Appearence and Reality in A Midsummer Nights Dream Appearance and Reality are very common themes in our daily lives, especially with the integration and use of technology. This is how Shakespeare stays relevant, and his works do too. I think the major theme behind William's use of these two, is to show us that things are not always as they seem. Hope, Confusion, Love and many others also play into this, and though his masterful writing, Shakespeare shows us how to handle these moments of crazy. When I think of appearance and reality, I first think of Bottom and Titania's strange love affair. When Oberon got mad, he put a spell on Titania to make her fall in love with whomever she saw next. This just happened to be Bottom, with a donkey's head. The next pages describe one of the strangest love affairs in the whole play, a play centered around …show more content…
Noche is a key example of how life isn't what is always looks like. The use of night is important in A Midsummer Nights Dream, because it represents when the two themes get blurred. When night falls, Puck places the magic potions on both Lysander and Titania. During night, a fight breaks out between childhood friends Helena and Hermia. Many strange things happen, and a good, clear assumption would be because of false imaging. The lovers' crossed relationships are a direct result of the shady blackness, creating messes, and dreams, and magic. I believe that Night represents illusions we all have, maybe in our heads, or through things we see. When Hermia sees both her suitors perusing the other girl, she becomes enraged. When Lysander accuses Demetrius of not truly loving Helena, reality transitions into appearance. Through the darkness, strange misleading misconceptions morph into fights, arguments and just really weird events. Night is a good and strong example of how we can perceive things to be very different than what they actually
Timothy Findley and Shakespeare use the theme of appearance versus reality in their texts: The Wars and King Lear. Characters in the novel and the play: Robert, Goneril, and Regan, intentionally appear to be something they are not in order to achieve a goal. However, they differ in where it leads them by the end, as in King Lear the characters die, unlike in The Wars where Robert cannot escape his true self and goes back to follow his personal morality.
Visualize this: A man is trapped inside a world he never made. This world begins with the conventions of tragedy through fiction. By the end this masterpiece, the flashing, delving presence of his mind and sprit has been transformed. It becomes the real world. In the real world, appearance and reality is a hard thing to differentiate. Appearance "is" reality in William Shakespeare's Hamlet. Appearance (insanity) is used as a disguise, an excuse for his free will and a costume for Hamlet. This is proven by the nature of Hamlet's true thought process, why he feigns insanity, and, proof that Hamlet was not crazy.
Shakespeare’s plays show the complexity of human beings. Everyone is different in reactions, actions, and thought. Shakespeare explores various themes throughout his writing career. Each play is unique, and their themes are handled in a very distinct way as Shakespeare writes each work with great care. Two major themes are appearance versus reality and relationship between motive and will; Othello, Hamlet, and Henry IV, Part 1 all portray these two themes in similar and different ways.
One instance of magic being used is when Oberon and Titania argue in the forest, as described by Titania, saying, “Is, as in mockery, set; the spring, the summer, The childing autumn, angry winter, change” (Shakespeare 2.1.106) As described in the quote, when the two former lovers argue over the boy, their magical powers begin to alter the environment around them. In the quote it states that the season begin to change in a violent manner. Another instance of magic being used in the play, is when Puck turns Bottom’s head into that of a donkey, as described by Bottom himself, saying “you see an asshead of your own, do you?” (Shakespeare 3.1.13) In this quote Bottom is asking a rhetorical question stating whether-or-not he has the head of a donkey. This plays into Oberon’s larger plot to steal the boy from Titania. In the play, Puck, by order of Oberon, pt a love potion on Lysander’s eyes, by saying a charm; “All the power this charm doth owe. When thou wakest, let love forbid” (2.2.79) Little to Puck’s knowledge, he had given to potion to the wrong person. The reason that Oberon had the potion was to make Titania fall in love a donkey so he could steal, the boy from Titania to keep him as his
Appearance vs. Reality in William Shakespeare's Hamlet. In Hamlet, one of Shakespeare's greatest tragedies, there is a prevailing theme that is concurrent throughout the play. Throughout the play, all the characters appear to be one thing on the outside. yet on the inside, they are completely different. The theme of Appearance versus reality is prominent in Hamlet because of the fact that the characters portray themselves differently from what they really are.
Have we not all fall in love once before? A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Williams Shakespeare is one of the most interesting plays I have ever read. Although, I have seen many people fall in love before, this play has such an unrealistic and beautiful way to describe love that I think everybody would want to find love. I enjoyed my time reading this play not only because it’s a comedy play, but also because it includes many life ordinary events that can happen to anybody such as two people falling for the same person. Furthermore, this play also introduce to us some unrealistic book tale such as the use of magic. Also, I like comedy plays because they make me forget about my life problems for a moment and I usually
A Midsummer Night’s Dream portrays magic through many places in the text. Magic is a key component to the plot of the story. Magic can make a problem disappear, or it can intensify the problem. There are many reasons magic is powerful, but one of the main ones is because not everyone understands it. Magic in one way or another affects everyone in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, but the perspective with which each character views magic is different. The power of magic is something that is hard to understand, even those who use magic often cannot fully understand magic because in many ways it is irrational and inexplicable.
