William Shakespeare 's A Midsummer Night 's Dream And Fool

In many Shakespearean comedies puns are used through fools, for example in Twelfth Night most puns are said by Feste the local fool. However, Feste is far from a fool or clown, Feste is the epitome of irony although he portrayed as a fool and is meant to provide comedic relief; he is actually a wise man. He undermines the high class with the use of puns and jokes. In Act III of Twelfth Night, Viola asks Feste about his “tabor,” and Feste makes and explains his pun to the audience. When Viola asked if he 'lives by' his drum, she wanted to know if he played it professionally. Of course the wise fool, Feste responds as if she meant: “'Do you live next to the drum? While his answer means that he lives next to the church, Viola misinterprets him to mean he makes his living at the church, as a preacher which causes the audience to question Viola’s intelligence however they still find comedy in Feste’s pun. Puns are a delightful way to play with any language. Shakespeare used them frequently, often in rapid-fire, back-and-forth scenes between his wittiest and most foolish characters. They are primarily for laughs, but they can also reveal compelling subtext and make subtle judgments about current societal

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.

To establish the sinister intentions of Richard the actor, Shakespeare makes reference to his moral and physical impediments that leave him cursing “I that am not shaped for sportive tricks…I that am curtailed…”. Through the subtle use of anaphora and repetition of ‘I that am’, which is fleshed out by a definitive tone, the audience is made aware of how Richard is led ostensibly “to prove a villain” and thus, adopt a disguise. Moreover, Richard’s theatricality is stressed as he embarks as a ‘master’ of his own fate, for he perceives himself as “subtle, false, and treacherous”. His sinister intentions are exemplified by the use of tricolon, evocative word choice and short sentence patterning that create a sharp staccato effect. These intentions allow Shakespeare to subtly resonate Richard with the Vice from the medieval morality plays as well as the Renaissance Machiavelli who actively sought power, caused mischief, practised deceit and cynically gloats over his success. Moreover, Richard’s acting allows him to confide in his audience as he is paradoxically honest about his dishonesty, whilst also encouraging his audience not to detest him, but rather, take delight in his cleverness as the ‘director’ of the play. Thus, the opening soliloquy of Richard III offers an insight into how Richard manipulates the

A lot of people would see insanity and corruption to play the most important role in Hamlet. However, other people may argue that the main theme in Hamlet is Shakespeare’s use of actors and acting and the way it is used as framework on which insanity and corruption are built. Shakespeare demonstrates the theme of actors and acting in his characters, the illusion that the individuals assume and the introduction of the ‘play within a play’. This connection allows certain characters to wield the actions and thoughts of others.

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,

Although Twelfth Night is renowned for its comical nature and cross-dressing, on closer examination it appears that Shakespeare has used this comedy to have a greater effect on the audience than pure humour, supporting Berry’s statement. However, before attesting that Berry is entirely correct, we must evaluate three things: the way in which Shakespeare makes the audience feel ashamed, whether this shame is felt by both contemporary audiences and Elizabethan/Jacobean audiences, and whether shame is, as Berry writes “the ultimate effect”.

An early interaction between the wealthy noble Olivia and her hired fool mocks the hierarchal stereotypes and provides an example of Shakespeare's ironic commentary on the social class distinction. In this scene, Olivia, mourning her brother's death, is angry with Feste, her fool, for his unexcused absence. Feste responds to this anger with wit and proceeds to disprove the stereotypes surrounding his title. As a fool, Feste is expected to embody his title and possess little wit. However, as he and Olivia continue to argue, he uses his wit to flip this cliche, proving her to be the true fool. Olivia exits this scene in higher spirits, due to Feste’s comedy, rather than Feste exiting in a body bag, as most would have expected. Shakespeare uses Feste’s humor and diction in this scene to develop not only the characters but provides more insight on the social class distinctions present in the play.

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

Love is many things, and is also used as a reference to sight and vision such as blindness. It is much more than aesthetics and wields the power of sight, and can also cause chaos and destruction. Similarly, Shakespeare utilizes two types of blindness by love; the first being physical due to a love potion a fairy king, Oberon orders upon the humans in Shakespeare’s, A Midsummers Night’s Dream. The second, being metaphorical due to Antony’s immense amount of love towards Cleopatra, in which hinders his political motivation in Shakespeare’s, Antony and Cleopatra.

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.

Thus, without the thrill of deception, there would be no play; it would be a meaningless, drab story. Lies and deceit will bring each of these men’s downfall. Throughout Shakespeare’s theatrical piece, many of the male characters

   In Shakespeare's play King Lear, the main character, King Lear, is presented as a respected and powerful king. As the story progresses the king loses his power because of his own stupidity and blindness. The tragedy of this play is shown chiefly through the actions of Lear’s daughters, which lead to Lear’s bout with insanity, and through the words of the Fool.

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.

When fools were first used for entertainment, the fools were people who were mentally insane. Soon fools became actors that could allow for comic relief for a king and his guests. The role of the fool in King Lear by Shakespeare is more complex than it appears.

Shakespearean plays are often known for their outstanding entertainment and classic comic conflict. In his masterwork, Hamlet, Shakespeare uses these aspects to serve his thematic purpose. He has used comedy throughout many of his historic plays, but in this play, comedy is the drawing point that makes it fun and entertaining, yet clear and intuitive. Generally, his tragedies are not seen as comical, but in reality, they are full of humor. However, these comic elements don’t simply serve to relieve tension; they have much significance to the play itself. The characters of Hamlet, Polonius, Osric, and the Gravediggers, prove to be very influential characters, and throughout the play, they are the individuals that