"A Midsummer Night's Dream" by William Shakespeare is a play on the theme
of love. The play is a comedy and it shows that the course of love doesn't
always run smoothly.
Shakespeare uses different settings to show the complication in the
lover's lives.
I think that is a very clever thing to do. The first scene takes place in
The Palace of Theseus. Theseus, the Duke of Athens, is getting married to
Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, in four days time. There is a very calm
and peaceful atmosphere at this time and everyone is happy. This is shown
by a quote from Theseus " with pomp, with triumph, and with revelling".
The atmosphere then changes when Egeus intrudes into the party. This is
because his daughter, Hermia, is supposed to be marrying Demetrius, a young
man chosen by her father. Although she wants to marry Lysander, the man she
...
>is deeply in love with. This doesn't make Theseus very happy.
Once Theseus tells Hermia she cannot marry Lysander they make plans to
runaway together to the outside of Athens. This is because the laws of
Athens can't stop them there. Lysander says "There, gentle Hermia, may I
marry thee".
Shakespeare changes the setting at this point to show the atmosphere is
changing from a calm peaceful one to a wild and disorderly one. There are
now fairies and magic being introduced to the story. Some of the new
characters are "Proud Titania" and "Jealous Oberon". Another character
called Puck is also introduced. He is described as a "shrewd and knavish
sprite".
The story then goes on to tell us about the juice of the purple flower.
If the juice is placed in someone's eyes then the first things they see
when they wake up they fall in love with
no matter who or what it is.
Oberon tells Puck to put the juice in the eyes of Demetrius eyes so he
will fall in love with Helena. Then Puck mistakes Lysander for Demetrius
and Demetrius falls in love with Helena.
There are many different types of characters in the story. The two main
types are the fairies and the Athenians. The main fairies that we are
introduced to are Oberon, Titania and Puck.
Titania and Oberon have a quarrel over a young child. Oberon wants to
take the young boy off of Titania and turn him into one of his henchmen. "I
do but beg a little changeling boy, to be my henchman". But Titania will
not give up the child and she leaves Oberon and Puck alone in the forest.
Oberon is very angry because he couldn't get the child. "Thou shalt not
form this grove till I torment thee from this injury." So Oberon comes up
with a plan. He will make Titania fall in love with an animal of some kind
and Oberon will take the child.
Titania's character is very strong. She wouldn't let her husband take the
baby from her and she wouldn't let him tell her what to do. She kept the
baby because it was her friends' baby and her friend died and she promised
she would look after him. This also shows she is very loyal.
Oberon is very selfish. Most of the trouble caused in the forest was down
to him. He also tried to take the baby from Titania. This wasn't a very
nice thing to do. Then he tried to get revenge on her. He was a necessary
character because he made the story more twisted and interesting. Oberon is
very childish and vindictive.
Puck doesn't really
care that it was the wrong person's eyes he put the
juice into because Puck's character isn't like that. He is very mischievous
and sneaky. It is a very interesting character and it was also a necessary
character because he kept the story moving along and made it funny at the
same time.
In conclusion "A Midsummer Nights Dream" was very successful in showing
me that the course of love doesn't always run smoothly. I found the
characters and the setting the most interesting things about the play,
although it was also a very interesting play in general. It was complicated
and hard to follow at some points. But it was funny and enjoyable and I
liked in a lot.
- My Dream essays
- My Dream Job essays
- A Doll's House essays
- A Midsummer Night's Dream essays
- A raisin in the sun essays
- A Streetcar Named Desire essays
- An Inspector Calls essays
- Death of a salesman essays
- Everyman essays
- Fences essays
- Hamlet essays
- Hedda Gabler essays
- Iago essays
- King Lear essays
- Macbeth essays
- Much ado about nothing essays
- Oedipus Rex essays
- Oedipus The King essays
- Othello essays
- Pygmalion essays
- Romeo And Juliet essays
- Tartuffe essays
- The glass menagerie essays
- The Importance of Being Earnest essays
- The Merchant Of Venice essays
- The Taming of The Shrew essays
- Twelfth Night essays
- Waiting For Godot essays
- Adaptation essays
- Adventure essays
- Adversity essays
- Aging essays
- Alcohol essays
- Barbie Doll essays
- Beauty essays
- Care essays
- Carpe diem essays
- Change essays
- Chess essays
- Chicken essays
- Choices essays
- Contrast essays
- Crops essays
- Development essays
- Dream essays
- Evil essays
- Experience essays
- Family essays
- Farm essays
- Fire essays