A Midsummer Night’s Dream Free Essays

Reason, also known as logic and sensibility, is one’s ability to think something through, keeping in mind the consequences of one’s actions, while paying attention to all aspects of the problem. In ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ Reason is explored against various types of Romantic love, including- Lust, committed love, young love and one sided love. Using examples in the play, it can be both proven and contradicted, that ‘Reason and Love keep little company together’. We will write a custom essay sample on A Midsummer Night’s Dream or any similar topic only for you Order Now Hermia and Lysander, the play’s young and lustful lovers prove that in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ while love is concerned, reason isn’t. At the beginning of the play, the audiences are introduced to â€Å"fair Hermia† and her lover Lysander. Hermia wishes to marry Lysander, while her Father Eugeus, wants her â€Å"to marry with Dimitrius†, another Athenian men. Eugeus’ force and commitment to the task of getting Hermia to marry Dimitrius, drives Hermia to desperation † Belike for want of rain, which I could well beteem them from the tempest of my eyes. † Lysander, wanting to marry Hermia, came up with a plan. He plans to go to his â€Å"widow aunt† who lives outside of Athens, where â€Å"There gentle Hermia, May I [Lysander] marry thee†. Hermia agrees to the plan. This shows that neither Lysander nor Hermia fully comprehend the possible outcomes of their intentions, since running away and getting married without permission can bring to them losing everything- Family, connections, respect and reputation. In their time, these were few of the most important things that a man or a woman can own. Thus Both Lysander and Hermia are willing, without listening to the voice of reason, to give it all up for Love. Moreover, Reason does not keep company in Helena’s lust and love full head. Helena, Hermia’s best friend, is in love with Dimitrius; however, it is a one-sided love, since Dimitrius is in love with Hermia. Thus Helena is jealous of Hermia, since â€Å"Dimitrius loves your [Hermia’s] fair†. In aim to gain Dimitrius’ thanks Helena â€Å"will go tell him of fair Hermia’s flight†, then â€Å"to the woods will he [Dimitrius]†¦ pursue her [Hermia]†. By doing so, Helena clearly ignores her reason, since she thinks only of the attention she will be given by Dimitrius. Otherwise, Helena would have saw that she was, in fact, sacrificing her friendship with Hermia and endangering Hermia’s happiness, just for another chance in romance. Yet again Helena looks through her reason, by following Dimitrius into the woods. In the woods, following Lysander and Hermia, Helena is all alone with Dimitrius â€Å"who loves [Helena] not†. Dimitrius is â€Å"wood within this wood† since he cannot â€Å"meet†¦ Hermia†. His frustration is increased by Helena who follows him. Dimitrius then threatens Helena to take â€Å"the rich worth of [Helena’s] virginity† something which was most valuable to a woman at the time. In addition he threatens to â€Å"do [Helena] mischief in the woods†. Helen in replay says â€Å"Ay, in the temple, in the town, the field, you do me mischief†. Thus Helena is abandoning reason, in the name of lust, and love. Additionally, the play reveals the option that even old loving couple can lose their reason. Such is the case of Titania and Oberon- King and queen of the fairies. Titania is married to Oberon, and they both share long committed love. Firstly, the audiences witness a bitter fight between them, where Oberon is â€Å"passing fell and wrath†, since Titania will not give him † a little changeling boy†. In revenge, Oberon plots to put Titania under the spell of Love in Idleness. This flower † will make or men or women madly dote upon the next live creature that it sees†. Oberon, after years of loving Titania, lets his reason drop, and with no sympathy or regards for his â€Å"Queen† and â€Å"lady†, puts her under the spell. Titania, on her part wakes up to fall in lust (under the spell of Love in idleness) with Bottom, who wears a head of an ass. Not only that Titania lost her reason by falling in love with an ass, but also, since she does not question this sudden occurrence. Later on, after the lusty spell have been reversed by Oberon, It is revealed that , while in lust and out of reason Titania â€Å"gave† Oberon the changeling child- thus turning her back on her principles to take care of the boy. This shows, that even while in a committed-love relationship, lust can make one abandon his/hers reasoning. On the other hand, it is also showed that even while in love, Theseus uses his reason. Theseus’ â€Å"nuptial hour draws on peace†, He is to marry Hippolyta, queen of the