A Midsummer Night's Dream Essay Topics
A Midsummer Nights Dream Essay Topics:
1. The play presents several different couples: Theseus and Hippolyta, Hermia and Lysander, Helena and Demetrius, Titania and Bottom, and Titania and Oberon. What aspects of love are explored in each of these relationships?
2. Compare and contrast Shakespeare’s play to a modern day romantic comedy.
3. Are Hermia and Helena treated as more foolish in the play than Demetrius and Lysander? Is this a commentary on gender? How do we interpret the fact that Hermia and Helena seem just as foolish as the guys, though they are not under an enchantment?
4. It has been argued that the characters of the Athenian lovers are not particularly differentiated from one another—that Hermia is quite like Helena (even down to her name) and that Demetrius resembles Lysander. Do you think that this is the case, or do you think that the lovers emerge as individuals? If you believe that these characters are quite similar to one another, what do you think Shakespeare’s intent was in making them so?
5. Theseus is constantly portrayed as the most practical and level- headed character in the play, and criticizes lovers, madmen, and poets for having too much imagination. Still, the bulk of the play is about lovers, the play is made by a poet, and all the action is pretty much madness. So, does this play argue that love, madness, and poetry are essential to human life and relationships, or the opposite?
6. Support or refute the following thesis statement: When Lysander tells Hermia, “The course of true love never did run smooth” (1.1.134) he is uttering a central theme of the play. You may wish to consider the following:
a) Hippolyta and Theseus’ engagement
b) Hermia’s conflict with her father
c) The complications between the four young lovers
d) The trouble between Oberon and Titania
Choose one of the above topics and write a literary essay, with a strong thesis statement. You will also be marked using the District 18 Writing Rubric which
1. The play presents several different couples: Theseus and Hippolyta, Hermia and Lysander, Helena and Demetrius, Titania and Bottom, and Titania and Oberon. What aspects of love are explored in each of these relationships?
2. Compare and contrast Shakespeare’s play to a modern day romantic comedy.
3. Are Hermia and Helena treated as more foolish in the play than Demetrius and Lysander? Is this a commentary on gender? How do we interpret the fact that Hermia and Helena seem just as foolish as the guys, though they are not under an enchantment?
4. It has been argued that the characters of the Athenian lovers are not particularly differentiated from one another—that Hermia is quite like Helena (even down to her name) and that Demetrius resembles Lysander. Do you think that this is the case, or do you think that the lovers emerge as individuals? If you believe that these characters are quite similar to one another, what do you think Shakespeare’s intent was in making them so?
5. Theseus is constantly portrayed as the most practical and level- headed character in the play, and criticizes lovers, madmen, and poets for having too much imagination. Still, the bulk of the play is about lovers, the play is made by a poet, and all the action is pretty much madness. So, does this play argue that love, madness, and poetry are essential to human life and relationships, or the opposite?
6. Support or refute the following thesis statement: When Lysander tells Hermia, “The course of true love never did run smooth” (1.1.134) he is uttering a central theme of the play. You may wish to consider the following:
a) Hippolyta and Theseus’ engagement
b) Hermia’s conflict with her father
c) The complications between the four young lovers
d) The trouble between Oberon and Titania
Choose one of the above topics and write a literary essay, with a strong thesis statement. You will also be marked using the District 18 Writing Rubric which