Illusion Versus Reality In Midsummer Night's Dream

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Illusion Versus Reality in Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream Shakespeare’s famous romantic comedy, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, has been preformed and studied numerous times in the past few centuries. The play is revered for its eccentric story line of mixed up love triangles caused by the mischievous fairy assistant, Puck. As the title suggests, all events in the play take place during the night. It is during this night that a group of young lovers, Hermia, Lysander, Helena, and Demetrius, and an amateur actor, Nick Bottom, have their perception of reality shaken by a turn of events. The fairy king and queen’s squabbling lead to the crossing over of two separate worlds creating a chaotic clash of reality and illusion. Illusion changes…show more content…
It is upon their awakening that they can hardly recall the events that have taken place due to the insanity of the situation that had taken place, this in affect causes them all to disregard it as only a dream. When Titania wakes she tells to Oberon “My Oberon! What visions have I seen! Methought I was enamour’d of an ass.”( Act 4 scene 1 lines 76-77) She is unable to recall that it is her reality while under the influence of the potion. Bottom also can only recall the night’s events as a dream, as he cannot explain what great things that had he experienced that night. The four lovers upon awakening have great difficulty remembering what exactly happened that night, and the memories that remained only seemed to be a dream. “These things seem small and undistinguishable, like far-off mountains turned to clouds.” ( Act 4 scene 1 lines 187-188) At the close of the play, Puck’s final speech to the audience ties in nicely with the dreamlike experience shared by all characters in the play. “If we shadows have offended, Think but this, and all is

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