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Adaptation Of A Midsummer Night's Dream

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Michael Hoffman’s 1999 adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, among numerous alterations from Shakespeare’s original work, fundamentally challenges the audience’s former notions of Nick Bottom. Often viewed by other critics and filmmakers, and even Shakespeare himself, as a simpleton, Bottom has seldom been portrayed as anything other than a lowly beast or a foolish clown. However, in his film, Hoffman abandons commonplace interpretations in order to create a rounded and complex character through which the audience finds empathy and compassion. Hoffman achieves this task of reinvigorating Nick Bottom through his use of thematic elements, costume design, and character interactions. Through their comical ignorance, in stark contrast to the …show more content…

A shrewd woman, Bottom’s wife only appears in the film briefly, but when she does it is to disrupt Bottom’s fantasies and cast angry stares from the margins. By giving Bottom a wife, Hoffman humanizes the comical character. “Hoffman surely gives us Bottom’s shrewish wife to help us to see Bottom’s fantasies as understandable and likeable…. Even though he is a failed [socialite] at least he cuts a decent figure. Though he is an ass, he is a cute one” (Jones). Jones asserts that Bottom’s wife provides a means for the audience to understand Bottom. He is not an ignorant and immoral flirt, but a lonely man looking for the comfort his marriage lacks. He is not simply a failed socialite or a hopeless actor, but rather a husband who cannot gain the support from his wife that he desperately needs. In this way, the audience comes to pity Bottom and empathizes with his plight, extending him into a full character rather than simply a one dimensional …show more content…

However, consistent among them is a portrayal of Bottom that extends little beyond his foolish and beastly nature. However, in his film, Hoffman abandons commonplace interpretations of Bottom in order to create a complex and dynamic character through which the audience finds empathy and compassion. Hoffman achieved this task of breathing new life into Nick Bottom through his use of thematic elements, costume design, and character

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Julie Taymor’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream film adaptation creates a fantastical spin on the well-known Shakespeare play. The director is able to create an effective dream-like setting with the use of projections, lighting, and puppetry. From the beginning, there is a sense of wonder created, as without word or introduction, Puck, played by Kathryn Hunter, glides onto stage and lays down on a mattress supported by branches. Puck is then lifted into the air and a large white sheet consumes the stage. Even for those familiar with the play, such as myself, it immediately commands your mind to travel to the dream world Taymor has created.

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In the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Titania and Oberon show the thematic idea of complicated love, because love has its ups and downs. Oberon and Titania see each other for the first time in a while and Oberon says, “Tarry, rash wanton. Am not I thy lord?” (2.1.63). This quote shows that Titania and Oberon hate each other so much.

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Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is often viewed as a comedic tale of love. It takes on the general ideals of a comedy—beginning with order, moving on to chaos, and ultimately ending with harmony among society. By providing opposing settings, the city of Athens and the fairy world, Shakespeare highlights the duality of man’s nature. The fickleness of human beings becomes more apparent once the lovers are placed in the dreamy world represented by the forest.

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385 Words | 2 Pages

I believe that the use of rude mechanicals in “Midsummer Night’s Dream” is a crucial factor in Shakespeare’s play. Shakespeare is trying to get a point across to the viewers and readers of the play, and by utilizing rude mechanicals as his main characters it allows the viewer to see and understand things without Shakespeare having to write about it or include it in a scene of the play. This is one of the benefits of performing a story instead of writing it, it allows the author to use different ways of getting points across to the viewer or reader. Now, in “Midsummer Night’s Dream,” the rude mechanicals are portrayed as just “normal” people that work and do manual labor jobs instead of being a part of royalty. Shakespeare really emphasizes

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726 Words | 3 Pages

Passion is what fuels an emotion to expand to greater feelings. It turns like into love, sad into depression, and dislike into hatred. Someone can be passionate about love or hate to the same extent. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Demetrius has multiple passions; determination (to have Hermia), hatred (for Helena), and love (for Helena). The emotions he shows all differ in reason and impact, but are fueled by the same thing; passion.

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779 Words | 4 Pages

Toba Beta once said: "“Justice could be as blind as love.”   Shakespeare 's play A Midsummer Night 's Dream captures the blind bias of both love and justice.   Egeus, a respected nobleman in Athens, arranged for his daughter, Hermia, to marry nobleman Demetrius.   Egeus tells his daughter that she must obey his wishes: if she does not, she can either choose to become a nun, or die.   Hermia, much to her father 's dismay, is deeply in a mutual love with a different nobleman, Lysander.

