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A midsummer nights dream as shakespearean comedy
Elements of Shakespearean comedy in a midsummer nights dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream as a comedy
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Michael Hoffman does an incredible job at capturing the feel and emotions of the Shakespearian comedy “Midsummer Night’s Dream”. With a contemporary and fresh look, Hoffman gives the 16th century play a modern flavor while staying true to the original script. This Shakespearian comedy has undergone numerous transformations, being variously re-invented as a musical, a ballet, and in more than a dozen films; and every time it has been subjected to various interpretations. Michael Hoffman also had his own interpretation and adaptation of different characters and settings. One thing that might intrigue the viewer is Hoffman’s adaptation of fairies and the fairy world. In the original play the fairies are portrayed as mischievous and mystical creatures that are invisible to the human eye. Their fondness for dancing, their love of cleanliness, and their child-abstracting propensities is what makes them so fascinating. They also have a strange liking for the real world objects; which they occasionally steal. They form a community, ruled over by the fairy king Oberon and his queen Titania. The fairy realm is hidden from the humans, within the mystical forest. It is an enchanted place where the man-made rules are suspended and where fairy magic is supreme. In the movie Hoffman does a great job in capturing all of these characteristics of the fairy world. Just like the play, Hoffman portrays the fairy world as a gorgeous and lush natural world, which is ruled by the fairy king Oberon and his queen Titania. Some might say Hoffman “sees the fairy world simply as a kingdom in exile, driven into the woods by the triumph of Christianity” (Alleva), but not as a languorous world which Shakespeare had originally portrayed. In the movie, the fairies are portrayed as mischievous creatures who like to interfere in the human world, which is similar to the portrayal in the play. In the first scene of the movie, fairies are shown stealing random objects from the real world to take along to the fairy world as trophies and souvenirs. In a later scene, a group of fairies are shown dancing, singing and getting intoxicated in the enchanted forest. The fairy king, Oberon and the fairy queen, Titania are depicted as godly creatures, which are all seeing and all knowing. They saw their self as the parents of the humans and felt that it was their responsibility and duty to take care of them.
The fairy tale creatures are seen in the movie when, they are up for sale, when they are in Shrek’s swamp and all together again at the end of the story. “Various references to figures from both fairy tale and children’s nursery rhyme—pigs, wolves, Snow White, Robin Hood, the Gingerbread Man, and the Three Blind Mice. (Tiffin ln 23-25). These are the characters that many would go ahead and pick up on. There are also scenes throughout the movie, however, that are mixed in and used as if they are supposed to be in there. One scene that stuck out after watching the movie closely, is the scene with Robin Hood and Princess Fiona. Princess Fiona fights off Robin Hood and all the men so they do not capture her. Another well-incorporated scene that is from Snow White is when Lord Farquaad is asking the talking mirror who he should marry. Tiffin briefly mentions the magic mirror, and how it is in Snow White, but does not talk about it as closely as she does the other stories. The mirror he is asking and talks to is the talking mirror forms, Snow White. When Lord Farquaad gets the talking mirror, he even starts out by asking it “mirror, mirror on the wall, is this not a perfect kingdom of them all”. In Snow White, the Evil Queen would ask, “mirror, mirror of them all, who is the fairest of them all?” so in Shrek it mimics what is happening in Snow White, having Lord
There are several events in the play which at one point or the other take a tragic turn which constantly undercut back into the play by speeches. What is set out in the play is a festive mood where people were engaged in activities of ‘Maying’ where people get together to sing and dance in the woods, activities that led to the maids’ belief that the pursuit if true love can be scored only through divination dreams (Barber 18). The fairy’s existence is conceptualized from the act of fusing pageantry together with popular games in a menacing way bring out their actual image of a relaxed
Fairies, mortals, magic, love, and hate all intertwine to make A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare a very enchanting tale, that takes the reader on a truly dream-like adventure. The action takes place in Athens, Greece in ancient times, but has the atmosphere of a land of fantasy and illusion which could be anywhere. The mischievousness and the emotions exhibited by characters in the play, along with their attempts to double-cross destiny, not only make the tale entertaining, but also help solidify one of the play’s major themes; that true love and it’s cleverly disguised counterparts can drive beings to do seemingly irrational things.
The fairy world then comes into contact with the world of the young lovers. Mischievous Puck causes further complications when he uses magic to anoint a young Athenian male’s eyes, who is in fact the wrong Athenian that Oberon assigned Puck. Puck misuses magic when he plays a silly prank on Bottom who is one of the Mechanicals, by giving Bottom a head of an ass. Strangely Titania falls in love with the creature that Puck has created. This results in Oberon becoming extreamly fu...
Nature is obviously a very big part in the play too because of the continual reference and almost constant presence of the fairy King Oberon and his Queen Titania.
Hermia , Lysander , Helena and Demetrius represent young love in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream . They are potrayed as foolish and fickle , acting like children and requiring a parental figure to guide them . The parental figures are Hermia’s father , Egeus , and figuratively Theseus , the mortal ruler , and Oberon , the mystical ruler.
