Metaphors are a way to abstractly discuss life, time, and history through vivid descriptions that awaken the imagination. As a master of figurative language, Shakespeare has enticed his audience for centuries through his beautiful and complex relationship of words, and the multitude of perspectives they offer. Throughout his works, he includes historical context, linguistic inferences, and significant interactions with the similes and metaphors that play a dynamic role in the life of the story. Within a “Midsummer’s Night Dream”, composed of an assembly of figurative language, this idea of the word “dream” itself, and the complexity of this in connection to the overall story and characters, will be explored further. Understanding it’s historical
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When analyzing the context that centrally shapes this play, it is essential to focus on the time period the play was written and Shakespeare’s fascination with dreaming and how the mind works within a sleep state. “A Midsummer’s Night Dream” was written in the late 16th century under Queen Elizabeth the First’s reign. Believed to have been a comedy for her wedding, this was the first play where Shakespeare transformed his writing into a more mature literature, separating this and the rest, from his earlier works. The use of the term “dream” within the title “A Midsummer’s Night Dream”, has a more complex meaning than the simple notion of the word, and can be understood and discovered through Shakespeare’s captivation of dreaming and sleep. …show more content…
Understanding how Shakespeare utilized his knowledge and interpretation of dreams, allows us to take a further glance at the title “Midsummer’s Night Dream”. Looking at the metaphorical use of “dream” it can be interpreted that this play is occurring in a dream world, and being in this “dream state” is essentially like love in this play, unrealistic. The rise and fall structure of the plot supports this idea of a dream-world by resembling the structure within our own dreams. In the beginning, there is little detail of the setting, characters, or plot, correlating to our dreams where we don’t necessarily remember the start, or how we got there. As the conflict between the characters begins to rise and develop, details start to emerge, embodied in this description of a sleeping Titania, “There sleeps Titania sometime of the night, Lulled in these flowers with dances and delight. And there the snake throws her enameled skin, Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in.” (2.1.239-242) The rise of the plot is the part of our dreams that we focus on. When the characters in the play enter the woods, the descriptions become more vivid, as conversations are lengthier and more substantial, representing the height of the dream, or “Midsummer”, referencing the height of something important. Perhaps, this is the clearest indication of dreaming. When we try to remember our own dreams, there is usually one distinct
When analyzing the context that centrally shapes this play, it is essential to focus on the time period the play was written and Shakespeare’s fascination with dreaming and how the mind works within a sleep state. “A Midsummer’s Night Dream” was written in the late 16th century under Queen Elizabeth the First’s reign. Believed to have been a comedy for her wedding, this was the first play where Shakespeare transformed his writing into a more mature literature, separating this and the rest, from his earlier works. The use of the term “dream” within the title “A Midsummer’s Night Dream”, has a more complex meaning than the simple notion of the word, and can be understood and discovered through Shakespeare’s captivation of dreaming and sleep. …show more content…
Understanding how Shakespeare utilized his knowledge and interpretation of dreams, allows us to take a further glance at the title “Midsummer’s Night Dream”. Looking at the metaphorical use of “dream” it can be interpreted that this play is occurring in a dream world, and being in this “dream state” is essentially like love in this play, unrealistic. The rise and fall structure of the plot supports this idea of a dream-world by resembling the structure within our own dreams. In the beginning, there is little detail of the setting, characters, or plot, correlating to our dreams where we don’t necessarily remember the start, or how we got there. As the conflict between the characters begins to rise and develop, details start to emerge, embodied in this description of a sleeping Titania, “There sleeps Titania sometime of the night, Lulled in these flowers with dances and delight. And there the snake throws her enameled skin, Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in.” (2.1.239-242) The rise of the plot is the part of our dreams that we focus on. When the characters in the play enter the woods, the descriptions become more vivid, as conversations are lengthier and more substantial, representing the height of the dream, or “Midsummer”, referencing the height of something important. Perhaps, this is the clearest indication of dreaming. When we try to remember our own dreams, there is usually one distinct