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1055 Words | 5 Pages

When riding on a roller coaster the excitement consumes your very being as you feel the slingshot of velocity with every drop you take. Feelings of happiness, scaredness and sadness pile on you like mad hounds. Love can definitely portray those qualities. The statement love is a roller coaster, is proven true in Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare. The traits of a roller coaster are displayed in the relationship of Hermia and Lysander.

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Some people feel that it`s quite challenging locating differences between a written story and its film, though, however, some people find it considerably simple to detect differences between the pair. A Midsummer Nights Dream was undoubtedly great cinematic film made in 1999. However, the written play of A Midsummer Nights Dream was much more detailed and more informational. The differences I noticed were the following: The Indian boy and his role, the setting, characters and examples of similarities. First of all, the primary anomaly I noticed implies the Indian boy and his role during the piece.

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1252 Words | 6 Pages

In A Midsummer’s Night Dream, Shakespeare let the readers to explore his imagination and bring them to fantasies. A Midsummer Night’s Dream implies a world of imagination, illusion and unconsciousness through the word ‘dreams’. In the last scene of the play, act V scene I, the audience experience there is different thought of Theseus and Hippolyta in interpreting the love stories of Hermia, Lysander, Helena, Demetrius and the imaginations of many other characters. The scene of Theseus talking to Hippolyta lead to a controversy about the value of imagination and reason. From the play, the audience indeed witnesses magical incidents in the fairies’ forest, where the fairy king and queen, Oberon and Titania, rule over the natural processes.

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Echo “It is not so much the example of others we imitate as the reflection of ourselves in their eyes and the echo of ourselves in their words.” said by Eric Hoffer (Huie). Shakespeare was an English playwright who wrote 37 plays in a stylized language. His literature works are extended, and infer a rhetorical written for actors to denounce rather than speak. In William Shakespeare’s play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the character, Lysander ,implies the perseverance of Shakespeare to achieve his goal, Peter Quince, the playwright, infers Shakespeare’s attitude toward the play, and the character Bottom conceals Shakespeare‘s viewpoint for his life. In other words，Shakespeare reflects himself by developing characters in his drama, echoing similar experiences and characteristics.

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483 Words | 2 Pages

Love is Difficult “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” by William Shakespeare is filled with many mixed emotions and lots of different themes. Although there are many different themes that readers can interpret, one that really stands out is that love is difficult. This theme is supported when Hermia 's father tries to tear Hermia and Lysander apart and they decide the best decision is to run away together. Also Oberon and Titania can 't stand each other and always get into arguments. The love potion throughout the play messed up Titania and Oberon’s true love.

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767 Words | 4 Pages

In the real world, love is a very fragile force. Love can be easily broken and manipulated by multiple other outside forces. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the two most basic themes are the chaos and order that are the causes of all the actions that take place. Chaos versus order in A Midsummer Night’s Dream also is a representation of Yin and Yang. Yin, represents the bad or darkness in the world, this is the chaos in the play.

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1205 Words | 5 Pages

Today, men and women have equal rights, but that does not mean life has always been simple for both genders. When Shakespeare writes A Midsummer Night’s Dream, there are roles, behaviors, and expectations for the dominant men and submissive women. This literature portrays the major changes in the lives of both sexes throughout the years, which shows the advances women gain with time. The gender issue of men being dominant and women being submissive used in the drama, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, shows the differences in the roles, behaviors, and expectations appropriate for each gender and is an example of an outdated stereotype.

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738 Words | 3 Pages

In the twenty-first century, the plays of William Shakespeare may at first appear dated and irrelevant: they use archaic language, are set in the age of Kings and Queens, and the Kingdom of England. However, it would be plainly mistaken to construe that Shakespeare’s works do not still remain integral to a twenty-first century society. Shakespeare’s plays gave the words and expressions one uses every day, revolutionized the art of theater as it was known, and forewarned about issues that would unknowingly still apply centuries later. Therefore, Shakespeare has had a profound effect on our lives by enriching our language and culture, as well as providing ideas that would still apply five centuries later, and it would thus behoove us to learn from his works and life.

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“Better a witty fool than a foolish wit,” William Shakespeare once said through his play Twelfth Night, and I will classify this line as a life changing saying. Growing up, the mould my parents filled me in was a person who is independent, practical, and logical. In no doubt, I was a clumsy child. I did break things often, trip myself while walking in streets, accidentally harm another person physically while doing something exciting, yet the most life-changing from all of these accidents was having my parents be disappointed of me because of these faults, therefore I have decided not to, again, disappoint any other person with only being myself.

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