A Midsummer Nights Dream by Shakespeare - Assignment Example

Shakespearean Drama: “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” Topic 2 “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is a romantic comedy where Shakespeare was at his best to captivate all the true essence of Elizabethan Romantic comedy into the plot of the play. Explicit use of magical device in the progression of the plot was not only operated to make the play completely comical and romantic but, the use of the magical device in the romantic comedy, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” has a definite purpose as well. Use of magical device in Shakespeare’s romantic comedy “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” have myriad of purposes. Firstly, it helps to create a magical or mystical atmosphere of the play and attain a happy conclusion. The element of magic in the play helps to build a conflict in the play as well. But most importantly, the use of this device by the playwright gives a pertinent indication to Shakespeare’s immense skill to percolate through the minds and psyche of human nature and culminate an engaging study of human behaviour, expressed through his poetic plots of the plays. Magic evolves number of hilarious and bizarre situations in the play and embodies the capacity to explore the supernatural power of love and surreal world into which it throbs. Love potion in the play is symbolic which shows the supernatural power of love exercised beyond the capacity of human comprehension. Magic causes chaos but paves the way for happy conclusion. Puck applies the love potion by mistake over the eyelids of Lysander and this creates a total mess in the play. This action ultimately settles the differences among the four couple of Athenian youths. Puck also uses the magic on himself with elegance and poise when he gives a new shape to the Bottom’s head and re-craft it to that of an ass. Puck also creates the voices of Demetrius and Lysander stands as a contrasting phenomenon to the grace and hardship with which the playwright attempt to craft out his creativity on stage. Yet, Shakespeare takes the refuge of the magical device to portray the difficulty and asymmetric nature of love. He also tries to perceive the complex attitude of human beings and its ever transitory tendency. The following lines from Puck are decked up with wisdom and indicates the ever fleeting and transitory quality of human behaviour, “Captain of our fairy band, Helena is here at hand; And the youth, mistook by me, Pleading for a lover’s fee. Shall we their fond pageant see? Lord, what fools these mortals be. (Shakespeare, “A Midsummer-Night’s Dream”, Act III, scene II, Pg 49). Topic 3 Shakespeare was at his naughtiest mood while crafting out the gem of comedy particularly in “A Midsummer-Night’s Dream”. The playful mood of the playwright is expressed with ease and bounty of comical relief in the play expressed time to time through characters, situations and dialogues. There are many hilarious moments crafted out from the real dramatic generosity of the playwright. But one of the most comic moments which pertinently express the witty, humorous and mischievous mood of the playwright is the creation of the character Nick Bottom. This character serves as a comic relief throughout the play and is most hilarious when his head gets transformed into a head of an ass by the magical spell of fairy Puck within the play. But the real mischievous and fun-loving intention exercised by the playwright on the characters of his play is manifested by Puck, the fairy king and a naughty sprite cast his spell on the Mechanicals rehearsing in the woods producing one of the finest comic moments of the play. When Bottom exits the stage Puck transforms his head into that of a donkey. On his return his fellow actors run away thinking that they are being haunted. Bottom, unknown to the fact of his transformation, thinks that his fellow actors are making his fool and makes one of the most serious comments with a panache of sarcasm and intended wit, Bottom, “I see their knavery: This is to make an ass of me, to fright me if they could.” (Shakespeare, “A Midsummer-Night’s Dream”, Act III, Scene I, Pg 41). Another incident in the play that displays the witty and mischievous mind of the playwright is the magic played by the king of Oberon, Puck on his queen Titania. Titania’s love making with the ass-head bottom under the spell of magic is quite disgusting but this scene generates one of the finest comical moments in the play. Driven by a rage of jealousy, Puck applies the love potion over the eyelids of his wife and while applying it, he wishes that she wakes up when some vile thing is nearby, ‘Oberon: What thou seest when thou dost wake, Do it for thy true-love take, Love and languish for his sake: Be it ounce, or cat , or bear, Pard, or boar with bristled hair, In thy eye that shall appear When thou wakest , it is thy dear: Wake when some vile thing is near (Shakespeare, “A Midsummer-Night’s Dream”, Act II, Scene, Pg 30). Titania wakes up when ass-headed Bottom was singing aloud and falls in love with him. Engrossed in love, Titania commands her fairies to serve Bottom. The dialogues and attitude of Titania generate laughter and indicate a very playful and mischievous mind of the playwright from which these scenes have been crafted, “Titania: Thou art as wise as thou art beautiful. Bottom: Not so, neither: but if I had wit enough to get out of this wood, I have enough to serve my own turn.” (Shakespeare, “A Midsummer-Night’s Dream”, Act III, Scene I, Pg 42). Topic 4 The ragtag company of the rural actors, known popularly as Mechanicals or Hempen Homespuns, comprises of a group of men who are foolish and very clumsy. These men are the craftsmen in the city of Athens and are