Does the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream lean toward reality or dreams? There are many ways to look at this play, but one cannot help but wonder if the magic that takes place is meant to be seen as real or just a dream. In the end, the world of dreams wins.
The first act begins with a fairly realistic tone as it opens with Theseus and Hippolyta talking. Throughout the play they represent daylight—the mature reality of love. Theseus has just won Hippolyta’s hand in marriage through war. There are no foolish whims are jealousy between them. The realism continues with Egeus interfering with his daughter Hermia and Lysander. It appears to be a rather typical situation that one would find even in today’s society. How many times have heard …show more content…
This takes the play yet further into the world of fantasy. Hippolyta comments on how silly the play is and Theseus explains its purpose by saying, “The best in this kind are in shadows; and the worst are no worse if imagination mends them.” (Theseus 5.1.210-11)
And when the play ends that line between the fairy world and the real world is crossed, as is the line between the actor and the audience. Puck speaks directly to the audience when he says, “If we shadows have offended, think but this and all is mended. That you have slumbered here.” (Puck 5.1.418-20) It is as if Shakespeare wants to draw the audience in and have them question rather the play was real or whether it was all a dream.
It is clear that A Midsummer Night’s Dream leans more toward the world of dreams than reality. Even the title has the word dream in it. Theseus’s comment about the lover’s dream encompasses the whole play. “The lunatic, the lover and the poet are of imagination compact.” Although we live in a world that does not have magic in it, A Midsummer Night’s Dream is filled with fantasy and imagination. It reminds us of how intertwined dreams and reality are and how sometimes our love and our dreams can win over reason and make us do the craziest
The first act begins with a fairly realistic tone as it opens with Theseus and Hippolyta talking. Throughout the play they represent daylight—the mature reality of love. Theseus has just won Hippolyta’s hand in marriage through war. There are no foolish whims are jealousy between them. The realism continues with Egeus interfering with his daughter Hermia and Lysander. It appears to be a rather typical situation that one would find even in today’s society. How many times have heard …show more content…
This takes the play yet further into the world of fantasy. Hippolyta comments on how silly the play is and Theseus explains its purpose by saying, “The best in this kind are in shadows; and the worst are no worse if imagination mends them.” (Theseus 5.1.210-11)
And when the play ends that line between the fairy world and the real world is crossed, as is the line between the actor and the audience. Puck speaks directly to the audience when he says, “If we shadows have offended, think but this and all is mended. That you have slumbered here.” (Puck 5.1.418-20) It is as if Shakespeare wants to draw the audience in and have them question rather the play was real or whether it was all a dream.
It is clear that A Midsummer Night’s Dream leans more toward the world of dreams than reality. Even the title has the word dream in it. Theseus’s comment about the lover’s dream encompasses the whole play. “The lunatic, the lover and the poet are of imagination compact.” Although we live in a world that does not have magic in it, A Midsummer Night’s Dream is filled with fantasy and imagination. It reminds us of how intertwined dreams and reality are and how sometimes our love and our dreams can win over reason and make us do the craziest