Many authors have published articles that treats the subject based upon one aspect of the play. One important element of A Midsummer Night’s Dream is the disparity that is distinguished between reality and a world inhabited by fairies and other magical beings and forces.
I know not by what power I am made bold" (1.1.55-56). This quote shows that Hermia is willing to stand up for herself and take control of her own fate, even when it means going against societal expectations. However, despite her agency, Hermia is also subject to the whims of fate and the supernatural. In Act 2, Scene 1, Puck mistakes Lysander for Demetrius and uses a love potion to make Lysander fall in love with Helena.
More specifically the fairies. Rather than the free-spirited lovers of life bestowed in the text, the fairies in the film are whimpering, frivolous, petulant party animals. This is strikingly true of Puck who has been converted from a boyish charmer into a rude, middle-aged lizard who revels in taking a leak in the forests after drinking too much wine. Thus changing the mood of the story and its perspective by the reader or viewer.
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.
Love carries so much power. Love is pain. Love is fear. Love can be unbearable, even unachievable. Very few aspects of life portray the essence of love.
In Shakespeare’s play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the question of reality or magic arises often questioning the root of one’s love. As the play begins a love triangle is presented with Demetrius, Hermia, and Lysander. This triangle left out Helena, the lovesick woman who is desperately in love with Demetrius. Helena states, “Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,” believing that Demetrius has built such a fascination with Hermia that he could not see her own beauty (I. i.234).
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.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a mystical and illogical fairytale presented in the form of a play. Written with various poetic forms and rhyme schemes, A Midsummer Night’s Dream was an instant classic. Throughout the play, Shakespeare uses a dream as a common theme and important idea. From the ingenious concept that the play as a whole was a dream dreamt by the audience to Bottom’s ‘dream’ that he was a donkey that fell in love with a Fairy queen, it is apparent that the whole story is based around dreams and their unnatural and strange qualities.
Athens vs the Forest In Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare there are two settings, Athens and the forest where the four layers of ploy take place. First in Athens the royal wedding of Theseus and Hippolyta. Second is the story of the four Athenian lovers (Lysander, Hermia, Demetrius, and Helena) in the forest. Third is the conflict between fairies (Oberon and Titania) in the forest. Last is the effort of the “rude mechanicals” to put on a play.
There was also logical sequence. One thing always led to another. When Robin Goodfellow accidently places the drops of the flower in the eyes of Lysander rather than Demetrius, one thing led to another. Helena ends up looking into Lysander’s eyes when he awakes, Lysander ends up being in love with Helena, then Hermia eventually finds outs, then Oberon finds out and he tries to fix it. This play follows a significant sequence.
Philosophical approach on the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream Submitted to: Prof. Eliezer V. David Submitted by: Jan MarveManaligod KristianDacara Bryan RonhellTangonan MarckRacell Diego BSME-2C Philosophy is the study of the theoretical basis of a particular branch of knowledge or experience. In every story there is a philosophy. It is the way of the author to show the moral lesson of the play.
Sigmund Freud’s idea was the unconscious mind makes an impact on judgments and is the main source of how a human behaves in relation to society. William Shakespeare wrote many plays that contained a few plots that correlated to human behavior through past experiences. For instance, Shakespeare’s lyrical and romantic drama, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, is full of dreams and fantasy of the unconscious mind. He combined several plot lines that allowed there to be many different themes of love that ranged from young love to marriage reconciliation (Kennedy and Gioia, 1508). “Shakespeare’s theme of love represented is in a variety of forms; true, fake, unreasonable all reveal how love is a battlefield.
During our script reading of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” I’ve had different impressions of characters and themes brought up. The play begins in Athens where Don Theseus is preparing for his marriage to Hippolyta, four days from the beginning. During his preparation he is approached by Egeus, a father who is asking for enforcement of his arranged marriage for his daughter Hermia and her chosen husband Demetrius. Hermia fights this because she’s in love with Lysander, but the Don agrees with her father, leaving her and Lysander to plan to elope and run away with one another. Hermia tells Helena, her best friend who’s hopelessly in love with Demetrius, of her plans before heading home to prepare for their wedding, leaving Helena to mope before
the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream, by William Shakespeare, Hermia and Lysander decide to flee Athens to wed each other. Egeus, Hermia’s father, orders that Hermia must marry Demetrius, as a part of a business contract. This is absolutely out of the question for Hermia, since she already is in love with her soulmate Lysander. Due to the tumultuous circumstances, Hermia and Lysander decide to flee, where they can be safe from their rigid societal laws of Athens. Hermia and Lysander are to meet when the clock strikes midnight and go through the forest to Lysander's aunt’s house.
Love is a universal subject that is significant and important in many lives. At the end of Shakespeare’s play, after a painful past, Demetrius’ fresh and recurring affection for the character Helena and Titania’s immediate infatuation for Nick Bottom is veiled as superficial love. Theseus’ speech about the effects or relationships incorporates how unrealistic love can be. Lysander’s feelings from love to hate towards Hermia represents how quickly emotions change. Hermia’s heart shattered as her own love refused her which expresses how painful love can be.
