How Does Shakespeare Use Stage Directions In A Midsummer Night's Dream

Stage directions are used during the play to reveal even more of the personality of each of the characters. The extremely-confident personality of Nick is made clear in the first scene, when Nick, Lucy and Lewis first enter the darkened theatre, and Nick starts to toy with Lucy in the dark, pretending to be a ghost. Stage directions can also be used to reveal the feelings of characters. When Lucy and Nick leave, and Lewis is left with Roy, you can tell just by watching the way Lewis holds his body, and moves about the stage, he feels betrayed by Lucy, and by Nick.

Puck manipulates Titania and Bottom through magic. Titania loses all free will, while Bottom is changed into a donkey against his will. For example, “And thy fair virtue's force perforce doth move me On the first view to say, to swear, I love thee (3.1, 140-41, Shakespeare). Titania loves Bottom, who has the head of a donkey, against her free will. Oberon placed a love potion on Titania’s eyes, which resulted in Titania loving Bottom. Furthermore, Bottom was changed into a donkey by Puck. The lines, “I see their knavery: this is to make an ass of me; to fright me, if they could” (3.1, 119-20, Shakespeare), allow the reader to know Bottom has the head of a donkey. In Scene Two, Hermia, Helena, Lysander, and Demetrius have conflict. In the lines, “Now she holds me not; Now follow, if thou darest, to try whose right, of thine or mine, is most in Helena” (3.2, 336-37, Shakespeare), Lysander begins to argue with Demetrius about Helena. Lysander’s loss of free will results in conflict. In the lines, “I will not trust you, I, nor longer stay in your curst company. Your hands than mine are quicker for a fray, my legs are longer though, to run away” (3.2, 341-44, Shakespeare), Helena is attempting to run away from the situation because Hermia was upset with the situation. Act Three summarizes the conflict. Shakespeare uses the loss of free will to spark conflict

Oberon, riddled with jealousy over his queen’s beloved “changeling”, plots to make a fool out of Titania with his magic potion so he may steal away the child. Oberon's love-potion has the same effect of that of the famed Cupid's arrows, it charms the sight of those it is anointed upon, and gets them to fall in “love” with the first creature they see. Oberon anoints the eyes of Titania and she ends up falling in “love” with the first creature she sees, Bottom, an actor who is rehearsing in the woods, who’s head has been turned into that of an ass by Puck. Oberon plan is successful, he is in fact able to steal away the child while his queen dotes upon Bottom, but then things start to get more complicated in the moonlit woods.

The story of A Midsummer Night's Dream was mainly about love and its abnormal dealings. In the play, Shakespeare tried to show that love is unpredictable, unreasonable, and at times is blind. The theme of love was constantly used during the play and basically everything that was said and done was related to the concept of love and its unpredictable ness. Shakespeare made all of the characters interact their lives to be based on each other’s. At first, everything was very confusing, and the characters were faced with many different problems. In the end, however, they were still able to persevere and win their true love, the love they were searching for in the first place.

However, Shakespeare uses Bottom to draw the audience’s attention to serious themes, such as the relationship between reality and imagination. He is also the most down-to-earth character in the play as he does recognise that Titania's statements about him aren't true, when Titania devotes her love to him 'On the first view to say, to swear, I love thee.', Bottoms responds with 'Methinks, mistress, you should have little reason for that', also when Titania

Puck’s interference with the Athenian citizen’s relationships and the love flower emphasizes the “the difficulties of love, the power of magic, the nature of dreams[,] and the relationships between fantasy and reality” (Bordas del Prado). When Oberon sends Puck to mess with Titania, Puck makes her fall in love with Nick Bottom, a member of the Athenian working class, after giving him the head of a donkey. When Titania professes her newfound love for Bottom, he admits, “Methinks, mistress, you should have little reason for that: and to say the truth, reason and love keep little company together nowadays” (Shakespeare). Bottom sees how illogical Titania’s interest in him is, but he goes along with it anyways. Puck creates such a strange relationship out of thin air, between two people that have absolutely nothing in common. The theme of love being completely unpredictable is evident between these two, as well as it is between the four Athenian lovers. Though Puck stirs up trouble, he is a benevolent spirit, and can easily convey the message of love to the audience. Many times in Shakespeare’s play, the main protagonist ends the show with a recap of events and a goodbye blessing. At the end of the play, Puck closes the show with a positive narration, “We will make amends ere long; else the Puck a liar

Helena puts forth the evocative themes of “hate” and “mock[ery],” clearly exhibiting that she feels quite a lot of emotion towards the way that Lysander and Demetrius are acting. Helena’s evidently very low self-esteem causes her to believe that Demetrius and Lysander are “joining in souls” or teaming up on her to make fun of her, when they are contrarily being quite affectionate. This clearly exemplifies how dramatic irony, a common theme throughout the play, can actually intend to teach the lesson that love is very complex and quite magical, conveyed by the fairies. Similarly to Helena, Bottom, a farcical member of the mechanicals that gets comeuppance for his high self-esteem by being turned into an ass by Puck, is also unaware of the reality of his situation. When Bottom comes to the realization that he has undergone some sort of change, he is still completely uninformed about his true state of being, but yet the audience knows exactly what has occurred. Bottom infers, “This is to make an ass of me” (3.1.99). It is very ironic that Bottom thinks they are “mak[ing] an ass of [him],” when in reality he has literally been transformed into an ass. This random, confusing aspect of the play symbolizes the randomness and complexity of love. Additionally, later in the scene, Titania admires Bottom’s appearance, demonstrating the blindness of love. Shakespeare evidently utilizes the comedic device of

