William Shakespeare 's A Midsummer Night 's Dream

Hermia’s speech in Act 2, Scene 2, of Shakespeare 's A Midsummer Night’s Dream, contains an abundance of dream imagery. She has awoken from a terrible dream after falling asleep in the forest with Lysander. They were lost and tired so they decided to rest. Lysander wanted to sleep beside her but, she refused since they are not yet married and while they slept Puck applied a love potion on Lysander’s eyes thinking he was Demetrius. Lysander wakes and is repulsed by the sight of Hermia and never wants to see her again because he is now in love with Helena. Hermia awakes from her terrible dream and retells it thinking that Lysander is nearby listening. Then she realizes that he is not there and she does not see him anywhere. Hermia expresses the sentiment that she will find Lysander or she will surely die. She stated,

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a masterful piece of literature that both directly and indirectly comments on the reality of control and power in Western cultures. Shakespeare’s ability to depict human nature gives us insight into how English society functioned in his lifetime, but more importantly allows us to analyze our own perspective of ourselves and the world around us. One way Shakespeare articulates his ideas is through well constructed metaphors and similies, resulting in more powerful writing. One very significant metaphor is spoken by Theseus early on in Act 1, scene 1. Egeus has brought his daughter, Hermia, to the royal court to for Theseus’s opinion on Hermia’s marriage. Egeus has arranged for Hermia to marry Demetrius, a very worthy suitor, but Hermia is truly in love with another man, Lysander. This dilemna is explained to Theseus and he states, “To you your father should be as a god;/ One that composed your beauties, yea, and one/ To whom you are but as a form in wax/ By him imprinted and within his power/ To leave the figure or disfigure it” (I.i.51-55). In summary, Theseus is defending Egeus by saying Hermia was created by Egeus and his will determines her fate. Behind this metaphor is a simple idea that proves how a desire to control can have many unintended consequences as well as negative effects. In order to understand this concept more effectively, it is crucial to analyze how influence is structured socially. The quote demonstrates

William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream has been categorized as a comedy play because of all the characters being passionately in love to the point of being foolish. It’s a play all about love, and the characters that are in love are only young adults, so they are still naive when it comes to love. Their naivety and foolishness regarding love is what allows them to be taken advantage of by mischievous fairies when they all run away into the woods. By critiquing the love affairs and numerous misunderstandings that occur within the mystical woods, I argue that Shakespeare 's A Midsummer Night 's Dream portrays the characters’ young love as a foolish fantasy with drastic consequences.

In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the audience is never truly privy to any of the characters’ dreams; however, Shakespeare portrays reality as a sort of dream. The forest symbolizes a realm where anything can happen, with no regard for time or logic, much like in a dream. Therefore, when the lovers come out of the forest, without explanation for their actions, they believe it to be a dream, even though it had real-life consequences. By having the characters talk about their dreams and believe their realities to be dreams, the play explores the idea that dreams demonstrate reality, in that they show fears and desires, but it also explores the idea that reality can be affected by dreams. While Hoffman’s movie adaptation recognizes this in some aspects, it does not explore it in entirely the same manner.

Relationships are a lot like hills, they tend to be traveled up and down. This is shown in William Shakespeare’s play, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. Theseus and Hippolyta, who were once enemies are now getting married. Oberon and Titania mutually rule the fairy kingdom and cannot see eye to eye. The intricacy of the love hate relationships helps to form the plot of the entire play and the fine line between the two drives the story to the end.

Love is such an abstract and intangible thing, yet it is something that everyone longs for. In Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the difficulty of love is explored through the obstacles that characters have to face while pursuing their loved ones. Those characters that are in love in the play were conflicted with troubles; however, the obstacles of love do not seem to stop them from being infatuated with each other. The concept of true love is examined throughout this play. By creating obstacles using authority and a higher power, Shakespeare examines the power of love. Through Hermia and Lysander’s loving words, it is reasonable to conclude that love conquers all if you believe in it.

The strongest emotion humans can exchange is the feeling of affection and love. In Midsummer Nights Dream by William Shakespeare the characters of the play will do anything for love. It does not matter whether love is one sided, like as the case of Helena, or forbidden by your lovers father as Lysander , taking risks and fighting for love, as Hermia did is how true love is shown. Even though love takes them on difficult paths in the end they find their ways to happiness.

