In the play a Midsummer Night's Dream written by William Shakespeare, there are many lovers that are drawn to each other in various ways. One can fall in love at any age. The definition of love is a deep affection for someone or something. In the Shakespeare's play the three pairs of lovers encounter issues where Oberon instructs Puck to sprinkle "love juice" on an Athenian man's eyes. However, he did it to the wrong man, and the other lovers started turning on their loved ones and showing love and affection for another; in Titania's case it was an ass. While reclining with Titania, Bottom states the quote," reason and love keep little company nowadays". This quote is very significant to how love worked in the play and even in normal teenage life today. The quote is greatly signified by Garrett and Caroline,who both liked each other in high school but could not find reason of why.…
In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare is telling the readers that, love needs no reason to exist; it defies logic and ignores all circumstances. This compelling message is very thoroughly communicated with the connection of the fantasy world and reality. The connection occurs in a forest, where each character of significance is, at one point, present. Here, the characters experience unforeseen events, as a result of the debatable use of magic, from those in power. However, despite the extreme unusualness and complications, the characters challenge the circumstances, and persist in loving the one they feel closest to. In this play, this situation is best represented by three significant relationships. The first exists between a lover and her hater, the next involves a young and rebellious couple, and the last concerns an ill-fated mechanical and the queen of the fairies.…
As Helena says, "Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind" (1.1.234) whereas in the play, most of the relationships of love is seen with the eyes rather than their minds. The characters don’t realize what reason they are falling in love with and only see what they want to see. William Shakespeare writes and demonstrates the effect of love through the character's eyes in his play A Midsummer Night's Dream. Shakespeare establishes the illusion of love through the relationships between Lysander & Hermia, Demetrius & Helena, and Bottom & Titania.…
“If we wanted to think about the device in psychological terms, we could see the nested worlds, and double characters as representing the conscious (Theseus and the court), the unconscious (Oberon and the fairies), and the world of art, dream, and fantasy (Peter Quince and the “actors”; “Bottom’s Dream”) that mediates between them.” – Marjorie Garber, Shakespeare After All, 221-222…
William Shakespeare has been, and continues to be, one of the most famous writers of all time. His writings, specifically playwrights, include varieties of different writing techniques that never fail to capture the attention of audiences of all ages. One of his most famous tragedies – Macbeth – is certainly no disappointment. Though Macbeth is one of his shortest tragedies, Shakespeare takes the elements of madness, evilness, and jealousness and wraps them up into a timeless tale chock full of literary elements. One of the most studied and most profound literary elements found in Macbeth is foreshadowing. Foreshadow; verb; be a warning or indication of (a future event).” Foreshadowing gives the audience a hint of what is to come without completely giving away the event, though it will make sense after the event happens. The first example of foreshadowing we see in Macbeth is found in Act 1, Scene 1 in the three witches’ prophecies. We see the three witches show up multiple times throughout Macbeth to hint at the future. The reader immediately sees an example of the prophecies in Act 1, Scene 1 when the witches are talking about meeting Macbeth. They say that they will meet him “when the battle’s lost and won” (Act 1, Scene 1). Logistically, this phrase makes sense because every battle will have a loser and a winner, however when we look at the deeper meaning of this phrase, it shows the witches’ recurring “double meaning” way of speaking that will eventually give false hope to Macbeth in the ending battle scenes. We see another example of foreshadowing in the Act 1, Scene 1 witches’ prophecies of Macbeth as well. All of the witches come together and yell “Fair is foul, and foul is fair” (Act 1, Scene 1). The element of this phrase recurs throughout Macbeth to show the differences between reality and appearance. Macbeth quotes a similar version of this phrase in his first entrance when he says “So foul and fair a day I have not seen” (Act 1, Scene 3). The...…
Shakespeare uses many literary devices is his writing. One that plays a major role in The Tragedy of Macbeth is foreshadowing. "Fair is foul, and foul is fair” (The Tragedy of Macbeth, Act I:Sc. I, line 13) lays setting for the majority of the play and foreshadows that not everything is what it seems. “No more that thane of Cawdor shall deceive/or bosom interest: go pronounce his present death,/ And with his former title greet Macbeth.” (The Tragedy of Macbeth, Act I:Sc II, lines 91-93) by receiving this title, it foreshadows Macbeth's betrayal and eventual death. While Macbeth is killing Duncan, Macbeth believes he hears a voice. This foreshadows Macbeth's paranoia which he experiences the rest of the play. Shakespeare uses many literary devices in his works, foreshadowing often being the most prominent.…
Imagery helps readers create a picture in their minds of the action of a play while reading.…
