I am Kaitlyn Luepann and I am portraying the fairy attendants Peaseblossom, Bottom, Cobweb, and the “jester fairy” Puck From William Shakespeare’s play, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” I will be portraying all these characters as one character with characteristics of all four. The ways I am going to adapt the characters that I am portraying are for me to have a witty sense of humour, yet have common courtesy and manners, and have respectful body language and a humourous tone of voice because the three fairy attendants are very respectful, but Puck is humourous. How I adapt all of the fairies body language and tone of voice from the play to the modern day is to be a respectful Starbucks worker, who cracks jokes in a funny manner while customers…
A Midsummer Night's Dream is one of Shakespeare's most popular and frequently performed comical plays (Berardinelli). The play transformed into a cinematic production by Michael Hoffman has not changed in its basic plot and dialogue, but the setting and some character traits have. The play setting has been gracefully moved from 16th century Greece to 19th century Tuscany (Berardinelli). The addition of bicycles to the play affects the characters in that they no longer have to chase each other around the woods, but can take chase in a more efficient fashion. As far as characters are concerned, Demetrius is no longer the smug and somewhat rude character we find in act 1, scene 1 (Shakespeare pg. 6, line 91), but rather a seemingly indifferent gentleman placed in an unfortunate circumstance set to delay his wedding to Hermia. Perhaps the most noticeable change in the character set from stage to film occurs in the characters of Puck and Nick Bottom.…
1. What do you see, hear, and notice for the setting of the play? What Greek and Elizabethan references are present?…
(Shmoop, “Psychoanalysis”). His studies have been used to dive into characters, plot, and even authors of many different genres and mediums. In Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Freud’s theories of the id, ego, and superego can be applied to many actions and situations between various characters. Looking through the lens of freudism allows the audience to understand more about themselves by relating to the characters and why they do what they do. It allows them to find these desires, defences, and consciences within themselves and take a new perspective away from the encounter. In a way, it satisfies their curiosity and prompts them to higher thinking, which was one of Shakespeare’s intentions in writing Dream: to get the audience to question what they have…
In the quote above, Ms. Garber makes an excellent point about the characters and worlds inside of Midsummer Night’s Dream. There are several examples of what she has stated throughout the play, and I am inclined to agree with her statement. Here, I will give some examples and points showing that she is correct.…
3. SYNTAX: (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) the syntax of a play is the way peasants and royalty talk differently. Craftsmen are ordinary folks who just talk plainly without any special rhythm that I mention in later paragraph about style, and they only talk fancy like royalties in their acting. The example of this Bottom and his pals talk about the play they want to perform in Act 3 scene 1 line 9-12: What Prose said makes sense in this scene; because his conversation is what modern people like us would say now. When mechanicals, however, perform the play Pyramus and Thisbe, their lines are spoken in rhymed verse like royals spoke.…
(Scene opens: Everyone is laying on the ground, as though they are dead, focus on Hypnos.)…
Comedy in A Midsummer Night's Dream is confined to the conservative oppression of women and contrived by the ironic licensed anarchist figure of Puck which while delights us with donkey kisses and lovers' mishaps, are neatly portioned within a common structure of society, agreeing with the hypothesis. The play is driven by a logical rhythm of conflict to harmony and its comedy remains in the temporary middle state of the 'Green World' preventing chaos from ensuing outside of these boundaries and therefore conserving it to rules and regulations. However, Shakespeare also utilises this simple structure in order for the audience to doubt its seemingly seamless ending as its accessibility allows us to question the events and attitudes of the play, using comedy as a tool to provoke radical thought. The irrational forest trope and lower class fool stereotype appear to be unsurprising but these conservative ideas are extended in giving them crucial roles in the unfolding of events and showing truth between the hypocrisy of others, rather than continuing the trope and just merely being a simple comedic release for the audience. Therefore, comedy's universality allows Shakespeare to convey profound ideas effectively, using the topsy-turvy world to provoke questions in the audience, making 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' truly radical.…
In the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Helena says that love is blind, and this foreshadows the actions that Titania and Egeus make when the interests of loved ones are in mind. First, when they argue about the Indian boy, Titania tells Oberon, “Set your heart at rest/ The Fairyland buys not the child of me”(2.1.121b-122). Titania is blinded to the disasters caused by the fight between her and Oberon because of the Indian boy she will not give up and has begun to love. Lastly, while Theseus and Egeus talk about Hermia’s marriage, Egeus says, “As she is mine, I may dispose of her/ which shall be either to this gentleman or to her death”(1.1.42-44). This quote shows that Egeus is blinded by his pride and what he thinks is right. He cannot see…
The love of Hippolyta and Theseus is less playful than the four crossed lovers. But it is also less elastic, and lacks the endless sensory allusions that signal trouble. Titania and Oberon, who dwell in the sensory world, can embrace and bless the marriage state but cannot truly achieve it themselves. This triple wedding at the end of the play is not necessarily happy. Essentially, Shakespeare embraces the necessity of law without reveling in it. One cannot live their life in the sensory world without controlling their perception. This control is human reason, and judgement. The beauty of the world, and the capacity of our vision to perceive it, is even greater when we understand what we are seeing and why. A Midsummer Night's Dream is not…
Everyone has had that moment when they blame one person or character for the problem or conflict, correct? The same can be said for the plot of A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare. The entire plot of the play is mostly Puck (the Fairy King Oberon’s servant)’s fault.…
As Lysander says, "The course of true love never did run smooth." Love in A Midsummer Night's Dream is portrayed as complicated and difficult, yet Shakespeare does it in a way that is humorous and lighthearted. In this play love often brings out the worst in people, yet in the end it's what brings everyone back together. Love has the ability to spellbind people as Shakespeare represents symbolically through Puck's actions, and we see how intensely complicated it can be when it nearly tears apart Hermia's family and causes argument between the four main human characters. The four types of love, forced love, parental love, romantic love and complicated love permeate all aspects of life in this play and we see the awesome power it has over human emotion, psychology, and behavior.…
Since his first published work in the early sixteenth-century, William Shakespeare has become known as one of the greatest writers in history (Mabillard). Many of his plays and poems are considered to be some of the classics of early literature. One of his renowned plays, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, has grown from its wildly popular play into a classic movie produced in 1999 (“A Midsummer”). The movie, based on the themes and events of the play, involves a complicated love square. While the movie followed closely to the play, a few minor differences were present, e.g., the number of characters having sex in the movie and a few other minimal Hollywood additions. Despite these few differences, the movie represented the play beautifully.…
“if you can’t fly, then run, -if you can’t run, then walk- if you can’t walk, then crawl, be whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward.”…
A major theme of A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare is the treatment of women. Shakespeare wrote the play in the late 1500’s, when women did not have any power. Throughout the play, there is evidence that men treat a woman as property and as objects. The female characters are Hermia, Helena, Titania, and Hippolyta. The female characters have different roles and beliefs in the play. The theme of treatment of women in A Midsummer Night’s Dream is significant because of the affects laws and men have on Hermia, Helena, and Hippolyta.…