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Essay about William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream

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William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream Shakespeare, in his "A Midsummer Night’s Dream," uses his characters to cast a sense of derision over the use of the imagination. “The lunatic, the lover and the poet” are thrown together all on one line, and it is implied that the latter two are as crazy as the first. (Midsummer Night’s Dream, V.1.7) Despite this seeming scorn for plays and their ilk, Shakespeare is implementing a strong irony. Characters who scorn the imagination are no more than imaginings themselves – and, by this, Shakespeare is actually reinforcing a positive image of plays of the imagination. Theseus’s denial of imagination’s worth reads more as apophasis than as any true refutation. Even as he scorns the …show more content…

Theseus, as an added level of irony, spends a fair amount of time voicing his disdain for the imagination, and for plays – and then, just after that, he chooses a play for the night’s entertainment. He disregards “some satire, keen and critical” in favor of Pyramus and Thisbe, in fact. (V.1.58) One would think that, as the representative of cool reason, Theseus would opt to listen to something less fanciful, but he belies his own position against the imagination and chooses an “airy nothing” instead. (V.1.17) It is in this direct contradiction that Shakespeare cinches the irony of Theseus. Even so, once he has chosen Pyramus and Thisbe, Theseus maintains his stand: “the best in this kind [plays] are but shadows.” (V.1.224) If this were true, and he believed it, why would he then choose a ‘shadow’ for entertainment? Why not choose something more ‘real,’ something that has more of an effect on the world? The simple answer is that plays themselves do affect the world. For even this ‘shadow,’ Pyramus and Thisbe, does in the end draw some emotion from its watchers – Theseus says “this passion, and the death of a dear friend, would go near to make a man look sad.” (V.1.303) Hippolyta furthers his sentiment, adding “Beshrew my heart but I pity the man.” (V.1.305) If the worst of plays can draw such emotion, then plays hold power indeed. In yet a further interpretation, Theseus may act as a sort of metaphor for the

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