English a Midsummer Night's Dream Term Paper

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Farce

Midsummer Night's Dream is the quintessential romantic parody. Involving the use of magic potions and mythical creatures, Shakespeare portrays love as a potentially ridiculous pursuit and one totally devoid of reason. When Bottom states to Titania in Act 3, Scene 1, "reason and love keep little company together nowadays," he sums up one of the main themes of the play. Reason and love usually do not coexist, for emotions take on a life of their own. In A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare exaggerates this common knowledge with genuine comedy and delightful farce. Throughout the play, three types of beings exemplify the irrationality of love. The noble morals, like Hermia and Lysander; the commoners, like Bottom and Quince; and the mythical creatures, the fairies, all typify this theme. From the very first scene, the audience witnesses the absurdity of romantic pursuits.

Hermia, Helena, Demetrius, and Lysander, along with Theseus, Hippolyta, and Egeus, comprise the Athenian nobility represented in A Midsummer Night's Dream. The play opens with a scene between Theseus and Hippolyta, who are due to be married. However, their plans are thwarted by the woes of another couple, or rather, couples. Hermia, the daughter of Egeus, is in love with Lysander, but she has already been bequeathed to Demetrius. To complicate matters, Hermia's childhood friend Helena fawns over Demetrius in what is already a wacky love quadrangle. Helena provides some of the play's most obvious lines that prove the irrationality of love: she is in love with Demetrius and "devoutly dotes, dotes in idolatry, / upon this spotted and inconstant man," (Act 1, Scene 1, lines 109-110). Demetrius, the object of her affection, is already portrayed as fickle. He is not attracted to Helena but she nevertheless continues to woo him. Her actions are devoid of rational thought. Likewise, the very fact that Hermia is pledged to marry a man she cares nothing about also supports this theme.

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Marriage should be based on love, but the royals declare that Hermia must either die or become a nun if she refuses to wed Demetrius. Lysander counsels Hermia, telling her "the course of true love never did run smooth," (Act 1, Scene 1, line 134). Clearly, love transcends the bounds of human plans and human rationality. Act 1, Scene 1 is filled with similar references to the irrationality of love: Hermia says of Demetrius, "The more I hate, the more he follows me," and Helena responds, "The more I love, the more he hateth me," (Act 1, Scene 1, lines 198-9). When the aristocratic couples are in the woods and beset by Puck's spell, the flimsy nature of human romance is made salient. A mere drop of juice from a flower can change the minds of the lovers, leading Puck to proclaim in his famous line, "Lord, what fools these mortals be!" (Act 3, Scene 2, line 115). Love, to the fairy, is the root of folly.

While the noble mortals display love's foolishness with their own romantic antics, Quince, Snug, Bottom, Flute, Snout, and Starveling mock romance with a play. Providing comic relief to A Midsummer Night's Dream, these lowly mortals (except for Bottom) never experience love directly but only through "Pyramus and Thisbe." Supposedly a tragedy, their play-within-a-play ends up as a farce. These characters embody humor: they comically argue over their roles in "Pyramus and Thisbe." When they decide that a man must play a wall in the play, Shakespeare emphasizes the symbol of the obstacle. The wall, played by Snout, is a graphic representation of all that comes in the way of true love's manifestation. But whereas "Pyramus and Thisbe" is a tragedy, Quince and his troupe of characters enact a romantic comedy. That Bottom is so eager to play all the roles further mocks.....

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