Throughout time arranged marriages were the norm in several societies. In the comedy, A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare, Hermia is in love with Lysander, but her father wants her to marry Demetrius. She escapes into the woods with Lysander. Just like Hermia, many people around the world are forced to marry someone that their parents choose for them. Love marriage vs. Arranged marriage is always a debated topic. While there are instances of love marriages working out, there are arranged marriages which are successful too. Both have their pros and cons. And it is just the world around us which makes us support or be against a love marriage. Arranged marriages are based on the understanding of two families. The parents of the bride or groom get to pick their future partner. On the other hand, love marriages are more of an independent choice between the bride and groom. Giving them the freedom to marry someone they know and admire. There are different customs and traditions that are followed in different societal set-ups. Arrange marriages lack love and respect between husband and wife. Arranged marriages are a social injustice. They deprive individuals of their choice. Marriage is a commitment of two people who have made a vow to love each other till death. In the essay I will be debating the pro’s and con’s of arranged and love marriages.

“Audiences can gain a better understanding of ways to behave in a specific relationship through comparing past and present representations of them in texts.”

Shakespeare’s language usage in Midsummer Night’s Dream is full of strong metaphors to help emphasis important laws on human nature. A perfect example of a metaphor Shakespeare uses to shake up our understanding on people is when Hermia states, “That he hath turn’d a heaven unto a hell!” while exchanging words with Helena. This metaphor was used by Hermia in an attempt to explain the strength of her love for Lysander and to ease Helena’s uneasy mind. Her uneasy mind was apparent upon the initial greeting offered by Hermia. Instead of a formal greeting back, Helena begins complaining about how lovely Hermia’s features are. Concluding her rant, Helena asks Hermia for advice on how to win over Demetrius. Hermia, seeing Helena in clear distraught, attempts to ease her mind by telling Helena of her and Lysander’s plans to leave Athens. Upon doing so, she directly relates Athens to a “paradise” she once knew. The restrictions within Athens, preventing her from loving Lysander, has turned this “paradise” unto a “hell”. This is made clear to the reader when Hermia says, “Before the time I did Lysander see, / Seem 'd Athens as a paradise to me”. Hermia’s love for Lysander simply trumped her love for Paradise and in having to decide between the two, Hermia chooses Lysander. Throughout the rest of Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare consistently uses powerful metaphors, such as the one Hermia gave, within the dialect of the characters to draw conclusions on the chaotic and foolish

It is also noted that the fairies of the Dream show none of the maliciousness or harmful nature that many Elizabethan fairies were said to possess, and their association with flowers is marked as completely new (Latham 181 & 186). And to top it off Robin Goodfellow had apparently never been associated with the term Puck before 1594, Puck being a "generic term applied to a class of demons" (Latham 219). In The Anatomy of Puck however

A hockey game can be a very exciting event, it has many elements that make it such a premium event to attend. It takes place in arguably one of the coldest venues know to the sporting world, the ice rink, you're pretty much sitting outside with walls blocking the wind and to make things better, you're also in sub-zero temperatures. In my opinion, the cold is my favorite part because it makes the game seem so much more than just another sport, It makes it feel like a reawakening every time you step on that ice. Freezing your toes off is not the only thing about a hockey game that makes it special, the fans add some much to the dry air. The fans are not just normal fans, these fans are loud, energized, passionate, and they cheer for the love

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.

In a Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare story about romantic desire. Theseus and Hippolyta, are about to be married; both of them are wonderful figures from classical mythology. (Greek Mythology) Theseus is a great warrior, a kinsman of Hercules; Hippolyta is an Amazon warrior-woman, defeated in battle by Theseus. (Theseus and Hippolyta) He was longing for the wedding day, and this is what opens the play and closing the play with their exit marriage bed. (Theseus and Hippolyta).

The works of William Shakespeare are full of intention: every word, character interaction, and bit of characterization was carefully and deliberately chosen by the bard to enrich the story he told. Each scene is the sum total of these careful and deliberate inclusions. While the scene is comprised of only about 200 lines, the first scene of the second act of A Midsummer Night’s Dream introduces many of the major players in the overall plot, and showcases some highly interesting characters and character interactions that persist throughout the play. In particular, the character of Puck and the relationship between King Oberon and Titania are highlighted and greatly developed in this section of the play.