A Midsummer's Night Dream Compare And Contrast

Michael Hoffman’s 1999 film version of Shakespeare's midsummer night’s dream was able to modify the audience experience of the play. Michael Hoffman had successfully turned the play into a film and was able to show a visible expression of the characters to the audience. He had also made some changes, like the settings and made his version modernized. Though the film was based on the Shakespeare’s play, the audience’s experience is still different.

Although many Shakespearean plays are very similar to one another, two stand out from the rest as sharing a great deal in common. Specific, solid parallels can be drawn between Shakespeare's plays "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and "Romeo and Juliet." The themes and characters are remarkably similar in many aspects. Firstly, both plays highlight the stereotypical young lovers - Hermia and Lysander in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and Romeo and Juliet in "Romeo and Juliet." Secondly, both plays are very ambiguously categorized. By this I mean that each could have been a tragedy just as easily as a drama (with a few minor modifications). By definition, a tragic play is a play in which the main character has a fatal flaw that leads to

The above shows that Titania and Oberon share a relationship that is inseparable. They swallow their pride and come back together, planning to even bless the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta even though those were the other two in the affairs. Hippolyta proceeds to call Oberon ‘my Lord’ and Oberon calls Hippolyta ‘my Queen’. This shows that their love is still prevalent. ‘True love’ is the baseline in the play and is the primary form of love.

Hermia’s speech in Act 2, Scene 2, of Shakespeare 's A Midsummer Night’s Dream, contains an abundance of dream imagery. She has awoken from a terrible dream after falling asleep in the forest with Lysander. They were lost and tired so they decided to rest. Lysander wanted to sleep beside her but, she refused since they are not yet married and while they slept Puck applied a love potion on Lysander’s eyes thinking he was Demetrius. Lysander wakes and is repulsed by the sight of Hermia and never wants to see her again because he is now in love with Helena. Hermia awakes from her terrible dream and retells it thinking that Lysander is nearby listening. Then she realizes that he is not there and she does not see him anywhere. Hermia expresses the sentiment that she will find Lysander or she will surely die. She stated,

Comparing a play to its movie adaptation is something that is hard to do since there is no tangible way a person can capture the original then change it to make the movie version of it up to par to the original. From the original play of A Midsummer’s Night Dream that was created by Shakespeare in the movie version of it created by Michael Hoffman, there are many similarities and differences that are in the movie some are very stark while others are very subtle differences.

Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream can be considered an archetypal comedy due in large part to the ill-defined characters. Part of what makes this play work so well is that rather than becoming too invested in any one character’s hopes and fears or desires and struggles, the audience is simply rooting for things to work out well in general. If the audience became too attached to any one character, they might lose sight of the bigger picture in their concern over, for example, Demetrius remaining drugged at the end of the play, or the disturbing repercussions of Helena marrying a man who only a few acts earlier she had urged to “Use me but as your spaniel…” (2.i.212). The

(Introduction Oberon and type of love) “I’ll watch Titania when she is asleep / And drop the liquor of it in her eyes. / The next thing then she waking looks upon / Be it on lion, bear, or wolf, or bull, / On meddling monkey or on busy ape / She shall pursue it with the soul of love” (II.i.181-186). (ANALYSIS Oberon risks losing Titania’s love as her love for the boy makes him jealous and how they affect the forest)

Two determined men willing to do anything to get the one they love. In the comedy A Midsummer's Night Dream by William Shakespeare two men named Lysander and Demetrius fight for the one they love. Demetrius has consent to marry the one he loves Hermia, but she loves Lysander. During all this another woman named Helena is madly in love with Demetrius. Helena finds out she will die if she will not marry Demetrius. Hermia and Lysander run away through a forest with Demetrious looking for them, and Helena following Demetrious. Lysander and Demetrius are similar in their love for hermia but have different women love them. In today's world Demetrius would do better because he follows the rules, and is more skeptical than lysander.

The texts Act I of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, “Life In The Elizabethan England,” and “Bringing Home The Wrong Race,” all have similar ideas about love, and the restrictions that surround it. Each one have distinctions, these differences give each other a take on the situation of love. These distinctions of the relationships, the similarities, and the differences all make up the body of each text.

Certain parallels can be drawn between William Shakespeare's plays, "A Midsummer Night's Dream", and "Romeo and Juliet". These parallels concern themes and prototypical Shakespearian character types. Both plays have a distinct pair of 'lovers', Hermia and Lysander, and Romeo and Juliet, respectively. Both plays could have also easily been tragedy or comedy with a few simple changes. A tragic play is a play in which one or more characters  has a moral flaw that leads to his/her downfall. A comedic play has at least one humorous character, and a successful or happy ending. Comparing these two plays is useful to find how

Shakespeare has written many plays and no two plays are the exact same, but there are some similarities. Having read some of his most famous plays just proves that Shakespeare had a certain style. Hamlet is a tragic play resulting in the death of most of the main characters while A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a comedy where there is a common theme of mistaken identity. Hamlet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream are two very different plays with contrasting; symbols, themes, and characterization the difference in these plays shows the complexity of Shakespeare’s writing styles. One of the main differences of these two plays is the way the characters are portrayed.

The nineteen ninety-nine version of A Midsummer’s Night Dream was richly and beautifully acted. Starring Calista Flockhart, Michelle Pfeiffer, Christian Bale, Kevin Kline, Rupert Everett, Stanley Tucci, and Anna Friel showed how a play adaption could still stay true to the playwright in a different era. The actors in the film made their characters come to life. Calista Flockhart played Helena, the hapless, scorned, unloved woman who desperately tries to pursue Demetrius. The character traits that Helena posses were well displayed by Flockhart. She was relentless, pathetic, pitiful, cowardly, ambitious, and love-struck all in one. The emotion displayed was emasculating. Every scene lived up to the play. Anna Friel played Hermia excellently. She was out spoken, strong minded, and sassy. She went for what she wanted and didn’t back down.

All Shakespearean plays are interpreted very differently and all versions we watched were very different. Shakespeare created these plays to allow people to put their own spin on the stories, and that is what each of the producers, and film directors chose to do. The two plays I watched were the 1999 interpretation, and A Midsummer Night's Dream" presented by Rice University Department of Visual and Dramatic Arts. After watching both of them and seeing the difference between the two, the 1999 version caught my attention the most for many reasons.

and in a sense more complicated. One was far more likely to marry as a

William Shakespeare was a poetic and well articulated writer of the 17th century. From long tragic pays with more than a few deaths and upsetting situations to short amusing poems, he really was a well rounded playwright. His works include Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth and of course, A Midsummer’s Night Dream. Contrasting themes is a common literary element in Shakespeare's work. In the play, A Midsummer’s Night Dream, contrasting themes are especially popular. Contrasting theme allow a reader or watcher to feel all emotions, from laughing at Titania’s love for Bottom or crying at the tragic deaths of Pyramus and Thisbe The theme lover / hater is also a very broad topic and can be seen in many works from many different authors in many different centuries. Shakespeare was the first to put his wit and charm into this theme to make it somewhat more magical. Shakespeare used the theme lover / hater in A Midsummer’s Night Dream three times, with Titania and Oberon, Helena and Demetrius, and Hermia and Lysander.