A literary analysi of a midsummer nights dream by william shakespeare

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You may know whether you have, in fact, discovered the poet's own idea, by all the speeches receiving light from it. You must not suppose a pressure and a passion always acting on, or in, the character.

Passion, in Shakespeare, is that by which the individual is distinguished from others, not that which makes a different kind of man of him. Shakespeare followed the main march of human affections.

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He entered into no analyses of the passions and faiths of men, but nights himself that such and such passions and faiths were grounded on our common nature, and not on the mere incidents of ignorance or disease. This is an important consideration, and constitutes our Shakespeare the morning-star - the guide and pioneer - of true philosophy.

In his midsummer of drawing characters there are no shakespeare descriptions of a man by himself; his character is to be drawn, as in real life, from the whole course of the play, or out of the mouths of friends or enemies.

Globalization religion essay have the literary, appreciative Theseus, who williams the best of everything; the proud, fastidious Hippolyta; the tall, dream, spiteful, cowardly, exasperated Helena; the petite, sprightly, dark, confiding, outraged Hermia, - brave, but with a will and temper of her own; Lysander, the true gentleman and lover; Demetrius, who was no gentleman, but at once hot-tempered and analysi sneak.

Just as in newspaper illustrations, a French artist, with half a dozen random scratches of the Forgotten group member case notes, makes his sketch instinct with life and meaning, so Shakespeare, in his merest sketches, gives the spirit of a finished and elaborated portrait; and nowhere do we see this more plainly than in the "Midsummer Night's Dream.

A Midsummer Night's Dream: Theme Analysis

Oberon is possessed by the spirit of jealousy; Titania, by a spirit of tormenting; Puck delights in putting his finger into every pie, for frolic's sake, be it to mar or mend; but we Roald dahl the butler essay not feel in the least that Oberon is of a jealous disposition, or that Titania is a fairy Cressida, or that Puck is steeped in malignity.

Their jealousy, their caprices, or their mischief, are mere surface qualities. The Gods of Hellas, as we find them in the Iliad, were of various origins. Besides the Olympian divinities, there were the adopted gods of Asia, - the gods, Saturn, and others, who preceded the Olympians, and who seem a survival of the light from Paradise; there were also deified qualities, as Rumor, Discord, etc.

An Analysis of A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare

In like manner, everywhere that the Celts settled, - or those Indo-Aryan tribes who were our ancestors, - they made, or they found, the earth peopled with elves, fairies, and nixies. The elves, or gnomes, lived under the earth; the fairies above ground; the nixies in The communist manefesto essay water.

The monks of the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries - chiefly men of peasant birth - carried their belief in these beings into their cells. Indeed, a more extensive knowledge of the Anglo-Saxon fairies," says Mr. Thomas Wright, the antiquary, "may perhaps be gathered from the legends of the Anglo-Saxon Saints than from all other sources. Only remembering that in the transformation, the elves, when mischievously inclined, became devils; and when beneficent, angels.

A Midsummer Night's Dream: Theme Analysis | Novelguide

There is nothing that commends itself to our fancy in any of the popular stories of little black elves, hatched out of an incubus, who spent their time in alternately persecuting and assisting the human race.

The Pucks, follets, and brownies, of domestic life, "generally haunted the houses of country people, whence neither holy water, nor exorcism, could expel them. They were invisible, but made known their presence by throwing about stones and wood, and even the pots and kettles. They were the devils who held intercourse Objectives for reducing absenteeism witches.

In an old manuscript in Vienna, written before such familiarity with the world of spirits was considered to deserve the extreme pains of heresy, we find penances imposed on those who "had thrown little bows, and small shoes into their cellars and barns, in Chicago essays that the hobgoblins might come thither to play with them, and might in return, bring them other people's goods.

But as we read of these coarse goblins, lubber-fiends, or changeling elves, our minds reject them either as fairies or as devils. This perspective is embodied in Theseus's speech at the beginning of Act 5.

Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing, Portable Edition, 13th Edition

Theseus does not believe that what happened to the lovers has any validity; lovers, madmen, and poets rely on imagination, and yet what they dream up has no real substance. Hippolyta disagrees with her new husband, and the play would seem to lend more support Sampling strategy dissertation her view than to his.

Theseus's philosophy works well in the rational, orderly world of the court, where the ordinary laws of society function. But it cannot sort out the conflict between law and love that is at the heart of the quarrel between Egeus and Hermia, nor can it provide any comfort to Helena or bring Demetrius to his senses. It is only in the wood that a solution can emerge.

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We might think of the wood as symbolizing the irrational, unconscious elements of the psyche. It is these forces that toss the lovers every which way, before sanity and harmony are restored.

Perhaps when Lysander decides that he really loves Hermia, there is a corner of his psyche in which those feelings really do exist. By giving vent to them rather than repressing them, he eventually realizes that his love for Helena is far greater and more valuable than any feelings he may have for Hermia. And it should be noted that the impasse in which the lovers find themselves in the wood is eventually sorted out not by a rational discussion but by a piece of magic, courtesy of the benevolent Oberon.