A Midsummer Night's Dream: Theseus as the Voice of Reason In his play, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare, clearly establishes the feelings of Theseus with respect to love. Theseus expresses his doubt in the verisimilitude of the lover's recount of their night in the forest. He says that he has no faith in the ravings of lovers- or poets-, as they are as likely as madmen are to be divorced from reason. Coming, as it does, after the resolution of the lovers' dilemma, this monologue serves to dismiss most of the play a hallucinatory imaginings. Theseus is the voice of reason and authority but, he bows to the resulting change of affection brought about by the night's confused goings on, and allows Hermia, Lysander, Helena and Demetrius to marry where their hearts would have them. This place where the line between dream and reality blurs is an important theme of the play. Theseus is also a lover, but his affair with Hippolyta is based upon the cold reality of war, "Hippolyta, I wooed thee with my sword, And won thy love doing thee injuries..."(I,i,16-17). He is eager to wed Hippolyta and marriage is the place where reason and judgment rule. He wins the hand of his bride through action not through flattery, kisses and sighs inspired by her beauty. In lines 4-6 of his monologue he dismisses the accounts of lovers and madmen on the grounds that they are both apt to imagine a false reality as being real. When, in I,i,56, Hermia tells Theseus, "I would my father looked but with my eyes", Theseus responds, "Rather your eyes must with his judgment look."(57). Theseus has a firm belief that the eyes of lovers are not to be trusted. That the eye of the lover "...Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt..."(11) is, to him, proof of this. It precisely by enchanting the eyes of the lovers that the faeries manage to create so much mayhem: "Flower of this purple dye, hit with cupid's archery, sink in apple of his eye! When his love he doth espy, let her shine as gloriously as the Venus of the sky."(III,ii,101-7) Puck doesn't change Helena's nature, nor does he change her features. When Lysander wakes, he beholds the same Helena that he's always despised and suddenly he is enthralled. For Theseus this is merely caprice and in no means grounded in reality. Theseus doubts even the existence of the faeries, believing the lovers have, at a loss to explain the inexplicable changes of heart they've experienced, dreamed them up: "And as imagination bodies forth the forms of things unknown, the poet's pen turns them into shapes and gives to airy nothing a local habitation and a name."(14-17) A trick of the light, an abundance of shadows, lack of sleep, an overactive imagination or any one of these or million other causes are the most likely explanation. In equating lovers, poets and lunatics Theseus gets into interesting territory and serves to elevate lovers while he denounces them. The lunatic "...sees more devils than vast hell can hold.. while the poet's eye "...Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven..."(9-13); thus this same imagination is responsible for both mad ravings and great art. The concrete reality of earth co-exists with both heaven and hell as the Faerie world co-exists with the mortal world. A poet could, just as easily, be a lunatic depending on the nature of his visions. That lover's are often (bad) poets, is prime example of this interchangeability. "Such tricks hath strong imagination, that, if it would but apprehend a joy, it comprehends some bringer of that joy; or in the night imagining some fear, how easy is a bush supposed a bear!"(18-22) Theseus describes the faulty and incomplete reasoning employed by poets and lovers alike. Given evidence of some thing, conclusions are made as to the nature of that thing. This usually incorrect conclusion, having been reached, is followed by madcap mix-ups and hilarity- at least for the audience. While distrusting the nature of love and its effect on people, Theseus also recognizes the salutary effect it has, as Demetrius and Lysander, once bitter foes, present themselves to him as friends. He allows the lovers to marry according to their affection and betrays his own affection and appreciation for the intoxicating draught called love, "Here come the lovers, full of joy and mirth. Joy, gentle friends, go and fresh days of love accompany your hearts!"(V,i,28-30)
In the play A Midsummer Night's Dream Theseus talks about how the power lay with the father to choose who may marry his daughter. Theseus talks about the law with Hermia and Egeus because Hermia contests the law. Theseus also talks about how she may be put to death if she does not comply with the law.
In the first part of the play Egeus has asked the Duke of Athens, Theseus, to rule in favor of his parental rights to have his daughter Hermia marry the suitor he has chosen, Demetrius, or for her to be punished. Lysander, who is desperately in love with Hermia, pleads with Egeus and Theseus for the maiden’s hand, but Theseus’, who obviously believes that women do not have a choice in the matter of their own marriage, sides with Egeus, and tells Hermia she must either consent to marrying Demetrius, be killed, or enter a nunnery. In order to escape from the tragic dilemma facing Hermia, Lysander devises a plan for him and his love to meet the next evening and run-off to Lysander’s aunt’s home and be wed, and Hermia agrees to the plan. It is at this point in the story that the plot becomes intriguing, as the reader becomes somewhat emotionally “attached’’ to the young lovers and sympathetic of their plight. However, when the couple enters the forest, en route to Lysander’s aunt’s, it is other mischievous characters that take the story into a whole new realm of humorous entertainment...
From 1778-1783, the Treaty of Alliance obligated France to protect all American shipping endeavors. The dissolution of this treaty after the United States gained its independence left American merchant ships vulnerable to the Barbary pirates. In the 1700s and 1800s, Tripoli, Algiers, Tunis, and the Sultanate of Morocco were semi-independent states under the Ottoman Empire. Government-supported pirate crews from these countries captured merchant ships and ransomed their crews for centuries, but Thomas Jefferson wasn’t willing to comply with the Barbary States’ ransoms and tributes. As a result of his resolve not to be bullied by these vile criminals, the First Barbary War began.