ACT I, SCENE I - Due Date ____________________ 1. How is Hippolyta’s reasoning concerning how quickly the next four days will pass different from that of Theseus? 2. Why has Egeus brought his daughter and her two suitors to Theseus? What does Egeus expect him to do? 3. What was the proper role for women/daughters in Athenian society according to Egeus and Theseus? 4. What is Theseus’s ruling concerning Hermia? 5. How does Lysander’s comment about Demetrius’s previous love affair with Helena complicate things? 6. What do Lysander and Hermia plan to do about this seemingly impossible situation? 7. Why do they tell Helena what they plan to do? 8. Even though Helena loves Demetrius and is Hermia’s best friend, why does she decide to tell Demetrius of Hermia and Lysander’s plans? ACT I, SCENE II - Due Date ____________________ 1. Why does Nick Bottom want to play all the parts? 2. How do you suppose the threat of being hanged if they scare the ladies will affect the artisans’ interpretation of the tragedy of Pyramus and Thisby? 3. In what way is this scene funny? Why do you suppose Shakespeare included this scene? 4. Where are the actors to meet the following night? Who else is meeting in these same woods at the same time? ACT II, SCENE I - Due Date ____________________ 1. What does the reader find out about the current relationship between Oberon, King of the Fairies, and Titania, Queen of the Fairies, from Puck and the first fairy? 2. How have Oberon and Titania been involved in the past with Theseus and Hippolyta, and why have they come to Athens? 3. What effect has their quarrel had on nature, on the seasons, on humans? 4. Why won’t Titania give up the changeling to Oberon? 5. What does Oberon send Puck to find? 6. What are Oberon’s plans for Titania? 7. How does Helena react to Demetrius’s verbal abuse? 8. What is her response to his threats of physical abuse? 9. In what way is Helena’s behavior inappropriate for Athenian…
“Love is blind and lovers cannot see the pretty follies that themselves commit,this quote from the Merchant of Venice describes the four lovers' dilemmas in A Midsummer Night's Dream. Nevertheless, in A Midsummer Night's Dream this statement not only applies to the 搕rue lovebetween original couples Lysander and Hermia, Demetrius and Helena, but also the 揻alse lovebetween Titania and Bottom and Lysander and Helena. As the story progresses in the play A Midsummer Night's Dream, it becomes increasingly obvious that not only is love irrational, it is a catalyst for disorder, and in the end, love may turn out to be only a fanciful illusion.…
In the play, A Midsummers Night Dream written by Shakespeare would argue that love ultimately wins out over hate. The author maintains that the term ‘love’ can be split into at least three categories. Therefore this argument can even be addressed that the play author will focus on lust, friendship and the unconditional love between father and daughter. Shakespeare shows how lust, a dimension of love, wins out over hate by his portrayal of the relationship between Hermia and Lysander.…
There are many roadblocks that can get in the way of two people being together. In William Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the role of love is very prevalent and influences the outcome for the story. The characters fall erratically in and out of love while they chase each other around the woods, and the fairy queen falls in love with a literal ass. Hermia is threatened with placement in a convent, or worse, if she doesn’t marry the person her father Egeus wants her to. Shakespeare’s play demonstrates how obstacles complicated and simple can affect love and relationships.…
Throughout A Midsummer Night's Dream, the unpredictability of love and desire is surveyed as the characters set forth on their respective journeys toward a love that is completely off-kilter while also maintaining a foundation of reality that belies the magic of the forest. Helena's speech in the opening scene is the play's most direct evidence of Shakespeare's thematic concern: "Things base and vile, holding no quantity / Love can transpose to form and dignity. / Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, / And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind" (I.i. 232-235). What Helena intuits is that desire is exempt from explanation, that it is contradictory and maddeningly and, ultimately, has the single greatest influence on human actions. Distraught over the revelation that her own beloved, Demetrius, is in love with Hermia instead of her, Helena asserts that though Demetrius is incapable of seeing she is as beautiful as Hermia. She believes that love is endowed with the authority to convert "base and vile" qualities into "form and dignity"-even ugliness and bad behavior can seem attractive to someone you love. She argues that since "love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind" that love therefore is not based on objective analysis, but subjective perception. These lines anticipate facts of the play's assessment of love to come, including Titania's desire for the ass-headed…
Titania finally realized that she was in love with an “ass,” and she became absolutely disgusted with herself. Shakespeare makes a clear connection with the love potion, being a fake type of love, to the true love that Lysander and Hermia shared. The power of love can be blinding, yet so binding at the same time that it becomes too difficult for people to understand and grasp. It can do that to people because sometimes under certain circumstances, the love can be there but it is simply unacceptable.…
Love is one of the most difficult mysteries of life. The difficulty of love is shown throughout A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In the play, the characters have to deal with jealousy that comes along with being in love. Love’s difficulty in the play comes from love being out of balance. Love being out of balance is a romantic situation where a difference gets in the way of happiness in the relationship. William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream demonstrates these conflicts with a little bit of humor and buoyancy. The four young Athenians have many difficulties with love. Hermia loves Lysander and Lysander returns the feelings; Helena loves Demetrius but Demetrius loves Hermia. The two men love the same women, which leaves Hermia with no one.…
This quote is perfectly displayed throughout this play. One example of this is when the fairy, Puck, puts a spell on bottom and turns his head into a donkey. Then Titania, the queen of the fairies, is taken over buy the love spell and falls in love with the donkey. This is an example of how love is blind because if she was not under the love spell she would have never fallen in love with an ugly donkey head. She fell in love with bottom even though he was very ugly and this is an example of how love is blind in the play.…