The Metamorphosis and MSND manifest similar elements that are made evident throughout. Ovid was venerated by Shakespeare in his works. During the development of MSND, Shakespeare utilized Ovid’s Metamorphosis. Through his work in MSND, influence taken from Ovid’s Metamorphosis is illustrated through the plot and characters. The four lovers in MSND closely resemble Apollo and Daphne with their personas and objectives. MSND’s plot resembles that of Ovid’s through the play’s use of allusion.
Love is explored through its capriciousness and changeability by means of the plot driven by a character in the course of both works. Puck, in MSND, exposes the unpredictability of love. Oberon instructed him to use the love potion on Demetrius. By mishap, he puts the potion on Lysander. When woken up, he found himself drowning in love for Helena, “Content with Hermia? No, I do repent/ The tedious minutes I with her have spent. / Not Hermia, by Helena I love. / Who will not change a raven for a dove?” (II. ii. 118-21). This is seen similar in The Metamorphosis. Cupid, aggravated by Apollo’s mockery, shot two arrows, to love and to embitter. Hitting Apollo with the love arrow, he desires Daphne, who is hit with the embittered arrow, “Thus the god and the nymph sped on, one made swift by hope and one by fear; but he…was assisted by love’s wings” (Ovid 2). Derived by one character, the capriciousness of love can make one act foolish and irrational. Emotions play into the fickle nature of love in both works, whether one is under the influence of a spell or not.
The four lovers share several traits of those that Apollo and Daphne have. Role reversal is one undertaken by characters. Upon seeing Daphne, Apollo exclaims, “I implore you…do not run aw...
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...nsformation is demonstrated through mental, emotional, structural, and physical. Since MSND relates itself to marriage, emotional transformation is seen the greatest.
Shakespeare, through both his characters and plot, regards to Ovid’s Metamorphosis. He uses Apollo and Daphne’s characteristics and actions to emulate the four lovers: Hermia, Helena, Demetrius, and Lysander. Sharing their qualities helped Shakespeare’s audience to develop a further understanding of the play. Using the characters helps to develop his overall motif showing the capriciousness and fickle nature of love while utilizing the plot and characters.
Works Cited
Shakespeare, William. "A Midsummer Night's Dream" Ed. Barbara A. Mowat and Paul
Werstine. New York City: Everbind, 1993. Print.
Ovid. “Daphne and Apollo.” The Metamorphosis, C. 1 AD. Art Humanities Primary Source
Reading 27. Print.
Love, lust and infatuation all beguile the senses of the characters in this dreamy and whimsical work of Shakespeare, and leads them to act in outlandish ways, which throughly amuses the reader. True love does prevail in the end for Hermia and Lysander, and the initial charm of infatuation ends up proving to have happy consequence for Helena and Demetrius as well. Even when at first the reader thinks that, in theory, the effects the potion will wear off and Lysander will once again reject Helena, Oberon places a blessings on all the couples that they should live happily ever after.
Othello and Desdemona are so attractive that we tend to see them only as they see each other: the noble Moor, the pure white maiden. But Shakespeare shows their love, even here at the very beginning, as dreamy, utterly defensele...
Love is a powerful emotion, capable of turning reasonable people into fools. Out of love, ridiculous emotions arise, like jealousy and desperation. Love can shield us from the truth, narrowing a perspective to solely what the lover wants to see. Though beautiful and inspiring when requited, a love unreturned can be devastating and maddening. In his play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, William Shakespeare comically explores the flaws and suffering of lovers. Four young Athenians: Demetrius, Lysander, Hermia, and Helena, are confronted by love’s challenge, one that becomes increasingly difficult with the interference of the fairy world. Through specific word choice and word order, a struggle between lovers is revealed throughout the play. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare uses descriptive diction to emphasize the impact love has on reality and one’s own rationality, and how society’s desperate pursuit to find love can turn even strong individuals into fools.
Love is often misconstrued as an overwhelming force that characters have very little control over, but only because it is often mistaken for the sum of infatuation and greed. Love and greed tread a blurred line, with grey areas such as lust. In simplest terms, love is selfless and greed is selfish. From the agglomeration of mythological tales, people deduce that love overpowers characters, even that it drives them mad. However, they would be wrong as they would not have analyzed the instances in depth to discern whether or not the said instance revolves around true love. Alone, true love help characters to act with sound reasoning and logic, as shown by the tales of Zeus with his lovers Io and Europa in Edith Hamilton’s Mythology.
Christopher McCandless and Adam Shepard both did some similar targets in their lives, at the end it lead them to unexpected situations. Christopher McCandless was a young man who didn't believe in society and he chose to get away from that and left everything he had, including his family. He developed important relationships with key people that helped him on his journey into the wild. Similarly Adam Shepard was a young man who left with only $25 and a sleeping bag to go prove his point that the american dream does exist and to see if he can achieve it in a couple of months. Overall comparing McCandless and Shepard, Christopher McCandless had a greater impact in people, motivated many, and was selfish in plenty of good ways.
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.
