Night in William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream One of the recurring themes throughout Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is the time of day during which the play’s major action takes place: night. This being the case, there are certain words that are directly linked to this theme that appear numerous times throughout the script. Four such words are “moon,” “moonlight,” “moonshine,” and “lunatic.” Each comes from a feminine root that serves to identify the women in the play as prizes to be won and controlled. It becomes clear when looking up the term “moon” in the Oxford English Dictionary that the word is associated with the feminine. “In poetry,” for instance, “the moon is often personified, always as female…” …show more content…
Theseus looks to the moon to measure how soon he will wed his fiancé, Hippolyta. Hippolyta responds in kind, commenting, “And then the moon, like to a silver bow / New-bent in heaven, shall behold the night / Of our solemnities” (1.1.7, 14). Not only does the bride speak of the moon as a measurement (for when it becomes “a silver bow,” or crescent, they wed), but she also speaks of the night when the moon wanes as a time of festive marriage ceremonies. It is important to take into account the character of Hippolyta in this instance. Having Theseus wed Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, takes away Hippolyta’s power as a strong female. She, too, is counting the nights by the waning of the moon until she is legitimately wed and under the control of a husband. The lesser characters, below royalty in the social order, take part in illicit happenings veiled by night, as the moon oversees the activities of May Day/Midsummer’s Eve. The moon is considered a “passive overseer or witness to (the actions of humankind)” (Brown 1645). In the forest of Oberon and Titania, the moon is truly an observer. Within a monologue by Titania, the fairy queen announces, “Therefore the moon, the governess of floods, / Pale in her anger, washes all the air, / That rheumatic diseases do abound” (2.1.102, 29). Titania speaks of her quarrel with Oberon in this instance and how it affects all of nature. Their effect on the natural world is so strong that when they
Next, the Goddess, here we see our Goddess/Lady of the moon. The triple goddess and her many phases, from youthful to old. The mother or the crone, again we see the duality and balance in everything.
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
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.
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.
Beah uses the moon in the memoir to display symbols. Before the war, he looked at the moon as an imitation of superior performance. During wartime, Beah is forced to believe the moon hides itself from witnessing the war. It's roll in the war eventually dies down. As an adult writing the book, Beah notes he can still see the images of the moon in the sky. Following the topic of the moon symbol in the book, Beah describes how war treats the moon, "Under those stars and sky I used to hear stories, but now it seemed as if it was the sky that was telling us a story as its stars fell, violently colliding with each other. The moon hid behind clouds to avoid seeing what was happening" (Beah, CH10). The moon is like a gateway to his past, and his family, and that influenced him to put the moon in his memoir.
In many of Shakespeare’s literary works one can find multiple themes that reflect or question our reality. He accomplishes this by using figurative language such as metaphors and similes. Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream encompasses many themes and apply them to certain characters or through communication between multiple characters. Helena portrays themes of love, betrayal, jealousy, and gender norms in Midsummer Night’s Dream presenting them through her speech and behavior. She depicts the challenges of a woman and also the flaws of human nature. In Act 2 scene 1 and Act 3 scene 2 Helena uses a metaphor twice which emulates these themes presenting us a broader understanding of her representation within the play and the play as a whole. Following are lines from Helena.
The Moon Festival is a very important day. Ying-ying remembered when it was her first time attending the festival, her nursemaid would tell her to keep her mouth closed. But, she was to curious and ended up banned from the festival. (41)
In the third stanza there is heavy personification of the objects in her room and the moon. The room ‘it seemed, had missed her’ (10), by bringing inanimate objects to life the author draws parallels to the child missing her parent silently, silent like the items in her room. The moon has also begun to become characterized and has been framed as inconsiderate, ‘she pretended an interest in the bookcase’. This metaphor conveys how the child feels: overlooked, as if items in her room are more fascinating.
Artemis the Goddess of the moon and the hunt. Her eyes are silver like the moon, and she tends to dress in white and silver, Artemis enjoyed hunting with her handmaidens and basically kept to herself unless she was bothered. Once a male hunter tried to spy on Artemis while she was bathing. The goddess turned him into a deer and her hunters tracked him down and
This can be seen when the author writes: “No ha salido hoy tampoco la luna. La noche es sólo una mancha negra y fría” (p. 12), meaning that without the moon there is no light that illuminates their way. Nevertheless according to Irene Andrés-Suárez or Juan Varo Zafra (pag. 250. El espacio en Luna de lobos y LaLlluvia amarilla), the moon has a negative value because it refers to the death. This idea is ratified through different passages of the novel: “La luna es el sol de los muertos” (p.78). This example is meaningful because it refers to their new life hidden in the mountains, to the idea of being dead in life or “Las metralletas brillan, como lunas de hierro, en la oscuridad” (p.12). In this case, the author is identifying weapons (“metralletas”) with the moon. Precisely it is the poetic vocabulary charged with negative connotations related to blood, death and war which allows to affirm the negative value of the moon.
By the time Theseus reappears at the end of the play, however, he and Hippolyta seem genuinely and mutually happy together, and he presides over a magically resolved triple wedding in which everyone gains their heart's desire. Hippolyta is the Amazonian Queen and, is set to marry Theseus. Hippolyta is not heavily involved in the play but does sound impatient to get married to Theseus. Titania is the Queen of the fairies and is a delicate creature, fond of elegant song and dance and provides a train of equally lovely spirits. When she first appears in the play, she is angry at her "husband," Oberon, who is continually demanding that she give him one of her attendants, an "Indian Boy" whose mother had been one of her worshippers and has past away.
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.
Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night is a play with themes that parallel the folly of the festival it is named after. The main storyline of the plot plays on this a lot by mixing up the stereotypes around gender that were very present at the time. However, a sub-plot involving secondary characters defines this theme even more. It takes the idea even further by relating servants’ attempts to blur the lines between social classes. Twelfth Night’s Maria and Malvolio both have great aspirations to rise above their social class. However, Maria succeeds where Malvolio fails because of her capability to make use of the satiric ambiance of her mistress’s household to achieve her goals.
Throughout history literature has changed into many different forms and styles, it has also stayed the same in many different ways, literary techniques and elements are key to a good piece of writing, a perfect example that shows us just this is in, A Midsummer Nights Dream, where we will further explore the different literary elements that were used most notably the plot. The plot of a story lays out the foundation and the background for the entire play to come, we'll compare and contrast this element and look at the different sub elements which are produced. We will define similarities and difference in these elements form both the play o the film. Taking a look at things such as climax, play incidents, and the conflict will all give us