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Home Middelbare School EN Uittreksels Uittreksel William Shakespeare – A Midsummer Night's Dream

Uittreksel William Shakespeare – A Midsummer Night's Dream

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Extracts English Literature
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William Shakespeare – A Midsummer Night's Dream

Probably written about 1595 or 1596

Title:

The title refers to the episode in the book which is situated outside Athens where the fairies rule and play with the main characters during the night. Upon waking the main characters all believe they dreamed a midsummer night's dream.

Author:

William Shakespeare was born in 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon and was baptized on 26 April 1564. He was the eldest son of John Shakespeare, a glover and dealer in other commodities who played a prominent part in local affairs, becoming bailiff and justice of the peace in 1568. He was educated at the local grammar school. He married Anne Hathaway in 1582, who gave birth to a daughter Susanna in 1583 and twins Judith and Hamnet in 1585. A few years later he went to London and established himself as an actor / playwright. He became a leading member of London's leading company for the rest of his career. They occupied the Globe Theatre on the southern bank of the river Thames, where now the National Theatre is situated. While Shakespeare was in London his family stayed in Stratford and he is known to have acquired various houses, both in Stratford and in London. Shakespeare's plays were being published by being performed, as it were. After his death on 23 April 1616 his colleagues Heminges and Condell began to prepare Mr William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories and Tragedies, better known as the First Folio, which appeared in 1623. This Folio is important for it includes 16 plays which in all probability would not otherwise have survived. Amongst his earliest works (late 1580's till early 1590's) are Henry VI, parts One, Two and Three and its sequel Richard III, his first Roman tragedy Titus Andronicus and his first comedies The Taming of the Shrew ,The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The comedy of Errors and Love's Labour's Lost. Between 1594 and 1599 he reached his artistic maturity and wrote his lyrical masterpieces A Midsummer Night's Dream, Romeo and Juliet, The Merchant of Venice, As You Like It, Much Ado About Nothing, Henry V and Julius Caesar. In this period he mostly wrote comedies. In the period that follows (1600 – 1618) he wrote mostly the great tragedies and problem plays: Hamlet, Measure for Measure, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, The Tempest and Henry VIII.

The literary period:

William Shakespeare's works were written during the Renaissance, when human development was highly valued. Under Queen Elisabeth I English literature was very rich and varied.

The genre:

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Summary:

Theseus and Hippolyta set their wedding date at four days hence. Egeus, an Athenian nobleman appeals to Theseus for help with his daughter, Hermia, who refuses to marry Demetrius as she is in love with Lysander. Theseus refers to an Athenian law, which states that Hermia must either die or enter a convent if she fails to comply with her father's wishes.

Hermia and Lysander decide to elope. They tell their intention to elope to Helena, who herself is in love with Demetrius. Demetrius first loved Helena but that love was supplanted by Hermia. Helena betrays Hermia's and Lysander's secret to Demetrius.

For the royal wedding the staging of a play has been planned by a group of mechanicals led by Nick Bottom. Their choice of play is the tragic love-story of Pyramus and Thisbe. They decide to withdraw to the wood outside of Athens for rehearsals.

Hermia and Lysander decide to secretly meet in a wood a few miles outside of Athens where the Athenian law cannot pursue them and be married. Demetrius follows Hermia, and Helena Demetrius, so that all four are in the wood that same night. The wood is the dominion of Oberon, the fairy king. He and Titania, his queen, have quarrelled over a little changeling boy whom Titania has reared and whom Oberon wants for a page. Oberon tells Puck, a mischievous sprite, to fetch him the flower love-in-idleness, the juiceof which when pressed on the eyes, inflicts violent and immediate love.

When Puck is gone Oberon witnesses the rejection of Helena by Demetrius. Oberon, desirous of reconciliation between those two, orders Puck to apply some of the juice on Demetrius' eyes when Helena is near. Puck, mistaking Lysander for Demetrius, applies the juice to Lysander. When Lysander wakes he instantly falls in love with Helena, who is the first person he sees and he abandons Hermia. Helena is enraged for she thinks she is being made a jest of.

Oberon discovered Puck's mistake and now applies some juice on Demetrius' eyes who on waking falls instantly in love with Helena who has been running away from Lysander. Hermia assumes that Helena has poisoned Lysander's mind and they quarrel while the men fight.

Meanwhile Oberon has placed some juice on Titania's eyes. Puck finds the mechanicals rehearsing their play. He spirits Bottom away, transforms him with an ass' head and puts him in the way of Titania. When she wakes, she at once becomes enamoured of him. While she is thus besotted by Bottom, Oberon manages to take the changeling boy away from Titania. The task accomplished, Oberon frees her from the spell.

Weary from their fighting Lysander, Demetrius, Hermia and Helena fall into the final sleep of that night and Oberon ensures that upon waking Lysander will return to his first love, Hermia. In the morning Theseus, Hippolyta and Egeus arrive on a hunting party. The lovers assume that the night's adventures have been a dream.

The couples, now married, celebrate with the mechanical's play. When they retire, the fairies come to bless the bridal beds. At the end of the play Puck admits the whole play to have been a 'vision' and a 'dream' and the actors 'shadows'.

Time:

The amount of time used to tell the story is about four days. It starts when Theseus and Hippolyta set their wedding four days away, and ends with this wedding. The story is told chronologically.

Setting:

The play begins in Athens in the palace of Theseus and then shifts to the wood near Athens. Finally it returns to Theseus' palace, where the mechanicals stage their play.

Characters and relationships:

Hermia:

The daughter of Egeus, she is in love with Lysander, but her father wants her to marry Demetrius with who she does not love.

Helena:

A friend of Hermia, who is in love with Demetrius.

Lysander:

 

A young man in love with Hermia.

Demetrius:

A young man, once in love with Helena, but now in love with Hermia.

Theseus:

Duke of Athens, who is betrothed to Hippolyta and the one who introduced the law Hermia and Lysander are a victim of.

Hippolyta:

Conquered Queen of the Amazons and Theseus' betrothed.

Egeus:

Father to Hermia, he wants her to marry Demetrius which forces Hermia and Lysander to elope.

Oberon:

King of the fairies, he is the one who is concerned with the lives of all who enter his wood.

Titania:

Queen to Oberon, who refuses to comply with Oberon and has to face the consequences.

Puck:

Assistant to Oberon, who mischievously interferes with Oberon's plans.

Credibility:

….

Theme:

The play celebrates, not only marriage as a state, but the harmony that can be achieved through marriage, and of which marriage is a symbol. The shifts in the lovers' relationships form a pattern which resembles a dance formation. The play is structurally symmetrical. It begins in Athens where all the mortals are introduced. The play then shifts to the wood where the mortals are worked upon by the fairies. The hunting party brings the lovers and the mechanicals home to Athens for the wedding celebrations and by midnight the fairies visit the court. The play is framed by the marriage plans of Theseus and Hippolyta, it begins and ends with it. Within this frame there are three sub-plots, all overseen by Oberon: the lovers' adventures, the quarrel and reconciliation of Oberon and Titania and the efforts of the mechanicals to stage a play. In this play Shakespeare displays his skill in creating a coherent whole with multiple story lines for the first time.

Theseus and Hippolyta are excluded from the main part of the play for various reasons. Firstly they have already achieved harmony in their relationship, secondly the reason for their wedding is as much political as it is romantic. There is also a strong symbolism in the differences between Athens and the woods outside of Athens. The former is a place of reason where the Duke manipulates the practical, the latter a place of imagination where Oberon, king of fairies, rules the imagination. Therefore it also is a play about imagination. In the end, Puck confesses the imagined quality of the play performed by the mechanicals.

The play has often been thought to be associated with a courtly marriage, but it is not known which wedding it really celebrates.

Motto:

None.

Linguistic usage:

Since it is a play there is only dialogue. The language is straightforward Old English. This makes the play not always easy to read, but one can understand the global plot.

Dedication:

None.

Perspective:

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Construction:

The play has five acts. All the acts contain two scenes.

Own opinion on the play:

Your opinion!

is a play, therefore it contains only dialogue. This means that the point of view constantly switches to the character who is speaking at the time. That character will, of course, speak in the first person.
is a drama and can be classified as a comedy.

 

Sometimes things become possible if we want them bad enough.

Soms worden dingen mogelijk als we het graag genoeg willen.

T.S. Eliot