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As for the actors who go into the woods to prepare for their play before the king and queen of Athens -- they too show a side of love. Bottom shows what happens when one lacks imagination: he is the most unimaginative actor in the history of theater and thinks that the audience is as equally unimaginative as he is. He believes they will take everything literally and that, for example, when one of them behaves as a lion on stage, the audience will think it is a real lion and run for its life. He does not give the audience the benefit of the doubt (a form of love, charity) and therefore is a foolish actor.
However, Theseus wisely and kindly gives Bottom the benefit of the doubt and imagines that the players are as good as they themselves think themselves to...
Here too is another portrayal of love -- and the ultimate expression of the nature of love in the play: to love well, one must not judge, even when the other is foolish (as Bottom and the actors before the king clearly are). for, as the young lovers have shown, everyone can be foolish at times, and we are all in need of some sort of mercy. Theseus is merciful to the players who perform for him. He and the others joke about the performance but it is done with affection and with no ill will.
Thus, the nature of love, Shakespeare shows, depends on the proper ordering of the head and the heart (portrayed by Oberon and Titania), of the eye and the mind (as Lysander, Demetrius and Titania show), and of the will and the imagination (as Bottom and Theseus help to show).
Midsummer's Night Dream Acting: Were the actors believable in their roles? I did not find all of the actors particularly believable in their roles. I could not help noticing that several of the members of the cast forgot their lines or misspoke their lines, sometimes saying a line in the wrong place. Knowing the play well, this really threw me off and took me out of the moment of the performance. I
Even fairies struggle with love and romance. Oberon and Titania bicker; because of Puck's potion, Titania even falls in love with an ass. Puck's potion illustrates the fleeting nature of sexual attraction, too. At the opening of a Midsummer Night's Dream, Demetrius is in love with Hermia but Hermia is in love with Lysander. Lysander returns the affection. Hermia's best friend Helena, on the other hand, does love Demetrius and
And while it may seem silly upon first reading or seeing the play, it is clear that a Midsummer Night's Dream also has quite serious ideas. Scholars have noted that the play includes a cultural critique of the Elizabethan era in which it is set (Lamb 93-124). Other critics have noted that the play may contain quite subversive ideas regarding the fluid nature of sexual identity (Green 369-370). Whatever
Midsummer and Elizabeth A Midsummer Night's Dream is a comedic drama that centers on marriage. Indeed, it is traditionally held that Shakespeare penned the play for a friend's wedding; therefore, it should be no surprise to find that the theme of marriage runs through and through Midsummer, from the young adults to the nobility (and even to the fairy world, where marital strife is encountered). Yet, being penned in an age
Those who watch the play make comments about how silly the play is and the play becomes more and more ridiculous, adding the parts of a Lion and Moonshine, played by two more rustics. In the play, the principle actors, Thisby and Pyramus kill themselves, as Romeo and Juliet did, then Pyramus rises to sing about his death, slumps into death, and then rises again to ask the audience if
Midsummer Night's Dream William Shakespeare's play, "A Midsummer Night's Dream" was written in 1595. A woman's role in her family and community were determined by a patriarchal society. It was during this time, after all, that women were being burned at the stake all across Europe. The play begins in an Athenian palace just before the wedding of Theseus, Duke of Athens, to Hippolyta, "Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour /