Midsummer Night's Dream: Shakespeare vs. Michael Hoffman Essay

One of William Shakespeare’s best remembered plays for its comical and ironic tone is A Midnight’s Summer Dream. There were characters designed to be humorous and that alone. Puck and Bottom behave very much alike, and have similar roles for different people. Both Puck and Bottom are comic relief characters in one way or the other. Both of them are needed for the play, because Puck’s spirits controls the whole story, which sets the tone for it, and Bottoms comic relief for the audience and play.

A Misummer Night’s Dream is a comedy play written by William Shakespeare. In this play there are multiple themes however the most evident theme is love. Why is love an evident theme? It is an evident theme because the play commences with two Greek mythology characters─ the Duke of Athens, Theseus and Amazon queen Hippolita planning their marriage. However as Theseus plans his marriage he has to help Egeus persuade his daughter Hermia to marry Demetrius. Unfortunately both the Duke and Egeus failed to persuade Hermia into marrying Demetrius so the fairies (another set of characters. The fairies in this play consisted of goddess of chastity and Queen of fairies, Titania and King of fairies Oberon and his assistance Robin Goodfellow) decide

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.

Tom, the agent for change gains sight and knowledge into the acceptance of his impending death. The opening of the play starts with the ending of A Midsummer Night’s Dream where Tom as Puck says “Gentles, do not reprehend. If you pardon, we will mend.” This foreshadows Tom’s healing role in the play. Although Tom seems to be the character in the least need of a discovery, he still gains sight into the reality of his condition and knowledge that he needs to accept this. This is evident through reading King Lear. The scene is set outside, as instructed by

In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare easily blurs the lines of reality by inviting the audience into a dream. He seamlessly toys with the boundaries between fantasy and reality. Among the patterns within the play, one is controlled and ordered by a series of contrasts: the conflict of the sleeping and waking states, the interchange of reality and illusion, and the mirrored worlds of Fairy and Human. A Midsummer Night's Dream gives us insight into man's conflict with characteristics of human behavior.

Puck is an active person who is engaged in helping his fairy King Oberon get what he wants. However, he is also very clumsy and gets into a lot of mischiefs. A few examples are: When Oberon ordered Puck to put the love potion on the eyes of Demetrius and make sure the first thing he sees after he wakes up is the woman whom he hates - Helena. Puck ended up finding Lysander, sleeping on the forest floor with Hermia. and put the love potion on poor Lysander’s eyes, thinking that he was Demetrius. This is funny because lieutenants are highly respected individuals, and they should have a lot of skill and experience. Puck, however, does not have any of the above, quite the opposite. Another funny section in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is when Puck puts an ass (Donkey) head on Bottom’s shoulders, when he is presenting a play for the wedding of Theseus and Hippolyta, in front of a lot of people. Puck was invisible, therefore, people could not see the process. When the people saw Bottom, they were shocked and thought that Bottom was an ass. Peter Quince noticed Bottom, and shouted “ O monstrous! O strange! We are haunted! Pray, masters, fly, masters! Help!” (Act 3 Scene 1 Line 92). Snout also says “O Bottom, thou art changed. What do I see on thee?” (Act 3 Scene 1 Line 111) Bottom sees Peter and Snout’s reaction, he is confused, as he does not know

Control was a major theme throughout the play “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” The control can be seen in the form of manipulation of emotions and actions. The results of this manipulation are mixed as one attempt was a success and the other was a failure. An example of successful control can be seen with the two characters Helena and Demetrius.

In his comedic play, A Midsummers Night Dream (1595), William Shakespeare utilizes the enchanting adventures of young Athenian lovers and a group of low-class rudimentary actors and their shared experiences with supernatural creatures to portray the opportunity of being in command of their destiny. By presenting conflicts to these three diverse realms, Shakespeare allows these characters to connect despite their hierarchical distinctions to reveal their determination to conquer their adversity. He uses dramatic irony, metaphor, and symbolism to heighten the audience's awareness of their self-determination and their firm control on their future. Shakespeare inspires the public by instilling in them that despite their challenging circumstances, they can still be masters of their own fate, bestowing a feeling of newfound hope and freewill.

In Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream and Hamlet, the plays performed reiterate main ideas found within the play. Both plays hold a play within them, in Hamlet actors reenact the scene in which King Claudius murders Hamlet’s father, and in Midsummer Night’s Dream actors act out the story of Pyramus and Thisbe. Each show main ideas experienced in the play and show the audience their prior experiences, which evoke different emotions.

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.

A main idea is A midsummer night’s dream is jealousy people have for others. Shakespeare first refers to jealousy when Helena is speaking to Hermia. Helena obviously envies Hermia for she had Demetrius fall in hove with her. The jealousy is seen again during the mud fight between Helena and Hermia. This comical scene occurs after Puck’s mishap, and Demetrius and Lysander have both fallen in love with Hermia. Only this time, Hermia is the jealous one. Dramatic irony is used, since the reader knows the only reason Lysander fell in love with Helena is because Puck mistook him for Demetrius, but Hermia is completely oblivious to that. Hermia is enraged when she says “O me, you juggler, you canker-blossom, you thief of love! What, have you come by night and stol’n my love’s heart from him?” But she doesn’t know that Lysander is under a spell. To convey the concept of jealousy, Shakespeare uses the dramatic irony to make the topic less serious, and more humorous.

After the revelation that Puck had put a spell on the wrong Athenian, and a spell is put on Demetrius so he too is in love with Helena, Puck’s mischieveous behavior leads to the central plot of the play. In act 2 scene 3 of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Puck asks Oberon “shall we their fond pageant see? Lord what fools these mortals be!” (Act. 3 Scene. 2 Line.

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

At least six or seven years pass after the writing of Midsummer Night’s Dream before we find Shakespeare engaged on Hamlet, the second of the great plays with an important Supernatural element, and, in the opinion of many, the greatest tragedy ever penned. What a profound change has come over his attitude towards the Unseen! No longer does he handle it in . . . [a] cheerful,

Puck is the epitome of foolishness, as his tricks and mistakes create chaos. He lacks the responsibility for his actions. For example, he claims that he once transformed into a stool and disappeared. The ladies who attempt to sit on the