Analysis Of ' A Midsummer Night 's Dream '

If there was no such thing as sympathy, empathy, or love in our world, it would be a hard place to live. If there was no hard law or reason in our world, it would be a crazy place to live. Neither of these worlds would be anybody’s first choice as a home - it's just common sense take away either of these two fundamental aspects of life, and everything is immediately chaos. In fact, it is only in a world such as ours, where legal and human emotion work together, that we are happy. In William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare recognizes this truth and uses the two settings to represent the city of Athens as law, order, civility, and judgment, while the woods represent chaos, incivility, dreams, and love.

Hermia was not going to give up her growing passion and desire for Lysander. She decided to run off into the woods with Lysander and get married.

Furthermore, the law was another problem obstacle that influenced affected love negatively. The Athenian law states that every woman must obey obey her father. “To you your father should be as a god.” (Shakespeare, 11). This quote states that to women, their father should be their God, only obeying him. and the only one they should obey. Hermia’s father, Egeus, refuses to allow to her to marry Lysander, as we wants her to marry Demetrius. Egeus uses using the power of the law over Hermia and this is is demonstrated when he says “As she is mine, I may dispose of her.” (Shakespeare, 11). Lysander and Hermia’s relationship is affected because Hermia must obey her father or face the consequences of the law. Additionally, the law impacts affects the love between Hermia and Lysander because Egeus takes the issue to the Duke, Theseus. Theseus states;

They may have free will at first, but once they fall, they have no control anymore. Hermia understands the aforementioned concept well; she admits it when she says “I know not by what power I am made bold,” (I. i. 61) when she defies her father’s command to marry Demetrius. Hermia has another experience with the loss of free will when Lysander falls for Helena because someone else meddles with his adoration. Her love for Lysander causes her to feel confusion and hurt, while Lysander’s love for Helena causes him to abandon all reason and thought for Hermia’s feelings to chase Helena. Earlier in the book, Hermia and Lysander feel the pull of teenage rebellion together as their love for each other pulls Hermia away from her father. Lysander suggests, “If thou lovest me then, steal forth thy father’s house tomorrow night,” (I. i. 165-166). Together, the two lovers plot to run away together, something Hermia would never do if not for Lysander’s

Love is a term used daily in one’s life. Many categorize love in many forms. These forms differ from one-another such as the difference between love for food and love for one’s spouse. However, in the play; “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, love takes different forms than the ones experienced in reality. One can classify the different types of love used in this play into three different categories; true love, love produced by cupid’s flower, and the state of lust.

William Shakespeare starts with a seemingly unresolvable conflict in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The main characters are lovers who are either unrequited in their love or hassled by the love of another. These lovers are inevitably paired. How does Shakespeare make this happen? He creates many subplots that, before long, are all snarled up into a chaotic knot. So, what actions does Shakespeare take to resolve these new quandaries? He ends up trusting a single key entity with his comedy. It’s only then that he introduces a special character into his world: a mischievous fairy whom is known by the name of Puck. Puck is the catalyst for all these subplots and, indeed, for the entirety of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Try to take Puck

Early on in the story, Egeus controls where his daughter’s life will go by dictating who she marries on page 11, Line 67-80. She fights with him and doesn’t like the future that he is forcing onto her. Hermia constantly is in situations where men make attempts to manage her life. Lysander makes an attempt to pressure her into having sex with him, when it is apparent that she doesn’t want to, and she makes it clear. She first tells Lysander that she doesn’t want to sleep next to him,

In Athens, women had very little rights. Womens fathers were the ones who got to choose whom they married, and that caused trouble for the lovers. Hermia’s father, Egeus, strongly believed in this rule. At the beginning, Egeus decides that he wants Hermia to marry Demetrius, which is good for Demetrius but bad for Hermia. Hermia, daringly refuses her father’s wishes, so they seek the help of Theseus, the Duke of Athens. Theseus listens to their situation, and being the authority in the situation, tells Hermia: “Either to die the death, or to abjure for the society of men. Therefore, fair Hermia,... if you yield not to your father’s choice, you can endure the livery of a nun...”(24). This shows how authority, in this case the law, gets in the way of “the course of true love…”(28). Egeus’s decision to have Hermia marry Demetrius does not only affect Hermia but also affects Helena. When Hermia’s father chooses Demetris to be her

