A Midsummer Night's Dream Setting Analysis

In A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare, there are two prominent settings with opposing forces that are central to the context of the play. These two different settings explain Shakespeare’s underlying messages and themes that he wanted to convey to his audience. The setting the readers are introduced to first, Athens, is meant to represent the harshness of the real world, while the other main location, the forest, has a more lovable and happier notion. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the dissimilarities of the setting enhance the mood and conflicts, represent different ideas and themes, and portray Shakespeare’s personal ideas about how true love can overcome obstacles, especially with the help of imagination and altered minds.
The two different settings, the city of Athens and the forest outside of it, display contrasting ideas about the mood of the characters and the conflicts they share. The …show more content…
In Athens, traditions and the law overbear the idea of true love. Helena’s father did not allow her to be with Lysander in Athens because he preferred her to be with Demetrius. On the other hand, the forest is meant to represent love and the power of imagination. There, Helena and Lysander could express their love freely.
That direct representation connects the lover’s fate and the theme of true love. If the lovers had never wandered into the forest, it can be inferred that they would not have ended up with their fated partner.
The differences between the two settings are known represent how imaginative thinking alters the way the storyline progresses.
The contradicting settings contribute to a main idea of how Shakespeare wanted to convey his take on common motifs, such as love and imagination. He is very straightforward on conveying what these ideas mean to him. For example, he clearly states,
And as imagination bodies