Shakespeare’s use of role playing and metatheatre in 1 Henry IV and A Midsummer Night’s Dream call attention to the nature of theatre. Not only the nature of the play we are watching, but also the play of life. As the audience, we have a broader perspective. As if we are allowed to see through a different lens. We inhabit a world that is very different from the one we live and yet in some ways we see ourselves in the characters (Bedford). In the play Henry IV Shakespeare’s use of role playing and metatheatre could be used as an analogy of life. Most are familiar with the famous lines in As You Like It, “All the world’s a stage, /And all the men and women merely players. /They have their exits and their entrances, / And one man in his time …show more content…
When Hal speaking to Falstaff says, “Dost thou speak like a king? Do thou stand for me, and I’ll play my father” (Norton 2.5.395), we see that kingship is just another role that Hal will play. In life, we are characters in a greater work. We watch people, interact with others, see what is expected and demanded, then we create ourselves as a character with a certain trait. We are continually changing, adapting, and altering these “characters” to fit what we want or think we should be. The idea of the “real self” is tricky because of our meta-awareness. We are aware that we exist within the arena and we are aware that our daily interactions shape us. So, who are we really? Do “we” exist independently or are we products of our environment, or is it some combination? That’s a nearly impossible question to answer. So, who is the “real” Hal? I don’t necessarily think the answer lies behind the role he plays but rather in the way he plays them. Therefore, the play-within-the-play can act as a mirror of sorts, we see a reflection of our lives. Like Hal, we have many roles in the theatre of the …show more content…
Theseus’ reality doesn’t include things like fairies. He further says that the poet, lunatic, and lover are of “imagination all compact”. Theseus thinks that they are delusional. However, Hippolyta sees that there must be something more to the story than delusion because the lover’s minds have been “transfigure” and this “grows something of great constancy” even if it is a bit strange. It is as if the lover’s all had the same dream. Looking at the play as a whole, it would seem that those with powerful imaginations like the poet, lover, and lunatic transcend logic and reason. They see beyond what is there. Shakespeare, who’s imagination “bodies forth/the forms of things unknown” (Norton 5.1.14-15) has written A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Norton 845). This doesn’t seem very different from when Bottom says that he wants to have his vision turned into a ballad. This leads me to believe that the play-within-the-play is a comparison to the play we are watching. The performance of Pyramus and Thisbe assures us that nothing is what appears to be. Though Hippolyta thinks the play is silly, Theseus explains that the “best in kind are but shadows, and the worst are no worse if the imagination amends them” (Norton 5.1.208-209). This line seems to say that the best plays are only illusions, and the worst (the play by the rude mechanicals) can be just as good if you use your
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.
Hamlet makes use of the idea of theatrical performance through characters presenting themselves falsely to others – from Rosencrantz and Guildenstern spying on Hamlet to gain favor with the King, to Hamlet himself playing the part of a madman – and through the play within the play, The Mousetrap. This essay will discuss the ways in which Hamlet explores the idea of theatrical performance, ‘acting’, through analysis of the characters and the ‘roles’ they adopt, specifically that of Hamlet and Claudius. The idea, or the theme of theatrical performance is not an uncommon literary element of Shakespearean works, the most famous of which to encompass this idea being As You Like It. This essay will also briefly explore the ways in which Hamlet reminds its audience of the stark difference between daily life and dramatization of life in the theatre.
... comedies rather than tragedies in their source form the original characters from the source plays are revealed. Strong, ‘masculine’ women of the source are only revealed through the intertextuality of genre and the reassigned direct quotes from Shakespeare’s iconic plays. The feminist perspective of Shakespeare’s plays, which was there all along, could only be revealed by the strong use of intertextuality in MacDonald’s play. MacDonald relies on the iconic meta-theatre and intertextuality to magnify the feminist perspective within the Shakespearean plays. When turned in upon itself, Shakespeare’s plays reveal their distinct feminist perspective that could not be uncovered without the extensive and brilliant use of intertextuality such as that of Ann Marie MacDonald. Therefore the metatheatre’s intertextuality reinforces and supports the traits of the feminine.
Even his lightest plays have serious undertones to them. Each one depicts life as it once was, complete with the rules and expectations which were common at the time. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare reflects society’s views on love and gender, both in his own time and in ancient Athens.