In the Shakespear’s play “Othello” it is clear to see that the relationship between him and Desdemona is a complicated one wrought with passion and confusion which leads to emotional trauma and physical abuse. At point and times in the story of “Othello” love was transmuted different. Othello was not as gentle and kind as Desdemona when it came to his lover he a times exhibited symptoms of insanity. He also at times exhibited lack of confidence that is found in the perceived unity of marriage. This was apparent that the two lover on loves battlefield were on two opposing sides, Desdemona was honest and faithful to Othello until their tragic end.
Some people think that if they could only change one aspect of their lives, it would be perfect. They do not realize that anything that is changed could come with unintended consequences. “The Monkey’s Paw” by W.W. Jacobs and “The Third Wish” by Joan Aiken both illustrate this theme. They demonstrate this by granting the main character three wishes, but with each wish that is granted, brings undesirable consequences. The main idea of this essay is to compare and contrast “The Monkey’s Paw” and “The Third Wish.” Although the “The Monkey’s Paw” and “The Third Wish” are both fantasies and have similar themes, they have different main characters, wishes, and resolutions.
Adapted from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Tales from Ovid contains 24 translated stories of transformation. Right away it is clear to see that transformation and change will be a key theme throughout, as the first passage opens with the declaration “Now I am ready to tell how bodies are change into different bodies.” There is also the story of Arachne, or more importantly, the description of the tapestries they both she and Minerva create in their competition. Minerva’s tapestry especially highlights this as it is detailed as containing within it many examples of transformation occurring, showing the scope and importance of metamorphosis throughout the text, but which also serves as foreshadowing for the subsequent events that follow. The connection between transformation and punishment will be explored, but beyond that, a deeper look at ways in which these themes differ and the different paths that they branch down to create a more complex relationship.
For Example, Oberon states, “Having once this juice I’ll watch Titania when she is asleep and drop the liquor of it in her eyes. The next thing then she, waking, looks upon...she shall pursue it with the soul of love and ere I take this charm from off her sight… I’ll make her ender up her page to me.” (II, i, 77-87) analysis and restatement! I know that love in the book, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and in the real world (in general) is hard. We argue, fight and hate but in the end we learn to forgive and love. For example, Oberon states, “sound music. Come, my queen, take hands with me, and rock the ground whereon these sleepers be…(Titania says) “come, my lord, and in our flight tell me how it came this night that I sleeping here was found with these mortals on the ground.” (IV, i, 83-99) analysis and
When meeting Daphne, as expected, Apollo is consumed and in the midst of love enchanted by Cupid’s arrow. Before undergoing this transformation, Apollo would not have the obsession that he has now for Daphne. Quite frankly, Apollo would probably not have even cared about her because he did not know her prior to them both being shot by Cupid’s mischievous arrows. Ovid utilizes Apollo’s intense desire to love Daphne as the chase of romance. He compares this love to that of the flame in a brush because the transformation Apollo goes through is unexpectedly quick.
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
Many of the greatest poems, ballads, songs, stories, and epics share a common theme, love. In Ovid’s Metamorphoses, that theme is found many times, but underlying that theme is the theme of unrequited love. For Ovid, anyone can be affected by it and in some cases, the other person does come to love the other in return, but the most common ending to the story is that it remains only the one in love while the other remains out. Ovid gives his readers several examples of unrequited love.
Most modern fairytales are expected to have happy endings and be appropriate for children, nonetheless, in past centuries most were gruesome. Consequently, fairytales have been modified throughout time. The stories “Beauty and the Beast” by Jeanne-Marie LePrince de Beaumont and “The Summer and Winter Garden” by Jacob and Wilherm Grimm share similarities and differences. The two stories are distinct because of the peculiar year they have been written in. LePrince de Beaumont’s story is written in London of 1783 and Grimm’s in Germany of 1812. At the time, wealthy people in London, were educated and had nannies who would read to their children; whereas, in Germany, the Grimm brothers created their own interpretation into a short story. Because many high class parents in 18th century London would not be able to spend time with their children, nannies would read “Beauty and the Beast” to them since they were intended for children and considered appropriate. In “The Summer and Winter Garden,” the Grimm’s’ story was mostly based to entertain misbehaved children and teach them the valuable lesson that everyone should be treated with kindness. The Grimm brothers’ goal in rewriting this short story is to better children’s behavior which worked quite well. Since these stories have been re-written for children, it would be safe to say the reason why parents expose the two stories to their children is because they both portray the same moral: good things happen to good people. The two interpretations of “Beauty and the Beast,” although written in separate countries, share important similarities and differences even though the authors have different interpretations and came from different cultures.
...ses may be read and interpreted separately, taken together rather than apart, the stories can be more effectively linked. The use of repetition throughout the work and constant symbolism in each tale help connect the stories. The entire work is in poetic form, and the literary techniques used are consistent with the time period. Common symbols are used throughout. A common motif is the stretching out of arms preceding metamorphosis. Also, the imagery of hunting coincides with that of sexual passion. Daphne is a huntress and is associated strongly with the forest and nature. It is fitting then that she is the character pursued by Apollo. The vocabulary of hunger and thirst, or devouring and drinking are associated with acts of violence. The constant repetition and the imagery in Metamorphoses are key to interpreting what Ovid is trying to convey to the reader. The power of change is the central issue in each story and in all the stories combined. Change as a vehicle of escape, punishment, or any means to an end is apparent in virtually every story in the book.