...Adam Romack Midsummer Test Essay Question 1 There are many different characters in Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, two of which are Puck and Bottom. Bottom, one of the mechanicals, was a very big character. He was loud and ambitious, even if his acting skill was primitive at best. In the end of the performance, his play ended up doing well, but overall, Bottom didn’t have as large of an impact as Puck. Puck dominates the mood of the play by flitting about Athenians, for instance, it was because of Puck’s accident, that the wrong people loved the wrong people. Oberon wanted Demetrius to fall in love with Helena, so that she would be happy, but instead, Puck made Lysander fall in love with Helena. This caused a repetitive, everyone loves the wrong person, loop that affects the relationship of all of the Athenians....
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...Shakespeare’s use of comedy in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” Shakespeare creates comedy in his play “A Midsummer Night’s dream” through the different scenarios in the play that take place which all have at least an element of humour. He creates comedy in a number of ways and it makes the play humorous as a whole. However he uses dark comedy in several scenes of the play. Through the lovers; Hermia, Lysander, Helena and Demetrius, we see humour in the way they have love triangles. The fact that Hermia and Lysander are in love, but Demetrius chases after Hermia and Helena chases after Demetrius is humorous itself. Shakespeare’s use of comedy in the love triangles is a form of comical relief to a certain extent. This is because as tension builds up between the lovers, in act 3 scene 2 both Lysander and Demetrius fall in love with Helena because of the “Love in idleness”, which ends up in a big argument with Hermia. The fact that each character does not know why the males suddenly love Helena makes the scene, which is supposed to be serious, humorous. Shakespeare uses dark humour, however, because it is meant to be a sad and confusing experience for Hermia and Helena, though it is fiendishly comical. Furthermore, Shakespeare’s use of comedy between the lovers is not over done, like the mechanicals. The fact that both Lysander and Demetrius loved Hermia before the fairies interfered with the love triangles, shows more of the dark humour. Lysander used to think of Hermia as his “gentle...
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...A Midsummer Night's Dream Genre Comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream is a classic example of Shakespearean comedy. What, you don't believe us? We'll prove it to you. We've got a checklist that details all the typical conventions and features of the genre so you can see for yourself: Light, humorous tone: Check. The play features fairy magic (like Oberon's love potion), silly pranks (like the transformation of a guy's head into that of a jackass), and the botched performance of a play-within-the-play by a bunch of wannabe actors. Need we say more? Clever dialogue and witty banter: Check. Shakespeare is a huge fan of punning and snappy wordplay, so naturally, his characters know how to get their witty repartee on. Shakespeare reserves some of the best dialogue for his warring lovers, especially Oberon and Titania, and even the "rude mechanicals" manage to wow us with their clever banter. Deception and disguise: Let's see…Hermia and Lysander try to sneak away from Athens to elope (behind Egeus's back). Also, Titania and the young lovers have no idea they've been drugged by Oberon and his magic love juice. So, check. Mistaken identity: Check. Sort of. In most of Shakespeare's other comedies, someone usually runs around in a disguise to mask his or her identity. (Sometimes, a lover is even tricked into sleeping with the wrong person by mistake.) This isn't necessarily the case in A Midsummer Night's Dream, unless we count the fact that the love juice causes Titania to fall head...
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...Major Task Essay What is it that appeals to audiences of A Midsummer Night’s Dream? Reading the work written by Shakespeare, many of the readers feel different emotions; humour, confusion, happiness, sadness. However this emotions, show that if one author can allow the reader to feel these emotions than they have a very powerful gift. Shakespeare gives the reader a glimpse of his ‘magical’ powers in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. This book has a very large base of which this book appeals to, due to criteria, it can be placed in. Wether it be fantasy, romance or comedy, this book is fit for anyone, however recommended for High School Children and up. Comedy is a very good element to have in a book as this is something everyone looks for, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream gives the reader a huge proportion of comedy. A character who is known for their comedy is Nick Bottom as he exaggerates his movements and voice all the time. He is is the light of comedy because he isn’t funny, which makes him funny. The mechanicals who put on the play, where humorous as they turned the play from tragedy to comedy. The comedy is shown with irony of love. The ‘lovers’ in the book are often switching partners and always falling ‘in and out’ of love. The love is eventually resolved with everyone falling in love with the partners they are supposed to fall in love with. Midsummer Night’s Dream brings many people ‘back to the old days’ when they were watching Disney movies and reading about an enchanted...
