A Midsummer Night’s Dream VS The Importance of Being Earnest (Movie Review Sample)

Student’s Name Professor’s Name Course Code Date Character Comparison Introduction Analyzing characters is the optimal way to understand a story and its characters. This is because, after analysis, the characters seem real and more interesting. This enables readers to choose behaviors and actions to adopt to solve their real-life issues, especially if they seem similar to those faced by different characters. This essay compares two characters from two different stories: Lysander from A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Jack Worthing from The Importance of Being Earnest. Lysander and Jack Worthing are different simply because they are exposed to different situations that force them to adopt behaviors and actions that will guarantee the achievement of their life goals. Lysander At a young age, Lysander finds himself in a ‘love quadrangle.’ This means that the girl Lysander wishes to marry has other plans for her since her father has already chosen another man to marry her. However, irrespective of the multiple obstacles that Lysander faces in trying to establish a relationship with his lover Hermia, he chooses a different path to please her knowing that the man chosen for her by her father was in love with another woman. The statement “And won her soul; and she, sweet lady, dotes” indicates that after all the struggles, Lysander accomplished his main goal: marrying Hermia (Shakespeare 90). Despite Lysander’s involvement in the ‘love quadrangle’ with Hermia, Helena, and Demetrius, he later won Hermia’s love by bringing her little gifts. However, Hermia’s father rejected them after establishing a relationship, and the two decided to run away together to start a new life. Lysander claimed, "The course of true love never did run smooth” (Shakespeare 92). This means he had to be involved in multiple actions and behaviors that might have been inappropriate in the eyes of community members, such as Hermia’s father. For example, after Puck mistakenly puts a love potion in the eyes of Lysander, Hermia is left lonely and rejected by Lysander since he was in love with Helena. Despite these occasions, Lysander struggled to get everything straight and fought for Hermia. This shows that Lysander participated in brave challenges, but due to his genuineness, he always came out triumphant. Jack Worthing Jack leads a double life. This is because he is known as Ernest in London, while in Hertfordshire, he is known as Jack (Miramax 1). As a result of his double life, Jack finds himself in a situation where he has to lie to his family and close friends to be seen as moral and upright. This indicates that Jack does not care about the feelings of his loved ones as long as his agendas are accomplished. In his life, Jack wanted to be seen as moral and upright. This was his main goal. In order to achieve this goal, Jack strived to become Ernest in name since his behavior was immoral. Jack’s relationship with family and the community has been hypocritical. This means that he pretends to represent conventional Victorian values like respect, honor, and duty but disobeys the same values that society accepts as norms. However, his romantic relationship with Gwendolen is respectable. This means that Jack strives to do whatever it takes to maintain the relationship, although his double life hinders him from achieving this goal. After interacting with Algernon, Jack learns that a proposal is never romantic since “girls never marry the men they flirt with. Girls don’t think it right” (Miramax 1). Although most of Jack’s actions are hypocritical, after marrying Gwendolen, he is forced to reconcile his two worlds to understand who he is and achieve his life desires (a life with Gwendolen). This is because Gwendolen’s fixation on the name Ernest obligates Jack to embrace the deception he created. Impacts of Outside Forces Lysander revolves around love. Thi...