Infatuation causes Helena to lose all sense of dignity, as can be seen when in the woods, she desperately pleads with Demetrius to ?but treat me as your spaniel?. Here, Helena also becomes irrational, obsessed with pursuing Demetrius, though it is obvious that Demetrius is fixated on winning Hermia?s hand in marriage. Helena?s infatuation also causes her to see things from a skewed perspective, for she falsely believes that when she divulges Hermia?s plans for eloping with Lysander, Demetrius? love for Helena will rekindle. As the audience, we know that the most probable course of action for Demetrius upon hearing such news is to pursue Lysander and Hermia, or to report them to Theseus or Egeus. Clearly, infatuation has clouded Helena?s ability to think clearly, and she sees things in her own idealistic way.
In "A Midsummer Night's Dream," William Shakespeare explains the difficulties of the nature of love. Both false love and true love prevail in the end, leading the reader to come to the conclusion that all types of love can triumph. Hermia and Lysander represent the existence of a "true love", while Helena and Demertrius represent the opposite extreme. Shakespeare presents the idea that love is unpredictable and can cause great confusion. Love is something that cannot be explained, it can only be experienced. Shakespeare challenges us to develop our own idea of what love truly is.
A number of neurotransmitters and neuromodulators, including acetylcholine (ACh), somatostatin and glutamate have been found to be deficient in Alzheimer's disease (AD).
After a while the dog was full grown. He was the biggest and strongest he had ever been. One day he left his nice, fun, comfortable home never to return. But he didn’t know that. He was with some of the other dogs he had watched working as he grew up. Now was his time to work too.
The Russian harlequin in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness expresses a common habit amongst sailors to smoke when he exclaims to Marlow, “Smoke? Where’s a sailor that does not smoke?” (132), correspondingly, in today’s world it is common for daily surroundings to include loud, obnoxious sounds that can potentially damage ones hearing permanently. This type of hearing disability is frequently referred to as N.I.H.L (Noise-Induced Hearing Loss). “N.I.H.L can be caused by a one-time exposure to an intense ‘impulse’ sound such as an explosion, or by continuous exposure to loud sounds over an extended period of time, such as noise generated in a woodworking shop” (“Noise-Indu...
Limitations of the EDE-Q primarily centre on the lack of research for its use in males and adolescents, in comparison to norms available for young adult females. However these limitations are being addressed in more recent research, which is providing normative data in a broader range of clinical and nonclinical populations (Mond et al., 2006; Lavendar et al, 2010).
Love plays a very significant role in this Shakespearian comedy, as it is the driving force of the play: Hermia and Lysander’s forbidden love and their choice to flee Athens is what sets the plot into motion. Love is also what drives many of the characters, and through readers’ perspectives, their actions may seem strange, even comical to us: from Helena pursuing Demetrius and risking her reputation, to fairy queen Titania falling in love with Bottom. However, all these things are done out of love. In conclusion, A Midsummer Night’s Dream displays the blindness of love and how it greatly contradicts with reason.
Irrational love is a theme throughout “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. Our project looked at this theme as a common thread that was spun into multiple scene and exemplified by a variety of characters. For this analysis of the theme of irrational love I will primarily focus on the relationship between Bottom and Titania. Throughout the paper I will summarize the other two relationships, Lysander and Helena as well as Demetrius and Helena. For continuity I will focus on the section that I most closely read while highlighting the themes within the other sections.
Hippolyta, after her Amazonian kingdom was overthrown by Theseus, submitted to marry the king, yet still maintained a subtle opinion throughout A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The conversation between Theseus and Hippolyta acts as a prologue to Act I, yet provides significant insight to their relationship. Theseus anxiously awaits the wedding day, “Four happy days brings in / Another moon; but, O, methinks, how slow / This old moon wanes! She lingers my desires” (MND 1.1.2-4), while Hippolyta assures him that the time will pass quickly enough. Her excitement lacks, especially with the eagerness of Theseus, perhaps suggesting her own halfhearted desire to marry him. For Theseus, “wooed thee with my sword / And won thy love doing thee injuries” (1.1.16-17), instead of a mutual desire of love. Their marriage is based off property and Theseus’ political gain, which requires Hippolyta to surrender her own freedom and power as queen of the Amazonian tribe.
.... “The set of deep beliefs and assumptions-the story-that develops over time in a learning organization is so different from the traditional hierarchical, authoritarian organization worldview that it seems to describe a completely different world” (Senge, 1994, p. 21).
The relationship between Demetrius and Hermia is problematic, in that Demetrius is seeking the affections of Hermia, while she is in love with Lysander. However, Hermia’s father approves of Demetrius and tries to force her to marry him, but Hermia refuses because of her love for Lysander (A Midsummer Night’s Dream 1.1.22-82). Lysander points out the flaw in the situation through this comment, “You have her father 's love, Demetrius –/Let me have Hermia 's. Do you marry him,” (A Midsummer Night’s Dream 1.1.93-94). The second flawed relationship is between Lysander and Helena, as a result of an enchantment put on Lysander that made him fall in love with Helena. Helena does not want the affections of Lysander, but rather the love of Demetrius, and believes that Lysander is taunting her. In addition, this relationship creates tensions because Hermia is in love with Lysander (A Midsummer Night’s Dream 2.2.109-140). Both relationships are not desirable due to a lack of mutual admiration and the creation of non-peaceful and unsatisfying
By nature, all people are self-centered at one time or another. I find myself constantly being wrapped up in the day-to-day tasks becoming oblivious to the world around me. This action can continues for days or weeks until something drastic happens to break me out of it. A news story about Syria or a frantic phone call from a family member and my solitary existence does not matter. All of a sudden, my eyes are open wondering what I have missed. My caring for others helps me to become more selfless. This is also true of the lead character Toshiko in the story “The Swaddling clothes”.