The complexity of relationships spans centuries. Whether we find difficulty in 17th century courtship, or puzzling double meanings in modern societies’ seduction, the ideals of comedic mishaps in the path to love reigns true in works of art from past to present and even in a cosmic spectrum. In William Shakespeare’s, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the author uses the themes of love, desire, and magic to make his pieces applicable across decades, original to the author, and interesting to the audience conveying a sense of curiosity towards the light-hearted romantic comedy.
The desire of the heart and the body drives the plot line into madness and accentuates the modern connections to the timeless piece. The characters run in circles of intricate…
The presence of the fairies and their unique story with Titania and Oberon creates a surreal and bizarre second world that collides with that of the non-magical. The weave of the two worlds creates “a hazy boundary between reality and illusion,” that allows the audience to follow the complex relationships with the fairies acting as their guide and main comedic relief for the plot regarding the mortals. The magical characters charm the lovers in scenes such as when Robin whispers to Hermia “I’ll apply, To your eye. Gentle lover, remedy,” when he goes to repeal her spell with the potion in her ear as she sleeps. The sneaky spells and potions intensify and exaggerate the character changes of position. Magic allows Shakespeare to complexify the traditional love triangle with unforeseeable roadblocks. By doing this, he gives the story more depth and develops unique ways of incorporating…
The desperate love affair between the humans and the changing of those positions causes commotion. One of the most familiar lines from the piece, “the course of true love never did run smooth,” perfectly sums up the intricate path to love the characters follow. This idea of love is most familiarly depicted as that of imbalance. Much of the play is set in instability. One character will have two lovers while another will have one, then the plotline will reverse weighting the tables in a different manner. This is the overarching theme of the work. Shakespeare finds delight in giving his characters a difficult path to love. The end of almost all of his works are the marriages of his characters. Shakespeare doesn’t find interest in the married, but rather the unsmooth path to achieving such a title. In Harriet Monroe’s analysis of Shakespeare, she assesses him as an author and a poet who “does not wear his heart on his sleeve,” Shakespeare finds no brilliance in the romance of his productions and sees them as only the foundation for his castle of 37 plays divided into comedic and dramatic categories. The bard uses that romance to propel the story and cause trouble for the characters, which is often times solved by drama or comedy. Without the theme of love, there would simply not be a play.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a play designed to attract the minds of the curious and develop a complex…