basically serving the purpose of a Shakespearean fool in the play, which is also seen as traditional clowns in the Elizabethan theatre performed by these craftsmen in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. The rustic troupe of actors comprised of Bottom, the weaver; Snout, the tinker; Snug, the joiner; Starveling, the tailor; Flute, the bellows- mender; and Quince, the carpenter (Lapham’s Quaterly, “By the scroll”). In the play they are seen practicing a play bearing the title, “Pyramus and Thisbe” written by Peter Quince. They plan to perform it before the Duke on the eve of his wedding and get rewarded “six pence a day” which is a good amount for these six classless men. Comic incidents or passages are abundantly displayed through the Mechanicals. Like a pretty passage from Quince’s mouth describing the nature of the play generates laughter, “Quince: Marry, our play is, lamentable comedy, and most cruel death of Pyramus and Thisby” (Shakespeare, “A Midsummer-Night’s Dream”, Act I, Scene II, Pg 13). These troupes of six men are instrumental in generating laughter and yielding comic relief throughout the play. But there is enough allegorical elements hidden behind the reason for their creation. These men act as sarcasm to the learned legacy of the contemporary time and are symbolic of knavery of the high society towards aesthetic realm. The comical speeches of Bottom are all decked up with layers of interpretations. The performance of Bottom at the end of the play filled with complete foolery is actually mimicry of passage from the earlier chapter of Corinthians, “But unto them which are called, bothe of the Jewes & Grecias we preache Christ, the power of GOD, and the wisdome of God. For the foolishnes of God is wiser the men [. . .].” (1 Corinthians 1.21–25) A thorough and precise knowledge on the speech of awakening of Bottom without the head of an ass has strong religious overtone associated with it, “The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not seen, man’s hand is not able to taste, his tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report, what my dream was. I will get Peter Quince to write a ballad of this dream: it shall be called ‘Bottom’s Dream’, because it hath no bottom; and I will sing it in the latter end of a play, before the Duke. Peradventure, to make it the more gracious, I shall sing it at her death” (Shakespeare, “A Midsummer-Night’s Dream”, Act IV, Scene I, Pg 74). This speech at the initial place might seem evocative and mock-heroic full of comical element. But at deeper end of the speech, some serious thought process is associated with it, which Shakespeare has intentionally expressed through the most clumsy and foolish man of the play to hint at its seriousness. The clan of fools in the play “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” stand for some of the most serious social and religious agendas of the contemporary time. Actually Shakespeare has made a deliberate caricature of his own self through the portrait of Bottom, the foulest of the troupe and the play within the play “Pyramus and Thisbe” which these men wants to perform is the caricature of Shakespeare’s all time famous romantic tragedy, Romeo And Juliet. Topic 5 “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” contains anti-romantic element to a great extent which transports the play to a great height. Readers are well aware of the comical elements of the play but at a different level, the play is subdued with number of anti-romantic elements which the playwright perceived as the reality of the Elizabethan world beyond the virtue and the merry days captivated within the plot of the play. The fact that Duke Theseus did not produce six pence to the Bottom and his troupe is clear indication to the element of harsh, crude reality of the Elizabethan society. The plot concerned with Bottom is thoroughly anti-romantic in nature. The infidelity of fairy king and the queen echoes large throughout the plot of the play. But Elizabethan social decorum and conventions did not allow amorality and the fact is not properly attuned with spirit of romance in Elizabethan context. Readers find Hermia and Lysander discussing the extent they can lie in the woods together. This is also a very anti-romantic in nature as Elizabethan spirit of romance not only encourage to be moral but it insists on being properly controlled and balanced with the emotions as well. The role of Theseus is also very sceptical in this regard. His role was supposed to be a great supporter of the glory of marriage and the vision of marriage appeared in the Elizabethan context of romance as culminated from pure romantic love. But in the play, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” even Theseus is not displayed to follow the romantic code all the time. Oberon re-approaches for the hand of Titania even after having a full involvement in the Theseus’ deeds which were not like that of a lover. The list of girls who are abandoned does not fit into the romantic scheme of the Elizabethan period. Even the marriage with Hyppolyta recognises some fault with the contemporary cult of romance, “Hyppolyta, I woo’d thee with my sword, And won thy love doing the injuries; But I will wed thee in another key,” (Shakespeare, “A Midsummer-Night’s Dream”, Act I, Scene I, Pg 3). Thus, one can easily culminate to a point that “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is a play where the blend of romance and anti-romance is executed properly. And perhaps the walking of romantic and anti-romantic elements in the play makes it most successful romantic comedy ever, written by Shakespeare. References Lapham’s Quarterly, “By the scroll”. August 23, 2011. Voices in Time. No Date. Shakespeare, William. A Midsummer-Nights Dream. Forgotten Books, 1948. Read More