A main portion of Shakespeare’s play takes place in a magical Forrest. Although is seems a bit far fetched, true magic arises from it's deepest parts. The Fairy King, Oberon, alters love, the strongest kind of magic. With his mischievous doings, Lys...
In the fairy world of film A, there are mainly dark colours, while the fairy's clothes were bright, or, the fairies were represented as pinpricks of light. It makes it seem almost exotic. The clothing ... ... middle of paper ... ... speech comes to an end, you can see hatred in Oberons eyes.
Shakespeare wrote his acclaimed comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream more than a thousand years after Apuleius’ Roman novel, The Golden Ass. Although separated by thousands of years and different in terms of plot and setting, these works share the common theme of a confused and vulnerable man finding direction by relying on a supernatural female. One of A Midsummer Night’s Dream’s many subplots is the story of Bottom, a comical figure determined to be taken seriously in his production of a Pyramus and Thisbe. As Bottom becomes caught up in a quarrel between the king and queen of the fairies, the commanders of the enchanted forest where Bottom and his players practice, the “shrewd and knavish sprite” Puck transforms his head into an ass’ s and leads him to be enthralled in a one night stand with the queen, Titania. (2.1.33) Apuleius’s protagonist Lucius endures a similar transformation, after his mistress’s slave girl accidentally bewitches him into a donkey, leaving him even without the ability to speak. Although Lucius’ transformation lasts longer and is more severe, he and Bottom both undergo similar experiences resulting from their animal forms. Lucius’ suffering ultimately leads him to salvation through devotion the cult of Isis, and Bottom’s affair with Titania grants him clarity and a glimpse into similar divine beauty. Ultimately, both asinine characters are saved through their surrender to the goddesses.
Throughout A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare, there are multiple analyses that one can follow in order to reach a conclusion about the overall meaning of the play. These conclusions are reached through analyzing the play’s setting, characterization, and tone. However, when one watches the production A Midsummer Night’s Dream directed by Michael Hoffman, a completely different approach is taken on these aspects, leading to a vastly different analysis of the work. Though there are many similarities between the original written play A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare and the on-screen production of the aforementioned play which was directed by Michael Hoffman, there are differences in setting and
A very old Shakespeare’s play “A Midsummers Night Dream” believed to be written in 1590 and 1596 was a classical idea of fantasy. It portrays the journey of four young lovers and their interactions with fairies. They story takes place in a mythical city called Athens with an enchanted forest, where a fairy king misguides the star-crossed lovers and plays tricks on his fairy queen by transforming a poor actor into a half-donkey. This work focuses on human interactions with falling in love.
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.
The fairy world shows us a lighter side of reality that today we do not see as often as we should. The fairy world is one of carefree enjoyment and fun times, unlike the human world which is wrought with death and destruction. The human world is one of horrible tragic events that occur all the time while in the fairy world one is known only to have a good time. The fairies are responsible for the comedic aspect of this play and without them it could not have been comedic. The fairies represent a realm of carefree and amazingly enjoyable freedom that the members of the human world want to have but cannot because of the structure and laws.
There are many fairy tales that have been discussed in this class. The most interesting stories to me are Snow White by Brother Grimm and Ever After: A Cinderella Story directed by Andy Tennant based on Cinderella by Charles Perrault. There are many different versions of Snow White and Cinderella from numerous cultures. In every version, both stories are known as children bedtime stories. In addition, the purpose of both stories is to give a life lesson to the children about overcoming evil to attain happiness. At first, every fairy tale has to deal with evil that threatens the protagonist, but in the end, good must always win. In the same way, both of the fairy tales have a similar scenario of a character
The forest in Midsummer Night's Dream represents imagination. Puck, a fairy servant and friend of Oberon, watches six Athenian men practice a play to be performed for Theseus' wedding in the forest. Puck turns Nick Bottom's head into that of an ass. The other players see Bottom and run away screaming. He follows them saying, "Sometime a horse I'll be, sometime a hound, a hog, a headless bear, sometime a fire, and neigh, and bark, and grunt, and roar, and burn, like horse, hound, hog, bear, fire, at every turn" (3.1.110-113). Puck chases the players, making them think a wild animal is chasing them. In our daily lives, people on often think in a logical and down to earth manner, but the mind wanders when a person is emotional, especially when feeling fear. Fear can cause a person mind to become unhinged. When the mind wanders, the imagination kicks in. One thing can become another--a harmless bush can become a crouching lion. Nearing the end of the play, Theseus and Hippolyta discuss how unrealistic the four lovers experience is. Theseus states, "I never may believe these antique fables, nor these fairy toys. The lunatic, the lover, and the poet are of imagination all compact" (5.1.2-3 and 5.1.7-8). Theseus does not believe in fairy tales, that what the four lovers said is not true. In his view, the lunatic, the lover, and the poet have wild imaginations. A lover's emotions can be out of control. When a person is emotional,...