final_midsummer_night.docxKim 1
Kim 7
Midsummer Night’s Dream
Doori Kim
May. 13. 2015
Essay 7
10:00 am
A Midsummer Night's Dream focuses on the theme of love and the complication that come along with facing love. This play has demonstrated the degree of learning as well as the power of imagination of the writer where he provides wonderful creations. In the play, Theseus is preparing for his marriage with Hippolyta and assigns the Master Revels to find a proper amusement for the ceremony. In this literary work, there are quite a number of themes that represents love and sacrifice. There is the essence of love’s difficulty depicting the troubles of romance (Milward, 2001). Also, there are aspects of dream like magical moments in the play which have brought out a lot of bizarre and funny. However, when the play is studied deeply, the play has been built upon groups of contradictory and doubles. Combined with the exceptional characters, themes and the main message in the play, the play presents quite critical significance to the society (Bloom & Marson, 2008).
In each play, there are people or characters that are assigned to specific roles that fit them. Each person is required to play a particular part in the play so that the message is sent to the audience and understood clearly. Characters give life to the play by making sure that they are committed to their duties and responsibilities (Harold 199). Whether the play is interesting or not, much of it depends on the characters and how they perform. The writer uses different characters by giving them different roles to play so as to simply the concept of his audience. The characters play a very important role in the play for the purpose of passing the message to the audience so that there is clear understanding.
The first crucial character basically is Puck who is a naughty fairy that played several pranks on human. Basically, Puck is the closest thing that the play has towards a protagonist and his character in the play has pervaded the atmosphere and he has actually been responsible to lots of complications in main plots. In JCCC’s production of Midsummer Night’s Dream, Erin Dublin, Rachel Nielsen, and Austin Skibbie played role of Puck. Hermia, whom Sarah Dickson played, is another character who is Egeus’s daughter who falls in love with Lysander and is a childhood friend to Helena. Helena on the other hand is a young lady of Athens and is in love with Demetrius (Halio, 2003). Within the group of four the Athenian lovers, she is the only one who is mindful of the nature of love. Upon entering the forest, most of her traits have been drawn out with a confusion that the love potion produces. Helena was played by Lianna Klinger.
Theseus is basically a heroic duke of Athens and happens to be engaged to Hippolyta. In his character, he has represented a sense of power as well as order throughout the entire play. Jesse Tobar played Theseus and Jordan Barksdale played Hippolyta. Hippolyta is a legendary queen of Amazons who is engaged to Theseus and as well symbolizes order. Nick Bottom is another character whereby, with Puck’s humor being mischievous as well as subtle, Nick is hilariously overt. He dominates his fellow actors with the extraordinary belief towards his own abilities as well as his comical incompetence. Jordan Malone played Nick at the JCCC’s production.
The plot shows the cause and effect type of occurrences in the play. It provides the connection between various cases in the play for the story to flow smoothly. The plot enables the audience to connect the events in the play, which forms the storyline to understand the play better. The plot is very important as it focuses on the significance of characters. In the play mainly, there are four plots: the first plot basically is the royal wedding of Theseus and Hippolyta. The two are planning for their wedding and are working towards ensuring that it is a success. It is during this preparation that Egeus is arriving with his daughter Hermia, together with Lysander and Demetrius. The second plot basically involves the story of Anthenian lovers which include Lysander, Hermia, Hlena and Demetrius. At the initial situation, the play demonstrates that Hermia is in love with Lysander and Lysander is in love with Hermia. Further, Demetrius is also in love with Hermia but Helena is in love with Demetrius and there is no one who loves Helena. At the play it is further established how Egeus is willing to have his daughter killed when she does not follow his set plan of her marrying Demetrius. Hermia and Lysander have decided on running away with a plan to meet in the forest (Bloom & Marson, 2008).
Helena speaks about the plans who later tells Demetrius with the thought that he might like her more after telling him. However, Demetrius chases the couple and Helena Chases after him too. The next plot basically is on the conflict between fairies which include Oberon and Titania. The two are arguing on who should have the challenging boy that Titania has stolen. Their fight as such has quite critical consequences on the whole natural world. As these two proclaim that the natural world is mixed up, the other four lovers have gone wandering into the same natural world (Kelso & Shakespeare, 2008). The final plot is basically on the efforts of Rude Merchants which include Quince, Bottom and company to put on a play that is worthy of royal wedding. Bottom gets united with his friends whereby they rehearse their play that had been selected to be among those that were made available to be an entertainment at the wedding.
The music played in this play is an overture and an incidental music composed by Felix Mendelson. This 30 minutes long overture is full of memorable touches and as scenes, the audience are able to know that one is entering a different world. (Min 2015) The fairy world is quickly portrayed in quick notes. The scenes are presented in a dramatic order as all have a dramatic purpose. This music was presented as a classical music that clearly brings the themes and mood of the play. The staging is quite exemplary and was arranged by Paul Joseph Barnett. There is Scenic and Costume Design and proper lighting design which have brought clarity on all movements in the stage.
Evidentially in the Merchant of Venice, the writing is highly influenced by the society surrounding Shakespeare. However, in the Midsummer Night’s Dream it is a much less realistic and some audience might falsely believe that these two play has a different writer. These two plays are all comedies with romantic love and a happy ending. In the Merchant of Venice there are numerous examples on how the works had been a product of the society. These are aspects such as religion and the way life was for the women. For instance, Queen Elizabeth never got married so that she could maintain her power (Milward, 2001). This is because a woman could rule a country on her own, nevertheless when she got married all the power would go directly into the hands of their husband. On the other hand, the Midsummer Night’s Dream is a dreamy as well as a fairy tale. Unlike in the Merchant of Venice, once is not able to establish lots of connections with it and the Elizabethan society. Further, through the entire play, the writer keeps on reminding the reader that all activities taking playing are not quite real. There are a lot of magic and supernatural powers evident in Midsummer Night’s Dream which is on contrary to the Merchant of Venice.
References
Bloom, H., & Marson, J. (2008). A midsummer night's dream. New York, NY: Bloom's Literary Criticism.
Halio, J. L. (2003). A midsummer night's dream. Manchester University Press. Web
Harold, Bloom. Invntion of the Human. London: Routledge publishers, 2008.
Kelso, B. P., & Shakespeare, W. (2008). A midsummer night's dream: The melodramatic version!. S.l.: Playing with Pub.
Midsummer Night’s Dream. By Beate Pettigrew. Johnson County Community College, Kansas.
26 Apr. 2015. Performance.
Milward, P. (2001). Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human, by Harold Bloom. The Chesterton Review, 27(1/2), 157-163.
Min, Jinah. Personal Interview. 04. May. 2015
The Merchant of Venice. By Sidonie Garrett. Johnson County Community College, Kansas.
29 Mar. 2015. Performance.