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...A Midsummer Night’s Dream Throughout your life you might occasionally find yourself having difficulty distinguishing between what is real and what is just your imagination. William Shakespeare, born in April 1564, was one of the greatest play writers of all time. In each of his plays Shakespeare focused on conveying a message or theme to the audience. One of his most beloved works is A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Throughout this play William Shakespeare is trying to make the distinction between appearances versus reality. Using the concepts of love, a play-within-a-play, and dreams Shakespeare is able to make the distinction between the two. This essay will examine each concept and explain its importance in distinguishing between how things look versus what they actually are. Love is a major theme throughout the story. There are many different types of love between the different characters. First, there is noble love between Theseus and Hippolyta. Next is true love, which is shared between Lysander and Hermia. Also, Oberon and Titania share a magical love because both are fairies. Shakespeare confuses reality by including fairies in this story. The fairies can interact with the humans and can even fall in love with them. Another tactic used by Shakespeare is that the fairies have a magic liquid that when poured onto a persons eyelids will cause that person to fall in love with the first thing that person sees once they open their eyes. This potion is poured into many characters...
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...Trickster Plays a major role in some figures represented in this course. Midsummer Night's Dream & Hotel Emibago. What is the Trickster? What image does Shakespeare give him? Shakespears "A Midsummer Night's Dream", was written at a highly liminal moment in European History, the end of the Renaissance and the unfolding of the Reformation. Shakespeare attributes a power to images through which humans can be incited to act, in particular fall in love, and assigns a decisive role in the manipulation of such images to the trickster figure of folk tales and myths. Throughout this essay I will be discussing the figure of the Trickster, what he is and the image which Shakespeare portrays to us. The Trickster is traditionally known as a person who cheats or decieves people. Typically makes up for physical weakness with a cunning and subversive humour. In relation MSND, Puck, AKA Robin Goodfellow, AKA The Trickster, is a mischievous fairy who delights in playing pranks on mortals. He is the closest thing to a protagonist and is responsible for many of the complications throughout the play. EG. The 2 lovers and Bottoms head. In the tricksters jokes there is always something out of place. This is because the Tricksters entertainment is never "good clear fun": someone always pays for it. The jokes are too strong, rude and even cruel: they make fun of already frail people and those undergoing tasks. The one thing he cannot stand is genuine involvement and...
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...A Midsummer Night's Dream is a comedy play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1590 and 1596. It portrays the events surrounding the marriage of the Duke of Athens, Theseus, and Hippolyta. These include the adventures of four young Athenian lovers and a group of six amateur actors, who are controlled and manipulated by the fairies who inhabit the forest in which most of the play is set. The play is one of Shakespeare's most popular works for the stage and is widely performed across the world. It is unknown exactly when A Midsummer Night's Dream was written or first performed, but on the basis of topical references and an allusion to Edmund Spenser's 'Epithalamion', it is usually dated 1594 or 1596. Some have theorised that the play might have been written for an aristocratic wedding (for example that of Elizabeth Carey, Lady Berkeley), while others suggest that it was written for the Queen to celebrate the feast day of St. John. No concrete evidence exists to support this theory. In any case, it would have been performed at The Theatre and, later, The Globe. Though it is not a translation or adaptation of an earlier work, various sources such as Ovid's Metamorphoses and Chaucer's "The Knight's Tale" served as inspiration.[4] According to John Twyning, the play's plot of four lovers undergoing a trial in the woods was intended as a "riff" on Der Busant, a Middle High German poem. The play was entered into the Register of the Stationers Company on 8 October...
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...How satisfying is the resolution at the end of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" for the audience and to what extent does it restore harmony? Much like the ancient Greek comedies, Shakespeare uses a combination of comic conventions such as stock characters, green worlds and natural fools in order to produce a satisfying play of the 16th century. With audience in mind, Shakespeare utilizes these concepts of comedy in this five act play to ensure the ending would be considered harmonious as a comedy has often been described as 'beginning in turmoil but ending in harmony'. The play begins with the classical typography of a ancient Greek comedy; the promise of a wedding. The "nuptial hour" of Theseus and Hippolyta is used as the time frame for this play. The harmony between this royal couple illustrates to the audience that there is an order to return to which is why by the end of the play the two are wed to signify a restoration of harmony in order to assure the audience that everything of discord has been "amended". Hippolyta, who was "wooed" by a sword, seems quite content to marry the man who had "won" her love by "doing [her] injury" as she consoles Theseus with the notion that the time before their wedding will be "quickly dream[t] away". This insinuates that Hippolyta is in love with Theseus regardless of the language that suggests she was forced into the marriage, which wouldn't allow for a satisfying ending, especially to that of a modern audience. However, it may depend...
