Midsummer's Night Dream Final Essay
Final Humanities Essay
By: Caitlyn Mulcahy
In a Midsummer Night’s Dream Shakespeare showed many different kinds of love, different kinds of authority, and many different types of ways to react. He uses the majority of the characters to show different emotions, different ways to see the world. I believe that Shakespeare was trying to show that people in any society can be treated unfairly by authority figures and that other people can choose to stay oppressed or they can choose to get away and decamp from the situation.
I believe that in Midsummer Night’s Dream by Shakespeare that when the lovers fall in love and everything changes in the forest that Shakespeare was trying to show the difference between true love and stereotypical love. The stereotype of the perfect couple, another words the couple that was made for each other. This shows through the way that the perfect couple falls apart in the forest. Lysander loves Hermia in the mortal world, but when they get to the forest he is “poisoned” and falls in love with Helena. His whole view in the world is changed, he gives his whole life to another woman in a different environment. At the same time there is some irony in this because Shakespeare also makes a lot of fun and kind of makes the characters look dull-witted, and in a sense making fun of their love and love in general. For example “My Oberon! what visions have I seen! Methought I was enamour'd of an ass.” In this part of the play Oberon wakes his wife from the spell he laid on her, the spell to make her fall in love with Bottom the donkey. To me this just showed how Shakespeare doesn't really take love seriously.
I also believe that Shakespeare also had a romantic side, the side that he thought true love was, or believed to be. I think that he made the wall in the play represents love itself. You see the good things the things that make them them. You see the parts of them that make you smile. That represents the chink in the wall. Then the entire wall shows boundaries, the unconditional part of love. The two lovers Pyramus and Thisby weren't able to share their love they had "boundaries" and in the end they did all they could to surpass them and break their limits. Many of the character start out not getting their way or start out in the story as the underdog, at the bottom of the food chain. Throughout the story you find out that they like to slip out of the law and break the rules, but not illegally the characters find ways around the law and authority figures. They elide in ways that are somewhat predictable, but at the same time they can get out of doing the right thing and not get in trouble for doing the wrong.
In the cycle of socialization that we learned about earlier in the year we were taught about how individuals and certain groups in society can be “harmed.” They aren’t treated fairly because they aren’t the social norm. In Shakespeare's play there are characters that avoid the law because they get tired of getting put down by the authority figures. So they find ways to elide by, for example in Midsummer Night’s Dream when Lysander and Hermia flee to the forest to get married in secret because they aren’t able to be together by law. When they flee to the forest they try to avoid the law of Athens and at the same time try to slip by the fairies harsh judgment too. They do this by testing their relationships and testing the power of the fairies. Another example of characters eliding by the law and avoiding authority is when Oberon tried to take control of Titania. He tries to tell her of her disloyalty, when he himself fell in love with another as well. He was being a complete hypocrite and didn’t think about his own actions.
In Brave New World the people were repressed and they were literally made to think that they lived in a utopia. They were brainwashed, since they were conceived in the factory, one how to live and who to be. For example “The babies being conditioned” This was supposedly a utopia. In North Korea they were all just scared into worshiping their leader, Kim Jong-un, a different form of propagandize. They would be killed, or sent to concentration camps, if they didn’t follow him. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream the authority figures are Theseus, Oberon, and Egeus to some extent. All of them try to control others and they all try to take control of the society even if it’s not even theirs. They all get cheated by another character, or another words another character escapes their authority. In Shakespeare's Midsummer Night’s Dream he has his characters test their loyalty and their obedience with their rulers. For example, when Egeus goes to the duke because Hermia loves Lysander and he wants her to love Demetrius. Hermia is told that she shall choose between death, her father’s love, or nunnery. She proves to test authority by running away to the forest with her true love, Lysander. This shows that she doesn’t take authority seriously, and that she will elide by them and then hope to get away with what she has done. Theseus at first sides with Egeus and agrees with his view, but after all of the lovers elde by his ruling and find their true love he has a change of heart. And finally Oberon has Titania sneaking out of his reach and getting out of his authority. She does this by just keeping away from him and fighting against him over everything, every little thing. The authority figures in all of these try to get their way and get the best out of the situation for themselves. They think that they look good “trying” to help others, when all you see in the background is them being selfish. For example oberon only wants to make Titania admit that she has feelings for Theseus, while he is in love with Hippolyta. He is being a complete hypocrite. Theseus was just trying to do the fair thing, but he didn’t choose the right one, or at least from his wife’s perspective. Egeus tries to get his way by making his daughter love Demetrius when she is obviously in love with another man.
