Setting two worlds apart
A Midsummer Night's Dream offers a unique blending of styles, characters, and realms of experience into a unified work of art. From the prose to the characters, Shakespeare was again brilliant in offering great riches of the imagination and language throughout this romantic comedy. What separates Shakespeare from any other author is his ability to not have an excess of useless information in is writings. Everything Shakespeare brings into the play is there for a purpose. For example, the setting in A Midsummer Night's Dream is far more than a backdrop where the plot occurs. Nature constantly is used for symbolism and imagery in each setting. Therefore, throughout the play, Shakespeare shows how nature (the setting) plays an important role towards society and the characters.The real exploration of setting in this play has not so much to do with place as with realms or dimensions of experience. There are two main settings that occur through the play. The first is in the town with daylight and the other is in the woods with moonlight. The two settings bring about the recurring theme of reason (daylight/town) virsus imagination (moonlight/woods) or a
All in all, the two main settings are not just backdrops for the action. They the problems, particularly those concerning love. ( Gianakaris, 2) The beginning and the end of the play take place in the city, in the courtly urbane atmosphere of the palace of Theseus, the duke of Athens. It is daylight, and the mood is one of social order and reason. Theseus is continually aligned with reason. Sometimes he seems to be held up as a model for social man. The community looks to Theseus for the answers to problems. For example, when Hermia was in love with Lysander and wanted to go against her father's wishes, which were to marry Demetrius, Egeus summoned none other than Theseus. Egeus brought his love triangle problem to Theseus. Theseus is the man of order and reason and the townspeople believe that he can fix any problem and of course he does come up with a solution. Theseus resolves all the love conflicts by stating Hermia shall marry Lysander while Helena will be wed to Demetrius. The fact that these scenes took place in the town in the midst of day was no accident. Shakespeare purposely made a contrast between the two main settings. His intention was undoubtedly for the reader to recognize the recurring theme of reason virsus imagination. Another example of disorder portrayed through the woods is with Bottom. Bottom is basically one of the highest peasants in town. In town, he lives an orderly normal life. He is simply preparing to present a play with other common men. However, once they decided to go to the woods all
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Approximate Word count = 1052
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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