Like the Duchess, Hermia’s family also feels that they should control who she marries. Hermia’s father gives her an ultimatum -- Demetrius or imprisonment with possible death. “So will I grow, so live, so die, my lord, / Ere I will yield my virgin patent up / Unto his lordship, whose unwishèd yoke / My soul consents not to give sovereignty,” (I, i, 79-82). Hermia takes control over her life, and steels the power her father had over her. She courageously runs away with Lysander, for she will only live life on her own terms. Furthermore, with her refusal of her father’s arranged marriage, she acknowledges that she cannot be bartered and sold like property, her hand would only be won by someone she chooses.

In the play the reader gets the truth that Hermia’s father wants her to marry Demetrius, and as a woman living in a patriarchal society, she must obey; at least that is what the reader is lead to believe. Hermia takes a stand for herself and becomes powerless in her love for Lysander. With no reasonable explanation, besides her love for Lysander, she defiantly denies her father’s attempt for an arranged marriage. Since their love for each other is so immense, they prepare for the underlying bad circumstances they are going to suffer from for not obeying the wishes of her father. Hermia’s love for Lysander means so much more to her than the property or social placeholder she would gain by marrying Demetrius. Hermia dedicates herself to Lysander, saying he is worthy of the ultimate consummation of her love. She must convince her father that Demetrius is disgraceful and immoral. At the end of the play, Hermia and Lysander are eloped, and unlike Katherine and Petruccio in TOS, they demonstrate their dedication for each other from the beginning, disregarding a few

Hermia has been promised to Demetrius by her father; however she is unwilling to marry him as she is in love with Lysander. We are introduced to this theme when they visit Thesus, the figure of authority in the play, who makes it clear that women are not to have their own identity, but instead are

What literary criticism lens is most effective in creating meaning and entertainment throughout Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream? The play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, has several characters involved in a love triangle. Many scenes in the story involves power being used or taken away and use of money. Throughout the play, readers and viewers experiences Hermia’s power is being taken away by her father, Eugues,which is her kindred, not letting her marry the man she truly loves,Lysander. Later throughout the story, Robin, character from the story contains a enthrall love juice that has power and makes another character from the story, Titania, fall in love with a donkey.The marxist literary criticism lens is the most effective in creating meaning and entertaining readers and viewers in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

The supernatural world is rather distinct to that of the human world entrenched in societal standards and boundaries. Shakespeare’s play, ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, explores this concept, particularly through the use of Puck. In agreement to Harold Bloom’s statement, the following essay will analyse how Puck is significant because, by being so disparate, he is able to show the limitations of the human. This will be done through, first, exploring a definition of the human in relation to the supernatural. Subsequently, the essay will use a Freudian lense to analyse the morality of Puck and, lastly, the essay will focus on Puck’s physical characteristics as well as his ability to span across boundaries in the play and the metatheatrical realm.

Hermia is recognized as an inferior character due to her fathers commands-Egeus. Hermia endeavours to get Egeus to give permission for Lysander and herself to get married. However, he responds with a rational answer, giving her two choices: “Consent to marry with Demetrius…” “…or to her death, according to our laws…” (Shakespeare 1:1 40,44). This passage stats how Hermia is given the option to marry Demetrius or to be killed by her fathers request. Also, it describes that this act is legal and right in the laws of the Athenians as Egeus mentions. This means that women throughout the town are forced to do what their fathers say. Which proves that woman are powerless and males are given the role of superiority, this makes the society unjust. Hermia is shown as powerless towards what

Mandy Conway Mrs. Guynes English 12 16 March 2000 A Critical Analysis of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" William Shakespeare, born in 1594, is one of the greatest writers in literature. He dies in 1616 after completing many sonnets and plays. One of which is "A Midsummer Night's Dream." They say that this play is the most purely romantic of Shakespeare's comedies. The themes of the play are dreams and reality, love and magic. This extraordinary play is a play-with-in-a-play, which master writers only write successfully. Shakespeare proves here to be a master writer. Critics find it a task to explain the intricateness of the play, audiences find it very pleasing to read and watch. "A Midsummer Night's Dream" is a