Authority figures knowing or not knowing, meaning or not meaning, can act very cruel to another character in a situation, and how other characters subvert by the authority characters. Another example is the Stanford Prison Experiment, in which you can see how authority figures can repress other characters, maybe without even knowing or meaning to. In this experiment you will see the one person stood up and become head-honcho, but he will also suppress the “prisoners.” He was very cruel to them and would make them do very dehumanizing things, with the knowledge that they did nothing wrong, they were completely innocent. Everyone that knew him outside of this enviroment knew he was a good man overall. As a good man was put in a bad environment, they saw that it changed him and he became a “awful” person. This shows that as an authority figure he repressed the other people without intention. Another example of people acting differently depending on their environment was in Midsummer’s Night Dream. When all the lovers go into the forest everything they know to be reality has vanished. They seem to no longer have the same set of eyes, as if they are all wearing blindfolds to see what is truly there. But, even then their actions don’t seem to reflect their true feelings. For example Lysander falling in love with Helena when through his whole life he gave Hermia his love. “Ay, by my life; and never did desire to see thee more. Therefore be out of hope, of question, of doubt; be certain, nothing truer; 'tis no jest. That I do hate thee and love Helena.”
Many of the characters don’t like to listen, it is almost like they are their own authority figures. I think that some of the characters avoid the ruling of the authority in the story so that they can teach them a lesson, so that they might realize how much they are oppressing the rest of society. So that they can see how they will unjustly rule over something for selfish reasons. In conclusion, Shakespeare showed us many ways different characters can repress others and how different situations can change how different people act.
By: Caitlyn Mulcahy
In a Midsummer Night’s Dream Shakespeare showed many different kinds of love, different kinds of authority, and many different types of ways to react. He uses the majority of the characters to show different emotions, different ways to see the world. I believe that Shakespeare was trying to show that people in any society can be treated unfairly by authority figures and that other people can choose to stay oppressed or they can choose to get away and decamp from the situation.
I believe that in Midsummer Night’s Dream by Shakespeare that when the lovers fall in love and everything changes in the forest that Shakespeare was trying to show the difference between true love and stereotypical love. The stereotype of the perfect couple, another words the couple that was made for each other. This shows through the way that the perfect couple falls apart in the forest. Lysander loves Hermia in the mortal world, but when they get to the forest he is “poisoned” and falls in love with Helena. His whole view in the world is changed, he gives his whole life to another woman in a different environment. At the same time there is some irony in this because Shakespeare also makes a lot of fun and kind of makes the characters look dull-witted, and in a sense making fun of their love and love in general. For example “My Oberon! what visions have I seen! Methought I was enamour'd of an ass.” In this part of the play Oberon wakes his wife from the spell he laid on her, the spell to make her fall in love with Bottom the donkey. To me this just showed how Shakespeare doesn't really take love seriously.
I also believe that Shakespeare also had a romantic side, the side that he thought true love was, or believed to be. I think that he made the wall in the play represents love itself. You see the good things the things that make them them. You see the parts of them that make you smile. That represents the chink in the wall. Then the entire wall shows boundaries, the unconditional part of love. The two lovers Pyramus and Thisby weren't able to share their love they had "boundaries" and in the end they did all they could to surpass them and break their limits. Many of the character start out not getting their way or start out in the story as the underdog, at the bottom of the food chain. Throughout the story you find out that they like to slip out of the law and break the rules, but not illegally the characters find ways around the law and authority figures. They elide in ways that are somewhat predictable, but at the same time they can get out of doing the right thing and not get in trouble for doing the wrong.
