Comparing The Three Worlds In A Midsummer Night's Dream

The technical aspects of the production such as scenery, properties and costumes also played a keynote in the productions success. The scenery was fabulous it truly made the play. It was very realistic and extremely vibrant. Almost the entire play was performed in one setting, except for the railcar and dance scenes. The house, the main setting, was magnificent with painstakingly placed detail in every corner. All elements in the house matched wonderfully, for example the furniture, the photos on the wall, the telephone and even the trash can. Little bits of detail were everywhere adding to the beautification of the set, for example the lace decorations on the chairs, the etched glass above the front door and even the Christmas tree.

Fairy tales have existed for years, some starting as oral stories for decades before ever being recorded on paper. These tales continue to hold an importance in the present such that they reflect the changes in time and progression of thought and ideas. Over time, many fairy tales are retold for various reasons including reforming them to be used for new audiences to make the story more relatable or to convey a different point of view to various specific audiences. This can be seen in various renditions; Andrew Anderson’s Shrek can be compared to Steig’s “Shrek!” and Perrault’s “Sleeping Beauty in the Wood” and evaluated as a retelling of either based on specific criteria. Although some may argue that William Steig’s “Shrek!” appears more closely similar to Anderson’s Shrek, as evaluated from the presence of similar characters, general plot structure, and targeted audience, the movie Shrek is more closely a retelling of Charles Perrault’s “Sleeping Beauty in the Wood.”

Fairies, mortals, magic, love, and hate all intertwine to make A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare a very enchanting tale, that takes the reader on a truly dream-like adventure. The action takes place in Athens, Greece in ancient times, but has the atmosphere of a land of fantasy and illusion which could be anywhere. The mischievousness and the emotions exhibited by characters in the play, along with their attempts to double-cross destiny, not only make the tale entertaining, but also help solidify one of the play’s major themes; that true love and it’s cleverly disguised counterparts can drive beings to do seemingly irrational things.

Fairy takes are the primary information of the culture. They delineate the roles, interactions, and values which are available to us. They are our childhood models, and their fearful, dreadful, content terrorizes us into submission- if we do not become good, evil will destroy us; if we do not achieve the happy ending, then we will frown in the chaos (34-35).

The extent to which the Lais of Marie de France can be categorized as fairy tales is dependent on the definition of “fairy tale.” Using various scholars’ definitions of “fairy tale” and conceptions of the fairy tale genre, criteria for “fairy tales” arises. Then, close-readings of three lais, “Guigemar”, “Lanval” and “Yonec”, are used as a mechanism for meeting or failing the criteria. This methodology is then evaluated and problematized. The criterion for fairy tales includes origin, form, content, style, and meaning. Etymologically, the word ‘fairy tale’ has disputed origins. Supposedly, it comes from the French “contes des fees” or “tales about fairies”, popular in French courts and salons in the seventeenth century. However, Jack Zipes argues that “conte féerique” actually translates to “fairy tales” and refers to narrative form, rather than content.

As a child, I was told fairytales such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs every night before I went to sleep. Fairytales are an adventurous way to expand a child’s imagination and open their eyes to experience a new perspective. Modernizations of fairytales typically relate to a specific audience, such as adolescence, and put a contemporary spin on the old-aged tale. Instead of using whimsical themes heavily centered in nature, the contemporary poems connect with the reader in a more realistic everyday scenario. Also, many modernizations are written in poetic form to help reconstruct a flow in the piece and to develop or sometimes completely change the meaning from that of the original fairytale. Comparing Grimm’s Fairytale Snow White

An animal is any “living organism other than a human being” (OED). When the definition of animals directly divides them from humankind, examples of half-human, half-animal creatures are meaningful yet complicated symbols. A Midsummer Night’s Dream plays with the mystical and supernatural by frequently breaking down the barriers between animals and humans. Fairies are neither human nor animal, and they live in a world, Fairyland, which is separate from and invisible to humans. Considering the definition of animal is anything that is not human, the world of fae is unconsciously rooted in animalistic imagery. This world is also home to other half-human creatures such as satyrs, centaurs, nymphs, mermaids and sprites. A Midsummer Night’s Dream thus highlights and breaks down the barriers between the human and non-human world, and with seemingly little purpose. This essay will analyze the use of animal imagery, particularly through the donkey and serpent, to argue that animal imagery intensifies the emotions of the play, from exaggerating comedic elements to accentuating the dark and nightmarish aspects of Fairyland.

The theme of A Midsummer Night’s Dream is that if true happiness, love, and joy is wanted in a relationship, it will take some hard work.

Unlike any other form of literature or entertainment, Fairy Tales help children to discover their identity and suggest experiences needed to develop their character. In Bruno Bettelheim’s “Life Divined from the Inside” Bettelheim states that “Fairy Tales intimate that a rewarding, good life is within one’s reach despite adversity-but only if one does not shy away from the hazardous struggles without which one can never achieve true identity (Bettelheim 106). Anne Sexton’s “Cinderella” is a perfect example of Bettelheim’s definition of a Fairy Tale.

Here I will show how the texts ‘The Gown of Cobweb Lace in Peg Maltbys collection Peg’s Fairy book and ‘Stick Figures’ in Tales of Outter Suburbia by Shaun Tan, illuminates the evolution of illustration in the fairy tales which seems to have recorded the social history that has not been described in any other form, exploring

One of the most interesting things in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is the way that William Shakespeare uses contrasts in the play. First, there are the three different worlds that we are shown. There is the world of the nobles and the lovers, which is based off of ancient Athens. Then there is the world of the mechanicals, which although it is also technically set in Athens, seems a lot more like Victorian England.

In Margaret Atwood’s poem “There Was Once”, Atwood uses irony to point out the societal problems within the genre of fairy tales. Charles Perrault, the author of the short story “The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood”, writes about fantastic creatures, magic, and love, following the generic conventions of fairy tales. When compared to Perrault’s short story “The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood”, Atwood’s poem both compliments and contrasts Perrault’s. These two texts, although similar, offer different views on the genre of fairy tales.

Modern fairy tales are common in children’s literature and often convey an important moral. Fairy tales do not have to be about fairies, and are “characterized as being about magic or about spells or marvelous incidents” (Barton and Hudson 82). Two works of literature that use fairy tale elements are Peter and Wendy by J.M. Barrie and A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Both texts begin in the real world, but transition into a place that only exists in a dream or fantasy world. Going outside of the dimensions of the real world provides the texts with fairy tale elements, which include inhuman abilities and appearance, mythical and supernatural beings, and the battle between good and evil; the adventures of Peter Pan and Ebenezer Scrooge teach them a lesson about life and about themselves.

When we think of fairies images of Tinkerbell and other colourful cartoons come to mind but the people of the Middle Ages thought of much more sinister creatures. The fairies of Sir Orfeo and Sir Launfal are beautiful and intriguing but also dangerous and punishing. We are never given a clear cut vision of good and evil in these two Lais and this illustrates for us the duality of these fascinating creatures. This may even stem from the theological history of these little people where following the war in Heaven they were cast out fallen angels but were not evil enough for Hell and so they were caught in between. They are often described as more beautiful than humans and in the case of these

“The Fairy Queen” is a masque or semi-opera by Henry Purcell. The libretto is an revision of William Shakespeare's wedding comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream. Purcell did not put any of Shakespeare's wording to tunes; as an alternative he poised melodies for short musical numbers in every act but the beginning performance. The opera itself had also been marginally modernised in