A Midsummer Night's Dream

attitude, but ultimately can develop the plot of the story. His words and verbal power impact the play so much that analyzing these techniques, can further one’s understanding of the complete play itself. Specifically, in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the introduction passage between Theseus the Duke of Athens and his future wife, Hippolyta the Queen of the Amazons, while talking about the upcoming day of their wedding, clearly contains similes…

In this irrational play, Robin Good fellow is asked to rub a special type of flower on Demetrius’ eyes so that he would fall in love with the next thing that he sees, hoping that he would start to woo Helena. Since Oberon gave Robin such vague details of who the boy was, Robin accidently applies the flower onto Lysander’s eyes, causing him to rapidly fall in love with Helena instead of Hermia. This accident also follows one of the main themes of the play which is the course of love never did run…

Irrationality in Love in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night's Dream Love is a central motif in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night's Dream, as evidenced by the actions and agency of the main characters in the play. According to Hutton (290), many critics feel that Shakespeare offers the audience a choice between the rational and irrational. The theme of love brings out this choice capably, as demonstrated by the perception that rational love triumphs over irrational love, as the young lovers settle for…

Written sometime between 1590 and 1597, Shakespeare wrote, what is now labeled as, one of Shakespeare’s most famous and original comedy. In “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Shakespeare uses forbidden love juxtaposed with arranged marriages to demonstrate that “the course of true love never did run smooth,” (1.1.134). This story develops in Athens, where Hermia loves and wants to marry Lysander, but Hermia’s father, Egeus, does not approve of Lysander and wants Hermia to marry Demetrious. It is…

benefits, not love. William Shakespeare lived in the midst of these cultural custom, yet some of his works left critics with the impression that he believed in true love being a vital element in a marriage. One critic, David Wiles, wrote about A Midsummer Night’s Dream as the representation of an epithalamium; a poem celebrating a marriage. Wiles begins verifying his claim by discussing various nuptial symbols. Dew and moisture are a constant occurrence throughout the play. Wiles believes the…

William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is still relevant, for it contains allusions, imagery, and similes to which audiences can still relate today. Shakespeare uses those three literary devices to help the reader understand the play clearly. In the play, Shakespeare uses allusions to give the reader another way to look at what is happening in his play. Egeus tells Theseus “But this other man has cast a spell over my child’s heart” (page 5). This sentence is an allusion of a…

Two Women of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” Love can be true and despite life’s obstacles can be forced. In Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” two women are forced to fight for what they want. Hermia is deeply in love with Lysander who cannot have Hermia’s fathers blessing. Helena is in love with Demetrius who is in love with Hermia and has been given Hermia’s fathers blessing to marry. Hermia and Helena are in the cross fire of their loves. So why does their friendship get lost and found…

blind” (1.1234-35). Love is an irrational emotion, able to change as quickly and suddenly of the wind. People, in the name of love, are willing to overlook much in order to rationalize the actions and words of the subject of their affection. A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare uses wild pansies, night, and dynamic relationships to portray differing definitions of romantic love as a passionate, sometimes, irrational force able to blind lovers to the reality of the world. The first…

Just as an artist plays with darkness and light of colors to paint a beautiful picture, Shakespeare uses the darkness and light of phrases and words to control the tone of A Midsummer Night’s Dream (MSND). More importantly Shakespeare’s use of imagery related to the moon symbolizes tone changes throughout MSND. It plays such a key role that the workers include the moon, or Moonlight more specifically, as a character in their performance of Pyramus and Thisbe. When the Moonshine says, “All that I…

that creates and reinforces boundaries –albeit unstable boundaries– informs the failures of love. Moreover, boundaries and expectations that reinforce constructs of concepts exemplify an overarching insecurity towards love in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. One way to examine how love fails is by looking at the way Shakespeare presents the synthesizing of concepts and boundaries. Thus, one might look at the player’s representation of Pyramus and Thisbe –“ ‘A tedious brief scene of young…