The conventions of a romantic comedy on a midsummer night's dream by william shakespeare - Essay Example

Romantic Comedy: One of the major conventions of a Romantic Comedy by William Shakespeare titled the Midsummer night’s dream is love (Quinton and William, 1). The entire comedy by William Shakespeare speaks about love, and this is depicted in the relationship between Theseus who is the duke of Athens and Hippolyta. In depicting the kind of love that Theseus had towards Hippolyta, Theseus arranges a marriage between the two of them, and he orders Philostrate to arrange for a party to celebrate the occasion. Another instance of love is depicted between the love of Hermia and Lysander. Because of this love, Hermia refuses to get married to Demetrius, despite pressure from the father. In fact, Hermia plans to elope with Lysander to secretly get married to Lysander. Another instance of love is between Helena and Demetrius who were once engaged. In a bid to win the love of Demetrius, Helena tells him of the action that Lysander and Hermia intend to undertake (Quinton and William, 4).
Another major convention depicted in this romantic comedy is the need of the lovers to overcome obstacles. The love between Hermia and Lysander is faced with an obstacle. The main obstacle in this love is the father of Hermia who favors Demetrius as opposed to Lysander. The penalty for defying a father is death, or condemnation as unmarried woman to a convent. Another instance is when Hermia challenges Helena to a fight, because of jealousy. This is with the belief that Helena was trying to take the love of Lysander away from her. This is after Puck put the love portion on the eyes of Lysander, making him fall in love to Helena. Another instance where love had to overcome an obstacle is the love between King Oberon, and the young Indian boy (Quinton and William, 9). It was the desire of King Oberon to transform the boy into a knight, a situation that his queen, Titania refused. The forced the king to make Queen Titania fall in love with Bottom, a ridiculous creature. Eventually King Oberon through this action managed to have the boy, and transform him into a knight.
Another romantic convention contained in this comedy is that it contains miraculous or supernatural creatures. The creatures in this short story are fairies who on most occasions are involved in blessing sleeping couples. The king of these fairies is King Oberon, and his Queen Tatania. There is also Puck, the fairy servant of King Oberon, and Bottom, a miraculous creature whose head was transformed by Puck to look like that of an ass. Furthermore, happy endings are always brought about by supernatural beings, as in this romantic comedy by Shakespeare (Quinton and William, 13). In this story, due to the love portion that Puck placed on Demetrius, he was able to love Helena. On this basis, Demetrius stopped mistreating Helena because of the love he had for her. This was an happy ending to the story, because Lysander could now marry Hermia, the woman he loved.
This story is also philosophical in nature. This is a very important convention of a Romantic comedy. For instance, the narrator effectively uses the power of dreams, illusions and reality in developing the theme of love. The use of love portions on couples who are sleeping is an example of an illusion (Quinton and William, 9). This is mainly because upon waking up, the victims begin falling in love with the first person they encounter. This is an illusion created by the love portion. Furthermore, at the end of the play, Puck asks the audience to remember the play as a dream, and not a reality.
In conclusion, this romantic comedy satisfies the four conventions of a Romantic comedy, namely love, use of fairy creature, use of philosophy, and overcoming of obstacles. Love is depicted through the couples Lysander and Hermia, Helena and Demetrius, Oberon and the Indian boy, and Theseus and Hippolyta. Furthermore, Fairy creatures are also depicted, and they include King Oberon, his wife Titania, and Puck, the servant of Oberon. To win love, Hermia, Helena and Oberon have overcome numerous obstacles which are depicted in this paper. The use of dreams and illusions are the philosophical approach that Shakespeare used in this play.
Works Cited:
Quinton, Everett, and William Shakespeare. William Shakespeares A midsummer nights dream.
New York: Samuel French, 1995. Print. Read More