The fairy tells Puck what kind of tricks he plays on people. Then Puck tells what sort of tricks he does to make Oberon laugh. Shakespeare used Literary Techniques to make the whole situation between them more interesting by having a word game. One of the reasons why it makes the images memorable is because during that time, you really have to read carefully to be sure that you understood it right. You have to read through it at least three times until you even understand what they are talking about.
The role of the fairies in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ Introduction In Elizabethan times, fairies were known to have existed. Evidence of this is when Theseus says “it’s nearly fairy time.” All though they believed in Robyn Goodfellow, the fairy that helped with household chores, they sometimes saw fairies in very negative light. But Shakespeare portrays fairies in a positive way. He creates very magical scenes between the fairies and mortal world. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream we can see the connections between the mortal and fairy world.
There is a duality to the character of Hamlet, as his madness changes from a performance to true insanity throughout the play. Initially, in Act 1 Scene 5, Hamlet is coerced by the ghost and decides that he will “put an antic disposition on”. This is the main use of dramatic irony in the play, as the audience knows Hamlet’s madness is performed. However as the play develops and changes, so too does Hamlet’s madness. Act 3 Scene 4 is the main turning point for Hamlet’s madness.
How far is Macbeth responsible for his own downfall? When considering the above question, it is important to discuss the relative ‘power’ of other characters within the play in order to establish their influence on Macbeth’s actions. The first characters to consider are the witches. Shakespeare establishes their power and supernatural abilities from the moment they are introduced to us. Significantly, the witches open the play, a further indication of their importance to the plot.
Day’s Reality to Night’s Imagination In Midsummer Night’s Dream there is a lot of ‘role playing,’ a lot of juxtapositions that question the boundaries of ideas, of people, and of reality and truth. The play overall uses several groups of characters set in two time periods, night and day, to show the progression of love. As Shakespeare questions the validity of love within the play he broadens love to represent much of life’s greater truths and questions. The periods of night and day are also important as Shakespeare equates these periods into two realms of life; the day as reality and reason, and the night as imaginary and irrational. By setting this foundation, Shakespeare goes on to argue the value of genres that show imagination and irrationality and their ability to tell more truth than reality and rationality.
Shakespeare immediately started Macbeth with a supernatural scene. The three witches set the somber and evil tone of the plot. In Hamlet, Shakespeare also presented a supernatural occurrence close to the opening. The ghost of Hamlet's father presented
Unreality in A Midsummer Night's Dream Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream is a play that encompasses three worlds: the romantic world of the aristocratic lovers, the workday world of the rude mechanicals, and the fairy world of Titania and Oberon. And while all three worlds tangle and intertwine during the course of the play, it is the fairy world that has the greatest impact, for both the lovers and the mechanicals are changed by their brush with the "children of Pan." For those whose job it is to bring these worlds to life in the theatre -- directors, designers, actors -- the first questions that must be answered are: just what do the fairies look like, and how is their world different from ours? As our world has grown increasingly scientific, technological, and separated from nature, artists' answers to those two questions have changed considerably. As cities have engulfed our landscape, and the "unreality of moonlight" has been washed out by the very real glare of streetlights; as the "whisperings of the leaves, sighing of the winds, and the low, sad moan of the waves" gradually have been replaced by the sound of traffic and small weapons fire, the gentle voices of the fairies have been drowned out by the cacophony of the metropolis.
(pp.137-42). 1- Give two examples which show that, in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, “violence is […] transformed into art” (139). One of the two examples in which we find that the violence is transformed into art is when the lovers (Hermia and Lysander and Helena and Demetrius) are in the wood, place where they seem to think that they can choose for themselves, free from state and patriarchal authority. But, this is an illusion. The play demonstrates that state and patriarchal power is enforced not only physically, but by aesthetic means.
Shakespeare’s elusive language also relates to the issue of the morality of this ghost: J.A. Randall states: “the problem seems to be whether the Ghost is a ‘spirit of health, or something in the nature of a ‘goblin damned’”. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Macbeth is tricked/incited by supernatural influence; in A Midsummer Night’s Dream the role of the supernatural is ultimately benign and playful. The uncertainty caused by the supernatural is the bedrock of Hamlet and the confusing nature of what is by definition confusing – the supernatural – is a
Alonso, Sebastian, Antonio and Ferdinand, along with the rest of their merry men, unwillingly become pawns trapped on the island, held against their will by Prospero, with the help of Ariel. Under the guise of a great tempest, Prospero uses magical powers to overcome and imprison his enemies, and in a tormented plot for revenge his captives are separated into three groups and marooned on the island; continually harassed and bent against their will. They too seek freedom from their hellish nightmare, and although they don’t know it at the time, they have become enslaved by a very conflicted magician. It is unclear exactly what Prospero has in mind for his captors, for he seems to be making it up as he goes. It’s obvious he wants to punish his brother and co-conspirators for what they did to himself and Miranda, yet he is a just man, and as his plan unravels, an unforeseeable event takes place, prompting Prospero to change his game plan a little.