A Midsummer Night 's Dream By William Shakespeare

True love is shown in various places in the play. One of the earliest couples that demonstrate this is Theseus and Hippolyta. They stay true and loyal to each other, showing their desires and passion for each other. The way Theseus has portray his love to Hippolyta is by his eagerness to be wedded to her, “Another moon – but O methinks, how slow this old moon wanes!” By the end of the play, they are happily married.

Classical ideals of behavior between man and woman are presented in the play. Also Theseus seems to be noble and smart ruler, who cares about his nationals.

Throughout A Midsummer Night’s Dream, while the story involving Lysander, Demetrius, Hermia, Helena, Oberon and Titania is developing, the rustic gentlemen (Bottom and his friends) are shown rehearsing for a play that they will perform in honor of the upcoming wedding of Theseus (the Duke of Athens) and Hippolyta. The play, “Pyramus and Thisby,” is based on a story that was told by the ancient Roman writer Ovid and retold by Chaucer. The “Pyramus and Thisby” play is not performed until the fifth and final act of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. By then, as Barton points out, the major problems of Lysander, Demetrius and the rest have all been neatly resolved. As such, the “Pyramus and Thisby” play-within-a-play “seems, in effect, to take place beyond the normal, plot-defined boundaries of comedy” (Barton 110).

            The moon is often seen in literature as an allegory for love, virtue, and chastity. In Shakespeare's comedies, especially, the moon is personified as Diana, the Roman goddess of chastity. In these comedies, the foolish antics of lovers (literally, "lunatics") usually occur under the auspices of the chaste goddess, the lovers behaving like hounds about her feet that snap at each other in competition for her bounty. The moon as allegory for the lunacy of romance helps us understand Shakespeare's view of romance. In the

Theseus Returns to Athens Triumphant: Why Theseus Leaves Adriadne on an Island, How He Keeps the Tributes Busy on the Ship, and Why He Forgets to Raise the Sail.

The biggest obstacle in this play occurs when the power of love is challenged by authority. The play starts with Theseus, duke of Athens, being eager to marry Hippolyta, who he wooed with his sword in combat. Although Theseus promises Hippolyta that he will wed her “with pomp, with triumph, with reveling,” true love between them is questionable. By starting the play with Theseus and Hippolyta, Shakespeare hints the audience of the authority involved in their marriage and leaves the audience wonder if they actually love each other. The focus is then shifted to the four lovers: Hermia, Lysander, Demetrius and Helena - by establishing the story of Hermia being forced by her father, Egeus, to marry Demetrius, when the person she actually wants to marry is Lysander. However, Egeus

Despite the numerous physical contrasts between the forest and Athens in William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the two settings symbolically are very similar. Coupling the two locations allows the play to question the idea of actuality versus dreams. Throughout the play, Shakespeare juxtaposes Theseus’ Court with nature to parallel reality and fantasy, and resolve the obvious differences between the two in order to illustrate that elements of reality are present in fantasy. The two settings, at first glance, are strikingly divergent. Athens represents reason and wisdom, which is representative of reality.

Hence, why Theseus and Demetrius are in love with her. This starry imagery hints at the night which connects to the moon and the hypnotizing affect the moon

In the opening lines of the play, Theseus, the Duke of Athens, refers to the moon as he awaits his forthcoming wedding:

Time, as according to Theseus, is working against him and he comments on “how slow this old moon wanes!” (Shakespeare 1). Whereas, Hippolyta thinks “four days will quickly steep themselves in night” (1). The differing views in their statement presents that Theseus is rather impatient and expects everything to be at his beck and call due to his high position as a king and being a man. Hippolyta, on the other hand, knows and has experience of waiting for that of interest to her so she has no qualms about patiently waiting. Also, Theseus puts blame on the moon for the long hours and Hippolyta quickly refutes that statement by expressing the moon is not but a way to show time for the night in which they could sleep the hours away, making the night

First, when the play begins, Theseus and Hippolyta are discussing their wedding plans, one of which is to marry under the new moon. Theseus is discouraged, because he feels the four days left until their happy day are taking too long. “Four nights will quickly dream away the time; / And then the moon, like to a silver bow / New-bent

William Shakespeare invites the audience to observe the way in which love can be portrayed, forced, and ambiguous. The play occurs in a magical forest and it follows the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. However, the play also follows the square of four young lovers, Demetrius, Lysander, Hermia and Helena. The women in the play, Hippolyta, Hermia and Helena are portrayed in a negative light and they are interpreted as dependent to Theseus, Demetrius, and Lysander. The play opens to Theseus (The Duke of Athens) and Hippolyta discussing their upcoming wedding. “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…Hippolyta, I wooed thee with my sword and won thy love doing thee injuries” (1.1.1-4…17-18). As The Duke of Athens, and the most powerful character in the play, Theseus fits the role of a dominant male. This could have been Shakespeare’s attempt to appeal to a male audience as the social norms included a dominance of female characters. Theseus and Hippolyta are merely engaged because Theseus conquered the Amazon, which further supports the argument of male dominance. That being said, Hippolyta seems to be happy being engaged to Theseus, even though she is actually portrayed as a powerful woman. At this point in the play, Theseus and Hippolyta are very happy with one another and their characters have the luxury of not having to balance friendships with their marriage relationship, due to their social

The play written by Shakespeare is set in Ancient Athens and is associated with the Gods and Goddesses of the Greeks. In the play, Shakespeare very openly manifests the characters with their own strange and magical ways. The whole play is laced with dancing and singing fairies, gods, and lovers in the human form. Shakespeare presents this play highlighting the joys of lovestruck humans, while never missing an opportunity to state the difficulties of life. There is a comic conflict between the couples about who loves whom and why. The conflict between love and social conventions is also something that features itself from the very opening of the play. Theseus, the Duke of Athens, is introduced as a man of

Imagery is an important factor to understanding this play, it is used for language and description that appeals to the five senses. Nature is one of the key setting for this play, it symbolizes beauty and represents time and disorder. For the collage many pictures were used to symbolize these, one of the pictures included a beautiful woman this is to showcase beauty. In "Midsummer Night's Dream" Lysander compares Helena to tiery stars in a night sky, William Shakespare uses nature to describe the beauty of many females in the play. Demetrius also compares Helena's lips to cherries and her hands to pure white snow, "Thy lips, those kissing cherries, tempting grow!, That pure congealèd white, high Taurus' snow,"(Act 3 Scene 2), this shows the relationship between nature and beauty as nature's characteristics are being used to describe Helena's beauty in the play. The imagery of nature also represents time as the waxing and waning moon signifies morning, the collage showcases many pictures of natures beauty and the different seasons in the collage represent the different days and time. The clock in the collage is used to represent time shown in the play, "Four days will quickly steep themselves in night. Four nights will

A Midsummer Night’s Dream begins in the real world: a world governed by the laws of the time in Athens. Theseus, as the ruler of Athens, embodies law and authority in the mortal realm and enforces the law and order that rule the Athethian court. Theseus enforces these rules at the beginning of A Midsummer Night’s Dream with an iron first. Firstly, under the law, Theseus declares he will marry Hippolyta, the queen of the Amazons, as a spoil of