amazons. It is evident that love exists between the two:† Hippolyta, I woo’d thee with my sword and won thy love doing thee injury†¦ â€Å". As the ruler of Athens, one of Theseus’ roles is to judge cases that are brought in front of him. As was discussed before, Eugeus brought in front of Theseus the case of Hermia and Lysander. According to the Athenian law, Hermia belongs to Eugeus and he â€Å"may dispose of her, which shall be either to [Dimitrius] or to her death† Instead of being over sympatric to Hermia and overruling Eugeus, or in other words, making and irrational decision, Theseus used his reason and introduced a third option for Hermia:† to abjure for ever the society of men†. It is important to remember that overruling Eugeus is irrational because it would discredit Theseus’ leadership since he ignores his own law. Hence, Theseus proves that even while in love, reason can be involved. A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ explores many types of romantic love. Lust, committed, young and tempered, these are just a few examples. Furthermore, Shakespeare demonstrates how any of these can interfere with one’s reasoning, leading them to do mischief, irrational and hasty decisions and actions. In contrast, it is also evident that there are examples where Love and reason can exist in harmony together. Many would agree with Bottom that â€Å"Reason and Love keep little company together nowadays†, and many would also agree that â€Å"Love has reasons which reason cannot understand. † [1] How to cite A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Essay examples A Midsummer Night’s Dream Free Essays A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of the many works of William Shakespeare. It is romantic comedy that is said to have been written around 1595 or 1596. It tells the story of young Athenian lovers and their encounter with the Duke and Duchess of Athens and as well with fairies and actors of a play for the Duke’s wedding. We will write a custom essay sample on A Midsummer Night’s Dream or any similar topic only for you Order Now The story tells of how far someone would go in order to find themselves. It also shows the reality of sexual bias in our society, how male dominates and other sexual conflicts. It also shows the power of the gods, how they are able to dictate human lives like in the story of Oedipus Rex wherein the story shows that no one can change their destiny that the gods are in control but in the case of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, fairies had been able to control/play with the human characters in the story. The story teller in the play was Puck, also a character in the play. He is a fairy and servant of Oberon (the king of fairies). The story took in Athens in the time of Theseus and Hippolyta. The conflicts in the story started in the Duke’s place and continued in the woods where the king of fairies and his wife were and some other fairies as well. Several conflicts follow in this setting. There had been theories which tries to explain the reason behind the creation of the story although there is no concrete evidence that are found to support these theories. It had been said that there had been numerous aristocratic wedding that took place during 1596 and it was said that it is for these occasions that play was written. Also, another theory says that the play was written for the Queen and for the celebration of Saint John’s feast day. What is missing in the story is a tragedy. Although there had been some confusion and conflicts in the play, the ending can be considered a happy ending unlike Romeo and Juliet. Life is also full of twist and turns and as well as tragedies. Also, the ending seems to have been in favor with every character in the story, well, just as Puck said, consider it a dream. Still, tragedy could have been also present but is not easily seen. Well the ending of the story could just really be plain comedy or a hidden tragedy. The last scene also provides the readers view about reality and as well as imagination. It is also through good imagination that we can enjoy a play or a story. It is what makes these things interesting and really worth our time, money and effort in watching or even reading a play. It requires good imagination and our ability to distinguish what is reality and what is not. I believe that what makes A Midsummer Night’s Dream similar with several stories that I know (watch, read, or heard) is that it tells how far someone would go for their love. Many stories had also been written that tells of several conflicts that are about to be faced by the characters in order to be able to rest the arms of their loved ones. The same thing goes for Shakespeare’s other plays like Romeo and Juliet. For