In the cycle of socialization that we learned about earlier in the year we were taught about how individuals and certain groups in society can be “harmed.” They aren’t treated fairly because they aren’t the social norm. In Shakespeare's play there are characters that avoid the law because they get tired of getting put down by the authority figures. So they find ways to elide by, for example in Midsummer Night’s Dream when Lysander and Hermia flee to the forest to get married in secret because they aren’t able to be together by law. When they flee to the forest they try to avoid the law of Athens and at the same time try to slip by the fairies harsh judgment too. They do this by testing their relationships and testing the power of the fairies. Another example of characters eliding by the law and avoiding authority is when Oberon tried to take control of Titania. He tries to tell her of her disloyalty, when he himself fell in love with another as well. He was being a complete hypocrite and didn’t think about his own actions.
In Brave New World the people were repressed and they were literally made to think that they lived in a utopia. They were brainwashed, since they were conceived in the factory, one how to live and who to be. For example “The babies being conditioned” This was supposedly a utopia. In North Korea they were all just scared into worshiping their leader, Kim Jong-un, a different form of propagandize. They would be killed, or sent to concentration camps, if they didn’t follow him. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream the authority figures are Theseus, Oberon, and Egeus to some extent. All of them try to control others and they all try to take control of the society even if it’s not even theirs. They all get cheated by another character, or another words another character escapes their authority. In Shakespeare's Midsummer Night’s Dream he has his characters test their loyalty and their obedience with their rulers. For example, when Egeus goes to the duke because Hermia loves Lysander and he wants her to love Demetrius. Hermia is told that she shall choose between death, her father’s love, or nunnery. She proves to test authority by running away to the forest with her true love, Lysander. This shows that she doesn’t take authority seriously, and that she will elide by them and then hope to get away with what she has done. Theseus at first sides with Egeus and agrees with his view, but after all of the lovers elde by his ruling and find their true love he has a change of heart. And finally Oberon has Titania sneaking out of his reach and getting out of his authority. She does this by just keeping away from him and fighting against him over everything, every little thing. The authority figures in all of these try to get their way and get the best out of the situation for themselves. They think that they look good “trying” to help others, when all you see in the background is them being selfish. For example oberon only wants to make Titania admit that she has feelings for Theseus, while he is in love with Hippolyta. He is being a complete hypocrite. Theseus was just trying to do the fair thing, but he didn’t choose the right one, or at least from his wife’s perspective. Egeus tries to get his way by making his daughter love Demetrius when she is obviously in love with another man.
Authority figures knowing or not knowing, meaning or not meaning, can act very cruel to another character in a situation, and how other characters subvert by the authority characters. Another example is the Stanford Prison Experiment, in which you can see how authority figures can repress other characters, maybe without even knowing or meaning to. In this experiment you will see the one person stood up and become head-honcho, but he will also suppress the “prisoners.” He was very cruel to them and would make them do very dehumanizing things, with the knowledge that they did nothing wrong, they were completely innocent. Everyone that knew him outside of this enviroment knew he was a good man overall. As a good man was put in a bad environment, they saw that it changed him and he became a “awful” person. This shows that as an authority figure he repressed the other people without intention. Another example of people acting differently depending on their environment was in Midsummer’s Night Dream. When all the lovers go into the forest everything they know to be reality has vanished. They seem to no longer have the same set of eyes, as if they are all wearing blindfolds to see what is truly there. But, even then their actions don’t seem to reflect their true feelings. For example Lysander falling in love with Helena when through his whole life he gave Hermia his love. “Ay, by my life; and never did desire to see thee more. Therefore be out of hope, of question, of doubt; be certain, nothing truer; 'tis no jest. That I do hate thee and love Helena.”
Many of the characters don’t like to listen, it is almost like they are their own authority figures. I think that some of the characters avoid the ruling of the authority in the story so that they can teach them a lesson, so that they might realize how much they are oppressing the rest of society. So that they can see how they will unjustly rule over something for selfish reasons. In conclusion, Shakespeare showed us many ways different characters can repress others and how different situations can change how different people act.