. Hoffman achieved changing the overall perception of the character of Bottom from to a “…warm fuzzy man, a dreamer for whom we can root”, and pathetic lover, while still keeping the “ass” quality, by only changing a few small, very subtle things (Jones, 127).
...nces like to have a clear hero of their stories. The combination of the director’s artistic vision, cinematic choices, and Kline’s performance singles out Bottom as the main-character. The film’s time is not spent mostly on Bottom’s story; actually, the Athenian lovers take up the most actual screen time. Bottom represents the bridge between the real world of the merchants and lovers and the fantastical fairy kingdom. He comes from the lowest class of society and rises to be something the queen of the fairies loves and values. In a world in which no one breaks from the Chain of Being, Bottom is able to venture into a world grander than his own for a short time. When he returns, he holds the nobility he gained from his experience within, transcending all classes to become the perfect hero for our modern conception of the play, hilariously valiant and imperfect.
In the original written play, there was no mention of a wife for Nick Bottom; the on-screen rendition, however, portrayed a wife who, though having no lines, was intolerant of her husband’s idiocy. To build on this, the characters that were part of Peter Quince and his cast were much more tolerable and less aware of Bottom’s idiocy in the play than in the movie. Hoffman’s portrayal depicted Bottom as a laughingstock among laughingstocks, going so far as to add a scene in which wine is poured over Bottom’s head to reveal the intolerance of his idiocy. Regarding the characters in the main portion of the play, Helena was much less irritating, whiny, and desperate in the original work than in Hoffman’s movie. The “Hollywood” aspect of the movie made Helena seem to be a rather unlikeable character (this also was affected by the setting, as mentioned above), whereas in the play she was seen to be mostly an unfortunate soul who whined only sometimes. These differences in character, though seemingly small, lead the audience to draw two very different conclusions about the characters’ situations and why they are placed in them. The analyzation of the characters changes from Shakespeare’s written play to Hoffman’s rendering of A Midsummer Night’s
There have been strict gender roles set in place for men and women to follow, throughout history. During Shakespearean times, The females were viewed as this weak, emotionally and physically. Women were expected to always listen and obey their husbands, father or male when demanded. Women were never in positions to make the rules. Men on the other hand, were expected to be the head of their households, strong, and wise. In “A Midsummer Night's Dream” written by Shakespeare, you may notice a lot of “gender roles” being played. Oberon and Titania characters are the only couple in the play who have been married for a while in the play. That makes them an important role in “A Midsummer Night's Dream”.The other couples are just starting out
...age. Instead of laughing at Bottom, the film generates a feeling of sorrow for his character. When the wine is poured on him when the craftsmen first meet, Bottom takes an obvious emotional blow, so one can see how he would artificially inflate himself with the false perception of being a wonderful actor. When chosen to perform for Thesseus’s wedding, the players are very nervous and turn to Bottom for comfort. They look up to and respect Bottom for his confidence and acting ability, but Bottom later makes a fool of himself in the play by over dramatizing the part of Pyramus, especially when he performs the death of Pyramus. Michael Hoffman’s adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream brings a classical play to a modern audience and makes it an exciting and humorous experience. This is accomplished most notably with the direction he gives to the two characters discussed. The animated humor of Bottom and the slightly more subtle badgering of other characters brought forth by Puck creates a certain amount of attachment to the movie by the viewer. The cinematic version of Shakespeare’s play is well adapted to a modern audience, especially through the characters of Puck and Nick Bottom.
In Bottom, Shakespeare pokes fun at the quirks in himself and in all plays and actors. By doing this, he makes light of the quirks in us all. To begin, the name "Bottom" has negative undertones, like "bottom of the heap," "bottom of the totem pole," and of course, one's behind. Bottom is a metaphorical ass that becomes a literal ass within the play. Bottom's name tells us not to take him too seriously. Additionally, neither William Shakespeare nor Nick Bottom were born to be aristocrats, both had ambitions beyond their particular position in life. It is Bottom's fate to be a weaver, y...
The use and misuse of magic has an important role in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. As a recurring theme, Puck’s use of magic creates humor, conflict and balance in the play. The magic of Puck changes the head of Bottom into that of a donkey. Puck’s own use of magic adds more humor to the already comical and over-confident character of Bottom. Puck’s magic also creates a great deal of humor in the dealings of Bottom and Titania.
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...
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
Shakespeare and his works questioned and presented the Elizabethan society, the stage used as a tool to represent larger ideas. Gender in the play is largely linked with morality, sin, redemption, fall and passionate pleasure. In King Lear there is an abuse of power, especially in regards to woman. The devouring feminine, and a fall from grace by the patriarchy ensued through incestuous behaviour, adultery and unnatural relationships leads to a fluidity in gender and generational roles. The violation of the natural order awakens divine retribution, leading to the collapse of the kingdom and chastisement eventually resulting in the rebirth of the patriarchy. In King Lear gender issues resolve from a power struggle, a deviation by the paternal
The character of Bottom in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is frequently foolish, but he is not a fool. His exuberance and energy are allied to practicality and resourcefulness, with an alarming lack of self-consciousness. He, at any rate, is not at all tongue-tied before the duke, as Theseus has known others to be. We do laugh at Bottom in many situations, but should note that these are situations in which any man might seem ridiculous: amateur theatricals are almost a byword for unintended comedy, whether in planning (1.2) rehearsal (3.1) or performance (5.1); any artisan afflicted with an ass's head and appetites, and beloved of the fairy queen would have difficulty retaining his dignity.
Throughout the events which unfold in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare delivers several messages on love. Through this play, one of the significant ideas he suggests is that love is blind, often defying logic and overriding other emotions and priorities. Helena loves Demetrius unconditionally and pursues him despite knowing that he loathes her; conflict arises between Helena and Hermia, childhood best friends, over Demetrius and Lysander; and because she is in love, Queen Titania is able to see beauty and virtue in the ass-headed Nick Bottom.
...fide in each other very deep secrets. With Viola and the Sea Captain, they formed a strong bond because of what they went through together, which is very relatable for the reader. Viola’s true desire to find her brother becomes apparent when she is willing to disguise herself as a man in attempts to find him. The Captain also shares some of her desire by willing to keep her plan a secret. Shakespeare did a great job in speaking about the topic of love in such a compelling, intense, yet comical way. He gives each reader something they can relate to and expresses that everyone experiences love in a different way.
There is more of this behavior going on than there is love in this play. Although, this deceptive type of behavior begins to manifest because of the love stories, it still becomes a major theme throughout the play. The reader is pulled into the love stories early on as they show up early and are quite entertaining to read as we see the characters poking fun and the game of leading on with each other. At one point or another every character of this story is either the victim of deception or is trying to deceive someone. This in it’s self is another comedic side of this story, I think Shakespeare was wanting to play with how deception can hurt people whether it is malicious or in good
With that in mind, Titania being in love with a donkey-headed Bottom while under the effects of the potion simplifies the theme. In addition, Shakespeare may have decided to use Bottom and Titania as the principal characters of this portion since they contrast greatly. As a result, it would strengthen the theme even more, as it demonstrates the theme with a ludicrous example. The craftsmen’s play is another display of such an example. In “Pyramus and Thisbe”, the climax occurs when Pyramus, finds Thisbe’s bloodied cloak and kills himself out of despair, only to have Thisbe return and kill herself as well after discovering his corpse. “...Since you have shore With shears his thread of silk. Tongue, not a word: Come trusty sword; Come, blade, my breast imbue.” Not only does this epitomize A Midsummer Night’s Dream’s theme, it also serves a comedic role, as one would not normally destroy oneself in