To conclude, reading the plays of Shakespeare is not only about an entertainment, there is more about learning manhood and the importance of the role that morality plays in everyday life. That is the reason of Shakespeare’s plays are so popular because through his work, he illustrates that: life is a play, which is performed on the earth stage, and his world stage will continue influences the past, modern and further.
William Shakespeare’s dramatic and poetic techniques and his use of hyperbole are used to describe the characters emotions and weaknesses. The use of dramatic irony is used to create personal conflict. This is done throughout the play to describe the characters concerns and their situations.
The actions of Hamlet have changed up to the performance. Hamlet's behavior of being mad and depressed changed with the players because they are not involved with his "real" life and feels at ease and at his best, a prince reminding artists of the ideals their art is meant to uphold. The meanings of words have also changed. The meaning of "acting" plays a great role in the performance, not only by the observation of the entire audience, but by a more private and personal meaning or understanding of the play by Hamlet and the King.
Throughout A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare, there are multiple analyses that one can follow in order to reach a conclusion about the overall meaning of the play. These conclusions are reached through analyzing the play’s setting, characterization, and tone. However, when one watches the production A Midsummer Night’s Dream directed by Michael Hoffman, a completely different approach is taken on these aspects, leading to a vastly different analysis of the work. Though there are many similarities between the original written play A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare and the on-screen production of the aforementioned play which was directed by Michael Hoffman, there are differences in setting and
In A Midsummer Night's Dream, playwright William Shakespeare creates in Bottom, Oberon, and Puck unique characters that represent different aspects of him. Like Bottom, Shakespeare aspires to rise socially; Bottom has high aims and, however slightly, interacts with a queen. Through Bottom, Shakespeare mocks these pretensions within himself. Shakespeare also resembles King Oberon, controlling the magic we see on the stage. Unseen, he and Oberon pull the strings that control what the characters act and say. Finally, Shakespeare is like Puck, standing back from the other characters, acutely aware of their weaknesses and mocks them, relishing in mischief at their expense. With these three characters and some play-within-a-play enchantment, Shakespeare mocks himself and his plays as much as he does the young lovers and the mechanicals onstage. This genius playwright who is capable of writing serious dramas such as Hamlet and Julius Caesar is still able to laugh at himself just as he does at his characters. With the help of Bottom, Oberon, and Puck, Shakespeare shows us that theatre, and even life itself, are illusions that one should remember to laugh at.
Furthermore, Shakespeare introduces the Players to add an extra dimension to his ideas on the effects of disassembly. The juxtaposition of the `play within a play' acts as a subtle literary device that suggests that, as Hamlet's play occurs in the middle of the play, the play itself revolves around the pretence undertaken by the majority of Shakespeare's characters.
Throughout the historical literary periods, many writers underrepresented and undervalued the role of women in society, even more, they did not choose to yield the benefits of the numerous uses of the female character concerning the roles which women could accomplish as plot devices and literary tools. William Shakespeare was one playwright who found several uses for female characters in his works. Despite the fact that in Shakespeare's history play, Richard II, he did not use women in order to implement the facts regarding the historical events. Instead, he focused the use of women roles by making it clear that female characters significantly enriched the literary and theatrical facets of his work. Furthermore in Shakespeare’s history play, King Richard II, many critics have debated the role that women play, especially the queen. One of the arguments is that Shakespeare uses the queen’s role as every women’s role to show domestic life and emotion. Jo McMurtry explains the role of all women in his book, Understanding Shakespeare’s England A Companion for the American Reader, he states, “Women were seen, legally and socially, as wives. Marriage was a permanent state” (5). McMurtry argues that every woman’s role in the Elizabethan society is understood to be a legal permanent state that is socially correct as wives and mothers. Other critics believe that the role of the queen was to soften King Richard II’s personality for the nobles and commoners opinion of him. Shakespeare gives the queen only a few speaking scenes with limited lines in Acts two, four, and five through-out the play. Also, she is mentioned only a few times by several other of the characters of the play and is in multiple scenes wit...
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 has created stories that are so powerful, emotional, comedic, tragic and romantic that they are still continuously remembered and studied in the modern era. Though the essence of his talents does not lie in the simple themes behind his plays, but more so in
As the roles were essentially cemented into the culture, manipulations such as crossovers provide a source of conflict and intrigue into the narrative of the plays. Two of Shakespea...
Bruce, Wilshire. Role Playing and Identity: The Limits of Theatre as Metaphor. Indiana: Indiana University, Folklore Institute, 1991.