Right after Bottom scared all the people with his ass, he meets Titania (Applied to the love juice). Titania immediately falls in love with Bottom and his ass’s head. When she hears Bottom sing, she says "I pray thee, gentle mortal, sing again: Mine ear is much enamour'd of thy note; So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape; And thy fair virtue's force perforce doth move me. On the first view to say, to swear, I love thee." (Act 3 Scene 1 Line 121). She treats Bottom like her own child, she feeds him, she sleeps with him and pampers him. This is a comedy, as it is absurd to fall in love with a person with an ass. When Oberon takes the spell away from Titania, she also thinks that it is not possible and is startled. She says “My Oberon, what visions i have seen! Methought I was enamour’d of an ass.” (Act 4 Scene 1 Line 75). Titania is a the queen of fairies and has a lot of power and reputation amongst her people, In Act 3 Scene 1 Line 139, she was so powerful, she could just say “I’ll give thee fairies to attend on thee”, and Peaseblossom, Cobweb, Moth and Mustardseed immediately came to serve her. Titania should not be under a spell. Imagine Julius Caesar falling in love with a hippo, it just does not make

There are many comedic characters in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night’s Dream. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is about love and how confusing it can be. There is a fairy world, and then the real worlds, and the various love triangles in each. Despite there being multiple comedic characters, the two who stand out the most are Puck and Bottom. Both characters are in the play for comedic effects, but both could not be more different.

Shakespeare’s usage of metaphor and simile in A Midsummer Night’s Dream is best understood as an attempt to provide some useful context for relationships and emotions, most often love and friendship, or the lack thereof. One example of such a usage is in Act 3, Scene 2 of the play. Here, the two Athenian couples wake up in the forest and fall under the effects of the flower, thus confusing the romantic relationships between them. Hermia comes to find her Lysander has fallen for Helena. Hermia suspects that the two have both conspired against her in some cruel joke, and begins lashing out against Helena. She says “We, Hermia, like two artificial gods, / Have with our needles created both one flower, / Both one sampler sitting on one cushion, / Both warbling of one song, both in one key; / As if our hands, our sides, voices, and minds, / Had been incorporate. So we grew together, / Like a double cherry, seeming parted; / But yet a union in partition / Two lovely berries moulded on one stem: / So, with two seeming bodies, but one heart; / Two of the first, like coats in heraldry, / Due but to one, and crowned with one crest.” (Shakespeare 2.3.206-13). Shakespeare writes this list of vibrant metaphors to establish the prior relationship between these two characters and to make it evident how affected Helena is by this unexpected turn of events, as well as to add a greater range of emotion to the comedy, thereby lending it more literary and popular appeal.

This creates comedy by catching the viewer or reader off guard with a funny situation they did not expect. Another example of this type of comedy is in act 2, scene 2 when Puck goes into the forest to put the love juice on the eyes of an Athenian as ordered by Oberon. This adds to the comedy because he does it to Lysander instead of Demetrius and has to go back and try and fix it, but ends up making both Lysander and Demetrius fall in love with Helena who believes they are making fun of her. Shakespeare uses this long and convoluted intertwining plot line to add to the humor of the play because of the antics that ensue later on.

Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a play that utilises comedy to convey complex ideas that are seen throughout the play, concepts like the jealousy Helena has towards Hermia, Egeus’s strong hostility towards Hermia and Lysander’s relationship and unrequited love. He uses comical tools like unconscious irony and hyperbole to turn rather difficult topics into humorous representations of them. Events like how Puck thinks Titania had fallen in love with him, not knowing he was bearing the head of an ass, are portrayed in a humorous way so the viewer understands the meaning, but sees it as a light- hearted narrative. Shakespeare carefully uses comedy that does not overpower the meaning of the play, but puts a completely different perspective on some of the themes.

A Midsummer Night's Dream is a play about four Athenian lovers. Theseus listens to both Hermia and her father’s request and he tells her to bend to her father’s will or die due to the old Athenian law. Hermia and Lysander flee Athens, into the domain of the fairy kingdom. At this time, Oberon is in a fight with Titania. This fight is over a human child of Titania’s friend. Oberon tells Puck, one of his loyal servants, to get a flower hit by Cupid’s arrow, and drop the oil into Demetrius’s and Titania’s eyes. However, Puck drops the oil into Lysander’s eyes due to Oberon’s vague description, making him fall in love with Helena and despise Hermia. Titania falls in love Bottom, who has the head of an ass, after Oberon places the oil

Titania is arguably the strongest women in the play; however she is still susceptible to the devious schemes of Oberon and Puck. She is tricked, by the use of a love-juice potion, into falling in love with Bottom who appears to have an ass’s head, “An ass’s nole I fixed on his head” (III.ii.17). This event leads to Oberon asking her for the changeling child “Which straight she gave to me,” (IV.i.58) showing that even strong woman can be tricked by men, which is still

A Midsummer Night 's Dream is a play about love. All of its action—from the escapades of Lysander, Demetrius, Hermia, and Helena in the forest, to the argument between Oberon and Titania, to the play about two lovelorn youths that Bottom and his friends perform at Duke Theseus 's marriage to Hippolyta—are motivated by love. But A Midsummer Night 's Dream is not a romance, in which the audience gets caught up in a passionate love affair between two characters. It 's a comedy, and because it 's clear from the outset that it 's a comedy and that all will turn out happily, rather than try to overcome the audience with the exquisite and overwhelming passion of love, A Midsummer Night 's Dream invites the audience to laugh at the way the passion of love can make people blind, foolish, inconstant, and desperate. At various times, the power and passion of love threatens to destroy friendships, turn men against men and women against women, and through