me, the story tells of the reality that in life, there are so many trials and obstacles that we must faced before achieving happiness. We cannot have everything that we want and definitely there will be times that we must compromise our happiness for something or someone else. The story also shows I believe that everyone will benefit from the play. It teaches some lessons that are applicable to our daily lives. Everyone will really see something in this story that will surely help them or change some of their views and how they perceive some things in their lives. I also enjoyed the story together with the conflicts that arises. It also help me realize that I must respect others decisions, beliefs etc. Just like in the story, every parent must respect their sons and daughters decisions especially when in comes to matters regarding their feelings. Respect is a very important factor in developing your relationship with other people. Also, it should be a very important part of your personality. If we do not respect others, we should not expect that they will respect us back. Reference Sky-McIlvain, E. (2004). A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare. Retrieved November 19, 2007 from http://www.leasttern.com/Shakespeare/Midsummer/Dreamhome.htm How to cite A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Papers A Midsummer Night’s Dream Free Essays 1. The actions of the character ‘Puck’ in Shakespeare’s ‘A midsummer night’s dream’ affects the comedy of the play directly and completely reflects the Shakespearean world. Shakespeare portrays humor in numerous ways in his plays and this makes most of his plays successful. We will write a custom essay sample on A Midsummer Night’s Dream or any similar topic only for you Order Now ‘A midsummer night’s dream’ is a cautious mixture of humor and love. There are two types of humor, one is plain humor that is added with the help of artisans in the play and the other is inferred humor, which is seen because of a funny character, Puck in this play. The artisans are not intelligent but they pretend to be and they mess up ith grammar and spelling, which results in mere confusion. By making silly mistakes of words they change the meaning of the sentence completely and in this way the audience enjoy the simple and plain comedy in the play. Shakespeare has made use of inferred humor with the help of a character Puck, who is a hyperactive child and gets into mischief every now and then. 2. Shakespeare has made use of the fools a lot in his plays and they are not only portrayed as jesters or fools but they are mediators and sometimes seem to be much more intelligent than the so-called masters. These fools add buoyancy to the story, humor at times of erious situations and also help to lighten the shadow of confusion caused by others. They have fewer dialogues but whatever they say has meaning and they say it with wit and sense. There are two fools in Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, namely Mishra 2 Puck and Bottom where Bottom is portrayed for plain humor, Puck is for inferred humor. Also Puck is very mischievous and creates lot of confusion when he mistakenly puts the love juices in the eyes of Lysander instead of Demetrius. A. ‘A midsummer night’s dream’ is one of the most popular plays of Shakespeare and is idely acted upon worldwide. It is actually a romantic comedy and the story is about the adventures of four Athenian lovers with a group of amateur actors. There are some supernatural powers and the effects of their mischief and above all the confusion created by them. Shakespeare has made his female characters enjoy much more freedom than they actually posses. Helena and Hermia escape into the woods where they do not come under the laws of Theseus or Egeus. Hermia elopes with her lover Lysander and Helena also follows her with Demetrius whom she loves a lot. So women are seen using courage nd guts in Shakespeare’s play for their love but the ultimate refuge and happiness for them is marriage. Mainly there are three plots in the play that are interlocked and the main confusion is caused because Puck mistakenly puts the love juice in the eyes of Lysander who falls in love with Helena instead of Hermia. Because of all this, the four lovers quarrel with each other and in order to stop them from killing each other, Oberon orders Puck to keep them off from each other and re-charm Lysander for Hermia. When Oberon gets what he had asked from Titania, he releases her, Lysander is freed from the magic enchantment and Puck relieves Bottom from the ass’s head. But the magic is allowed to remain on the eyes of Demetrius so that Helena gets her lover in the end. As the whole night is spent in mere confusion and refuge in a forest full of