A Midsummer Night's Dream Research Paper

There has constantly been attempts to create an elusive, surreal sense to the music. Though the term “fantasy” is hard to be defined, composers have strived to convey the sense of fantasy. From Rachmaninov’s Fantaisie-tableaux, to Debussy’s Fantasie, to Tchaikovsky’s Fantastische Variationen, composers utilized different harmonies, rhythms, and styles to their “fantasy”. Adaptation of supernatural events and characters is one attempt of the fantasy. Before 18th century, the range of the supernatural can be categorized into five: celestial, with the benevolent deities, heaven, and paradise; ceremonial, with prophecies and rituals; ominous, with incantations, dungeons, and death; infernal, with malevolent deities, hell, and demons; and devastating,

Perhaps the most pivotal role in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Puck(also known as Robin Goodfellow, or sometimes, Hobgoblin) makes some deviations from what Oberon had detailed him in the act of carrying it out, thereby stirring the main plot. Puck is Oberon’s allegiant jester who at times can turn crude when it comes to Oberon’s words. But he makes an inadvertent blunder. When Puck sprinkles the love potion over Lysander’s eyelids instead of Demetrius’s, he unintendedly thrusts the four Athenians into swirling love complications. Though in the end Puck undoes the complications he have made, Demetrius, Lysander, Hermia, and Helena’s entangled love develops as a major conflict of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Aside from the unforeseen mistake, Puck plays deliberate pranks as well for the sake of his mere joy as mischievous he is. His deed of transforming craftsman Nick Bottom’s head to that of an ass is no more than a prank for his pure fun. After the prank, he joyfully shouts, “My mistress with a monster is in love.

Nonetheless, unlike the “terrible”, Mendelssohn’s piece does not exploit full orchestral textures, rapid scale passages, or loud dynamics. The fairies in A Midsummer Night’s Dream fall into neither good nor evil. With Puck the most central figure, fairies in A Midsummer Night’s Dream are subordinate to their masters. Puck’s mischievousness and rowdiness, expressed through the violin’s fast and high-pitched staccatos, bring about love complications of the Athenians, but he unravels the twist overnight. Anger or conflagrations are not needed in musical portrayal of such character, making it unnecessary for the music to utilize loud dynamics or full orchestral