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A Midsummer Night's Dream Essay

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It is generally believed that “A Midsummer Night's Dream” was written between 1594 and 1596. One of the most solid assumptions - albeit not confirmed - is that the piece was written in honor of the marriage of Elizabeth Carey and Thomas Berkeley. In this perspective, we can consider “A Midsummer Night's Dream” as a poem designed on the occasion of wedding, to celebrate the groom youth union. If this had proved to be the case, the numerous references to the moon in the play would be as many tributes to Elizabeth I, possibly present at the wedding, which was often compared to Diana, lunar goddess. Then there was the original title: “A Midsummer Night's Dream”. We do not know if it is the question of "rites of May" (evoked Helena and are identifiable …show more content…

Aegean is just complaining about his daughter Hermia promised to Demetrius. The girl, in fact, refused the marriage for love Lysander, she is loved in return. She risks perishing for disobeying her father. The young lovers decide to escape into the forest, pursued by Demetrius, Hermia is in love with him and even pursued by Helena, madly in love with him. In the world of fairies, the King and Queen Titania and Oberon are fighting for a little orphan. For revenge and in order to get the child, Oberon instructs his faithful Puck, a mischievous spirit of the forest to fetch a magic flower whose juice has the power to make Titania fall in love the first comer. But outraged by the boorishness of Demetrius to Helena, he also charges Puck to enchant the young man that he falls in love with his sighing. But inadvertently, Puck launches spell on Lysander, who falls in love with Helena and Hermia rejects. Demetrius delighted in turn and then fights with Lysander for the love of Helena. A little bit later in the woods, a troupe of craftsmen from Athens, conducted by Quince and Bottom, desperately trying to rehearse a play for the wedding of the Duke in the forest, the very lamentable comedy and tragic death of Pyramus and Thisbe. Puck, who always is a joker, transforms Bottom into an ass when Titania awakes. The fairy queen, the victim of the magic juice of the flower falls in …show more content…

We know that Shakespeare traditionally drew the parallel lives of Plutarch for his mythological sources. Nevertheless, we can see here that Shakespeare moved away somewhat, making clear the relationship that normally joins Theseus Aegean. Another difference is the name of the political function of Theseus, defined as Duke of Athens, who, as the presence of Hippolyta, led to another source, “The Tale of Knight” written by Geoffrey Chaucer. The fairies group is definitely sharing the reader’s or viewer’s apprehension of folklore: all belong to popular legends and beliefs that still circulated in the second half of the sixteenth century. Thus, Oberon, in fact, refers to the character of Huon of Bordeaux, Titania from Ovid's Metamorphoses or Puck in a recurring character of the English countryside - elves, fairies and leprechauns still belonged to the Elizabethan imagination. But, again, Shakespeare departed somewhat from tradition: it is the first time in the Elizabethan fantasy, fairies are described as benevolent beings (the mustard seed or peas flower enter the composition of certain therapeutic concoctions of medicine at the time and therefore refer to the beneficial effects of nature). These names are also indicative of the small size of these creatures may be hiding in the "wells of acorns" (Act II, Scene I) detail invented by Shakespeare and not fired the imagination of the time. The smallness

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