In A Midsummer Night's Dream, playwright William Shakespeare creates in Bottom, Oberon, and Puck unique characters that represent different aspects of him. Like Bottom, Shakespeare aspires to rise socially; Bottom has high aims and, however slightly, interacts with a queen. Through Bottom, Shakespeare mocks these pretensions within himself. Shakespeare also resembles King Oberon, controlling the magic we see on the stage. Unseen, he and Oberon pull the strings that control what the characters act and say. Finally, Shakespeare is like Puck, standing back from the other characters, acutely aware of their weaknesses and mocks them, relishing in mischief at their expense. With these three characters and some play-within-a-play enchantment, Shakespeare mocks himself and his plays as much as he does the young lovers and the mechanicals onstage. This genius playwright who is capable of writing serious dramas such as Hamlet and Julius Caesar is still able to laugh at himself just as he does at his characters. With the help of Bottom, Oberon, and Puck, Shakespeare shows us that theatre, and even life itself, are illusions that one should remember to laugh at.
the laws of man and kept in check by society's own norms. The human struggle to
The contrasted humor is clearly shown as Titania weaves flowers into the hair of Bottom’s donkey-like head. Titania is a beautiful and delicate creature, while Bottom is completely grotesque. Magic creates an unreal image of Bottom, which in turn creates a comical contrast between Bottom and Titania. As part of the already comical sub-plot, Bottom’s altering through magic adds even more humor to the overall play. Next, the misuse of magic causes conflict among the four Athenian lovers.
Shakespeare was a very fine play writer, who examined human nature and exposed it through literature. One of his famous plays, Romeo and Juliet, depict many different themes such as, fate vs. freewill, duty vs. self, feuds, appearance vs. reality, parents choose who we marry, love at first sight and confidante. Appearance vs. reality is one of the themes that are portrayed through out the play. It means, things aren’t always what they seem to be. Something or someone might appear to be another thing, but the reality is different. Romeo and Juliet show appearance vs. reality through out the play because of their secret marriage. Examples of appearance vs. reality are when Juliet finds out about Tybalt’s death and Romeo’s banishment. Juliet’s parents think that Juliet is crying about Tybalt’s death, but she is crying about Romeo’s banishment, when the couple (Romeo and Juliet) get married, but everybody thinks they are still single and when the nurse finds Juliet dead and the Capulet’s have an unnecessary funeral for Juliet even though she is not dead and had only swallowed Friar Lawrence’s potion, which put her into a long sleep.
Oprah Winfrey once said, “The best thing about dreams is that fleeting moment, when you are between asleep and awake, when you don't know the difference between reality and fantasy, when for just that one moment you feel with your entire soul that the dream is reality, and it really happened.” But, what actually is a dream and what do dreams really have to do with one’s everyday life? In essence, a dream is a series of mental images and emotions occurring during slumber. Dreams can also deal with one’s personal aspirations, goals, ambitions, and even one’s emotions, such as love and hardship. However, dreams can also give rise to uneasy and terrible emotions; these dreams are essentially known as nightmares. In today’s society, the concept of dreaming and dreams, in general, has been featured in a variety of different mediums, such as literature, film and even music. While the mediums of film and music are both prime examples of this concept, the medium of literature, on the other hand, contains a much more diverse set of examples pertaining to dreams and dreaming. One key example is William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. While the portrayal of dreams, in general, plays a prominent role in Shakespeare’s play, the exploration of many aspects of nature, allows readers to believe that dreams are merely connected to somewhat unconventional occurrences.
The concept of contrast plays an important role throughout Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Shakespeare provides many examples of contrast signifying it as a motif. He groups the ideas of contrast together into those of some of the most important roles in the play. Helena is portrayed as tall and Hermia is short. Titania is a beautiful fairy who falls in love with Bottom, who is portrayed as graceless. Moreover, the main sets of characters even have differences. Fairies are graceful and magical creatures, yet tradesmen are clumsy and mortal. Additionally, the tradesmen are always overjoyed while the lovers are always serious with their emotions. Contrast layers throughout the whole play, as examples are shown in nearly every scene. Contrast becomes a constant, important motif to Shakespeare’s playwrite.
The tension that Shakespeare created between appearance versus reality was a reflection of the prejudiced assumptions individuals have on one another. The foundations Shakespeare built of characters and settings deciphered, that circumstances are not always a they seem. In fact everyone is being deceived, emphasising how quickly one can form a judgment based on appearance. Coming to the conclusion that in fact,
The wedding of Theseus and Hippolyta 2. The love affairs between Hermia, Lysander, Demetrius and Helena 3. The workmen’s play, its planning, rehearsal and performance 4. The quarrel between Oberon and Titania A Midsummer Nights Dream itself is an illusion, and to enjoy it you must temporarily suspend reality. Love is an important theme in the play, whether it is true love or induced by magic; it inhibits people’s ability to distinguish what is real or simply an illusion.