supernatural powers, the lovers are made to think Mishra 3 the whole thing as a dream. In the end everyone retires to bed and Bottom awakes and thinks that he also had a dream. B. Puck, in Shakespeare’s ‘A midsummer night’s d ream’ is in the real sense a fool, i. e. , a jestor whose job is to entertain the Fairy King, Oberon. He is practically involved in the ngoing functions of the play and is seen making some intelligent observations regarding life and love. Puck is introduced to audience in ‘Act II Scene I’ with his encounter with one of Titania’s fairies and this interaction gives the audience an idea how mischievous and playful he is. Puck is given an assignment by Oberon in order to punish the Fairy Queen, Titania because he is angry with her. Oberon asks Puck to put the love juices in Titania’s eyes so that when she wakes up she falls in love with the first creature she sees. Also, Oberon wants to put right love problems of the lovers that are seen running about in he forest and so orders Puck to put some love juices in Demetrius’ eyes. Here Puck makes a mistake and puts the love juices in Lysander’s eyes which further causes lot of problems. Both, Lysander and Demetrius become madly in love with Helena and not with Hermia. All these confusions and comic situations in the play are just because of the foolishness of Puck. C. Puck, in fact, does not take life seriously and believes in fun and mischief. He is also not serious in performing his duties and has airy and light attitude towards his responsibilities. While all the other characters are serious and busy dealing with problems nd confusions, Puck is almost relaxed and is enjoying everything, pulling pranks and dancing around. One of such example is when Puck puts an ass head on Bottom, which is just fun and nothing else. Puck is having fun and is playful throughout the play except in Mishra 4 the end when he sorts out all the problems and makes all believe that they must have experienced a dream. In the end Puck makes a direct speech to the audience and apologizes for anything that must have hurt somebody’s feelings and even suggests the audience to take everything as a dream. His speech is, If we shadows have offended, Think but this, and al l is mended, That you have but slumber’d here While these visions did appear. And this week and idle theme, No more yielding but a dream, Gentles, do not reprehend: If you pardon, we will mend: And, as I am an honest Puck, If we have unearned luck, Now to ‘scape the serpent’s tongue, We will make amends ere long; Else the Puck a liar call; So, good night unto you all. Give me your hands, if we be friends, And Robin shall restore amends. (Act V. Scene I) Mishra 5 Thus it is seen that throughout the play Puck is seen making fun, pulling pranks and dancing around like a fool but in the end he ties the audience with the play by just elivering one speech. He is quite intelligent and is totally aware of other’s feelings and understands love and life more than anyone else in the play. In fact Puck’s job is to entertain the Fairy King, Oberon with his tricks, pranks and jokes. His real name is Robin Goodfellow and his character in this play is a little bit similar to the mythological figure, Puck. Just as all the confusion and problems arise due to Puck’s silly mistakes he sorts them out by creating fog and putting more of the flower in Lysander’s eyes which would reverse the effect. So in the end he succeeds in making all the others believe that they had ust experienced a dream and nothing that happened was in reality. Shakespeare used humor in his plays with the help of these jesters and clowns. In fact the fools in Shakespeare’s plays are a mixture of clown and the courtly fool or jester, that has both the qualities as to entertain the king and others with his foolish activities and to say truth in a witty or satirical manner. Where all the other people hesitated to point out King’s mistakes or misjudgment, Shakespearean fools spoke the truth without any fear. They were characterized as very intelligent and sensitive but they pretended to be as fools ost of the time. This is seen in Shakespeare’s ‘A midsummer night’s dream’ in which Puck is a character whose job is to entertain the Fairy King and obey his orders. He actually has not much power in his hands and just carries on the orders of Oberon. He is typical of Shakespeare’s fools and is foolish and mischievous and at the same time intelligent and sensitive too. He is also made to parody the actions and speeches of other characters of the play towards the end of the play during the great fog just to carry on the Mishra 6 light humor a little more until the confusions are sorted out. How to cite A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Papers