Every night people everywhere dream. People use dreams from sleep as an escape from the troubles of life. Most dreams include fantastical and unrealistic events which, while dreaming, seem authentic; so much so that people can have difficulty differentiating between wakefulness and dreams. While sleep refreshes the mind and body, it also blinds sleepers to the world around them. This confusion between reality and dreams inspired many writers throughout the years, including William Shakespeare. William Shakespeare’s Elizabethan romantic comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream contains the motif of sleep to emphasize the wariness people should possess when dealing with the differences between appearances and reality. Primarily, Shakespeare
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I swoon almost with fear. – No? Then I well perceive you are not nigh. Either death or you I’ll find immediately” (II.ii.158-163) “…Hast thou slain him, then? …And hast thou killed him sleeping?” (III.ii.68-72).
The audience knows Lysander deserts Hermia. However, Hermia, with her warped by sleep views, assumes Demetrius must have slain Lysander as the most plausible explanation for Lysander’s absence. The audience sees Hermia’s mistakes and understands that gathering the facts and determining the truth makes a worthwhile endeavor. Clearly Shakespeare wants the audience to note the unreasonable actions taken as a result of misperceptions.
Shakespeare also warns the audience against dismissing the truth merely because reality does not match his or her expectations. Bottom completely dismisses any notion of truth in the night’s events. In rejecting the truth, the audience understands that only the fool rejects the improbable reality.
“I have had a dream past the wit of man to say what dream it was. Man is but an ass if he go about [to] expound this dream… The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not seen, man’s hand is not able to taste, his tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report what my dream was”
I swoon almost with fear. – No? Then I well perceive you are not nigh. Either death or you I’ll find immediately” (II.ii.158-163) “…Hast thou slain him, then? …And hast thou killed him sleeping?” (III.ii.68-72).
The audience knows Lysander deserts Hermia. However, Hermia, with her warped by sleep views, assumes Demetrius must have slain Lysander as the most plausible explanation for Lysander’s absence. The audience sees Hermia’s mistakes and understands that gathering the facts and determining the truth makes a worthwhile endeavor. Clearly Shakespeare wants the audience to note the unreasonable actions taken as a result of misperceptions.
Shakespeare also warns the audience against dismissing the truth merely because reality does not match his or her expectations. Bottom completely dismisses any notion of truth in the night’s events. In rejecting the truth, the audience understands that only the fool rejects the improbable reality.
“I have had a dream past the wit of man to say what dream it was. Man is but an ass if he go about [to] expound this dream… The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not seen, man’s hand is not able to taste, his tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report what my dream was”