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...Title: Author(s): Publication Details: Source: Document Type: The Carnivalesque in A Midsummer Night's Dream David Wiles Shakespeare and Carnival after Bakhtin. New York: St. Martin's Press, Inc., 1998. Shakespearean Criticism. Ed. Michelle Lee. Vol. 82. Detroit: Gale, 2004. From Literature Resource Center. Critical essay Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale, COPYRIGHT 2007 Gale, Cengage Learning [(essay date 1998) In the following essay, Wiles examines the festive and carnivalesque elements in A Midsummer Night's Dream. According to the critic, the play was historically part of an "aristocratic carnival" used to celebrate weddings in upper-class society.] Carnival theory did not begin with Bakhtin, and we shall understand Bakhtin's position more clearly if we set it against classical theories of carnival.1 From the Greek world the most important theoretical statement is to be found in Plato: The gods took pity on the human race, born to suffer as it was, and gave it relief in the form of religious festivals to serve as periods of rest from its labours. They gave us as fellow revellers the Muses, with Apollo their leader, and Dionysus, so that men might restore their way of life by sharing feasts with gods.2 This is first a utopian theory, maintaining that carnival restores human beings to an earlier state of being when humans were closer to the divine. And second, it associates carnival with communal order. Plato argues that festive dancing creates bodily order, and thus bodily and...
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...No Fear Shakespeare – A Midsummer Night’s Dream (by SparkNotes) Original Text -1- Modern Text Act 1, Scene 1 Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, and PHILOSTRATE, with others THESEUS and HIPPOLYTA enter withPHILOSTRATE and others. THESEUS Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour Draws on apace. Four happy days bring in Another moon. But oh, methinks how slow This old moon wanes! She lingers my desires, 5 Like to a stepdame or a dowager Long withering out a young man’s revenue. THESEUS Our wedding day is almost here, my beautiful Hippolyta. We’ll be getting married in four days, on the day of the new moon. But it seems to me that the days are passing too slowly—the old moon is taking too long to fade away! That old, slow moon is keeping me from getting what I want, just like an old widow makes her stepson wait to get his inheritance. HIPPOLYTA Four days will quickly steep themselves in night. Four nights will quickly dream away the time. And then the moon, like to a silver bow 10 New bent in heaven, shall behold the night Of our solemnities. HIPPOLYTA No, you’ll see, four days will quickly turn into four nights. And since we dream at night, time passes quickly then. Finally the new moon, curved like a silver bow in the sky, will look down on our wedding celebration. THESEUS Go, Philostrate, Stir up the Athenian youth to merriments. Awake the pert and nimble spirit of mirth. Turn melancholy forth to funerals. 15 The pale companion...
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...Philostrate – Master of the Revels Egeus – father of Hermia, wants her to marry Demetrius Hermia – in love with Lysander Helena – in love with Demetrius Lysander – in love with Hermia Demetrius – in love with Hermia at first but later loves Helena The Fairies Oberon – Titania's husband and King of the Fairies Titania – Oberon's wife and Queen of the Fairies Robin Goodfellow/Puck – servant to Oberon Peaseblossom – fairy servant to Titania Cobweb – fairy servant to Titania Moth – fairy servant to Titania Mustardseed – fairy servant to Titania First Fairy, Second Fairy The Mechanicals (An acting troupe) Peter Quince – carpenter, leads the troupe and plays Prologue Nick Bottom – weaver, plays Pyramus Francis Flute – bellows-mender, plays Thisbe Robin Starveling – tailor, plays Moonshine Tom Snout – tinker, plays Wall Snug – joiner, plays Lion Play Summary A Midsummer Night's Dream opens with Theseus and Hippolyta planning their wedding, which takes place in four days. Theseus is upset because time is moving so slowly, but Hippolyta assures him the four days will quickly pass. Their relationship has not always been so loving. Theseus won Hippolyta during a battle. While they discuss their relationship, Egeus enters with his daughter, Hermia, and her two suitors, Lysander and Demetrius. Hermia is in love with Lysander, but her father wants her to marry Demetrius. Lysander argues that he is as good of a match as Demetrius, but Egeus won't listen. Instead, he declares...
