A Midsummer Night's Dream (Book Review Sample)

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Mid Summer Nights Dream
This is a story that occurs in Athens, Greece where everything goes wrong. It starts in the courtroom of Duke Theseus. Egeus is having problems with his daughter and so he decides to take her to the Duke for help. Hermia, Egeus’ daughter does not want to marry Demetrius, a man who was chosen for her by her father. On the contrary, she wanted to marry Lysander a poet. In this instance the Duke, remind Hermia that the law of land permits fathers to make their daughters to do anything. He reminds her that the only choice she has is to become a nun. They decided to run away with Lysander due to this little afforde choice to Hermia. They ran into the woods in order to make plans and while there, they meet Helena who is her best friend. She is sad since she loves Demetrius. On the other side, the fairies living in the forest are having their own problems. Oberon the king of the fairies in the wood is angry with Titania, his queen. This is because she is taking care of a little human boy whom Oberon wants to take to be his servant.
The king’s helper, Puck, who is directed by the king to find a magical flower, solves this problem. The juice from this flower is supposed to make anyone fall in love with the first thing that they see. Initially the flower was supposed to be used on Titania. Through this flower, the problem of love is solved. Lysander Loves Hermia and Demetrius love Helena. This makes everyone to be happy and they all head back to Athens to tell Egeus and Duke Theseus. Everything becomes better in the kingdom. The setting of this story is largely in the forest; however, there are some actions that take place in the city. The critical purpose of this essay is to argue whether Shakespear endorses the values of the forest or those of the city more and if so why?
This play represents the dark side of love. The fairies in the woods makes light of love by making a mistake on the lovers and through the application of love portions on Titania’s eyes thus making her fall in love with Bottoms. In, the forest the two couples are faced with problems. Puck meets Lysander and Hermia in the forest and provides a comic relief in the play by confounding the four lovers in the forest. Nevertheless, the play also has alluded to some serious themes. For example, towards the end of the play Hippolyta and Theseus are happily married as they watch about the play of the unfortunate lovers Pyramus and Thisbe and they are able to derive fun from that play. Helena and Demettrius are unaware of the dark side of their love as the cannot recall the happenings in the forest. The events that happened in the forest are the ones that led to the development of their love and finally marriage.
In the setting of this play, a dispute is indicated to occur on the scene of the play when Theseus states, “Four happy days brings in another moon.” The episode in the wood takes place in a night when there is no moon. However, Lysander asserts that there will be a lot of light in the night that they will escape such that dew on the grass will be shinning like liquid pearls. The confusion is further exhibited in the next scene when Quince intimates that they will rehearse in full moon light. However, there is a possibility of the moon set during the night thus allowing Lysander to escape as well as allowing other actors to rehearse and the episode in the woods to occur without moon light. Therefore, Theseus statement can be interpreted to mean four days to the next month.
The play has a blurred identity of fantasy and reality. This theme is fairly emphasized in the play where the writer prepares the reader to accept the fantastic reality of the world and its inherent magical happenings. This forms the base in which the conflict in the play is developed. The break down of individual identities in the play is central to the conflict in the play. This occurs mainly in the forest. The brawl between the king and the Queen (Oberon and Titania) is mostly based on the lack of recognition of the others in the relationship. This drives the rest of the plot in the play. It makes it difficult for any of the other lovers to come together due to the disturbance of nature caused by a dispute. Puck’s failure to identify and make distinction leads to him mistaking one set of lovers for the other in the forest. He places the juice of the flower in Lysander’s rather than on Demetrius due to this mistake. Oberon the king of the fairies in the wood is angry with Titania, his queen. This is because she is taking care of a little human boy whom Oberon wants to take to be his servant.
In the woods, for the sake of love there is a great loss of individual identity as well as suffering of individual characters. This extravagant cult of love manifested in the forest struck sensible people as irrational and as having a dubious effect on the acolytes. Nevertheless, the identities in the play are not so much lost but these are combined together to create a lot of haze where distinction becomes almost impossible. The urge for new and more practical ties between characters drives this haze. This is as a means of persevering with the weired world in the forest even when the relationships are diverse and seemingly not real as is the case of Bottom and Titania (Rahn, N.D). The play also has alluded to some serious themes. For example, towards the end of the play Hippolyta and Theseus are happily married as they watch about the play of the unfortunate lovers Pyramus and Thisbe and they are able to derive fun from that play.
The loss of individual identity is further played in the mechanicals at the forest through their assumption of other identities. The loss of individual identity blurs specifications and leads to the creation of new identities only found in the community. This is best highlighted by the mechanicals when they their roles as individual parts of the corporate performance for Pyramus and Thisbe. Most of the events of midsummer nights dream are moved by the desire to lose one’s individual identity and finding identity in the love of another.
A midsummer night dream has male dominance as one of its thematic element. In this play Lysander and Hermia escapes to the woods on a night so as the do not fall on the rule of either Theseus or Egeus who are male patriarchs’. However, after their escapades in the forest, on their return to Athens there are happily married. In this case, therefore, marriage is seen as the ultimate social achievements for women while men can go on doing greater things in the society that will earn them societal recognition. The triple weddings that occur towards the end of the play occur because of the control of the lords and the husbands. This is just among the few happenings in the play that happens in a setting that is outside the woods. The Athenian law requires a daughter to die if she does not follow the wish of her father. This law is nonetheless outdated and is compared with that of king Oberon in the fairy world. The land of the fairies disorder completely opposes the world of Athens. A good instance of this is what happens to the four lovers in the forest as well as bottom’s dream. These represent chaos that contrasts the political order of Theseus in Athens. Nonetheless, Theseus does not punish these lovers for their disobedience. Male dominance and power is broken during the time of festivities and carnival. Through the forgiveness of these lovers, distinction is made between the laws of the patriarch’s and that of the monarch, thus creating two centers of authority (Bevington, 1996).
Discussion
A significant portion of this play ta...