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...A Midsummer’s Night Dream Running Head: A MIDSUMMER’S NIGHT DREAM A Midsummer’s Night Dream David Ephriam Gilbert Bethel University A Midsummer’s Night Dream The imaginative role that we humans all assume in relationships throughout of love, honor, and dignity do not explain how one’s history should be lived. In a Midsummer’s Night Dream, the characters are unique individuals who will do almost anything to demonstrate differing views of affection. In the challenges that are pertinent to a Midsummer’s Night Dream, Lysander and Demetrius are both in love with the same human. Hermia is the “fair one” who both men so desire to marry. Demetrius is favored by Hermia’s father and his happiness for his daughter has been frustrated by misunderstanding or parental opposition. The other love battle is Helena; Hermia’s young childhood friend who have become hated rivals throughout the ordeal in their present mood of self-pity and injured self-regard. Lysander and Demetrius now have been confronted by turning on one another for characteristically aggressive male ways. The four lovers then rhythematically discuss openly in verse about how Hermia’s father refuses to allow Lysander to marry his daughter. Hermia’s father feels that Lysander is not royal worthy of Hermia. Lysander disagrees with Egeus and Helena having being rejected by Demetrius can only suppose that she is going to be made fun of by Demetrius. Hermia begins to make Helena feel doubtful; she begins to think...
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...Pyramus and Thisbe A very touching love story that is sure to move anyone who reads it is that of Pyramus and Thisbe. Theirs was a selfless love and they made sure that even in death, they were together. The tale has its origins in the Roman Mythology. It is best recounted by Ovid and the passion of love that blossomed between the two young lovers enthralls readers even today. Pyramus was the most handsome man and was a childhood friend of Thisbe, the fairest maiden in Babylonia. Pyramus and Thisbe were neighbors. They both lived in neighboring homes and fell in love with each other as they grew up together. However, their parents were dead against them marrying each other. Their parents were totally against their union, leaving the young lovers with no option but burn the light of love brightly in their hearts and meet surreptitiously if they can. Over the years, the lovers could only talk through a hole in their wall because their parents refused them to see each other. Finally, Pyramus got fed up with his parents and so did Thisbe. One day while whispering through a crack in the wall, they decided to meet the next night under a mulberry tree near tomb of Ninus. They decided to elope then. So, the next night, just before the crack of dawn, while everyone was asleep, they decided to slip out of their homes and meet in the nearby fields near a mulberry tree. Thisbe reached there first, covered with a cloak. As she waited under the tree, she saw a lioness coming near...
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...apace. Four happy days bring inAnother moon. But oh, methinks how slowThis old moon wanes! She lingers my desires,Like to a stepdame or a dowagerLong withering out a young man’s revenue. | THESEUSOur wedding day is almost here, my beautiful Hippolyta. We’ll be getting married in four days, on the day of the new moon. But it seems to me that the days are passing too slowly—the old moon is taking too long to fade away! That old, slow moon is keeping me from getting what I want, just like an old widow makes her stepson wait to get his inheritance. | 10 | HIPPOLYTAFour days will quickly steep themselves in night.Four nights will quickly dream away the time.And then the moon, like to a silver bowNew bent in heaven, shall behold the nightOf our solemnities. | HIPPOLYTANo, you’ll see, four days will quickly turn into four nights. And since we dream at night, time passes quickly then. Finally the new moon, curved like a silver bow in the sky, will look down on our wedding celebration. | 15 | THESEUS Go, Philostrate,Stir up the Athenian youth to merriments.Awake the pert and nimble spirit of mirth.Turn melancholy forth to funerals.The pale companion is not for our pomp. | THESEUSGo, Philostrate, get the young people of Athens ready to celebrate and have a good time. Sadness is only appropriate for funerals. We don’t want it at our festivities. | | Exit PHILOSTRATE | PHILOSTRATE exits. | | Hippolyta, I wooed thee with my swordAnd won thy love doing thee injuries.But...
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...The theme of love in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ The theme of love is crucial in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ as the plot revolves around love. Without love there would not be any lovers for the play to be based on. I feel that love in the play is personified and has two personalities, comforting and cruel- comforting within civilisation, but cruel within the woods where characters are insecure. The woods have a very negative effect on the lovers and love plays with this insecurity. The magic juice represents mischief but its ultimate affect is love. When the men’s love interests’ change, the women don’t accept it, instead it throws them into a frenzy of questions and confusion and so something that should be unexpected but amazing for Helena, instead is a nightmare as she thinks she is being mocked. “O spite! O Hell! I see you all are bent to set against me for your merriment” (3, 2,145-146). This shows Helena’s frustration and how even though all she longs for is love, the woods can still change her perception of it. Love seems to consume the lovers, and makes them lose their rational mind. As Freud said “you are always mad when you are in love” and this is strongly shown in the play as love seems to rule the lovers heads and leads to mad decisions. For instance Helena has a perfect opportunity as Hermia is planning to elope with Lysander, leaving Demetrius for her. However her insane love for Demetrius means that she acts entirely irrationally by telling Demetrius “of fair...
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